Comic #4595: specialization

Description

Here’s the transcription of the comic text:

Panel 1: "According to sociology, about 5% of human beings are super weird."

Panel 2: "As the human population grew, the absolute quantity of super weird people expanded." "I’ve just calculated a 73% sturdier bricklaying pattern that would also require fewer bricks."

Panel 3: "Business leaders discovered a surprising opportunity… It’s now possible to build a furniture facility and staff it entirely with people who experience transcendence when monitoring chair parts for defects."

Panel 4: "Soon, regular people were less able to find work…" "It says here you have 25 years of experience at all levels of engine repair, but your psych profile doesn’t say anything about an erotic attraction to unpaid overtime." "But—" "I’m sorry."

Panel 5: "The strange people were clustered by type." "Sometimes I lie awake at night fantasizing about a more efficient cardboard box design." "Marry me."

Panel 6: "I wish I'd married a real man, with a pathological desire to find multiple uses for leftover industrial cellulose!" "I won’t have this argument again, I won’t!"

Panel 7: "As the baseline human being became stranger, the outliers became ever more useful." "It says here you have 30 years of experience in plumbing, but none of your extremities are shaped like Allen wrenches." "But—" "I’m sorry."

Panel 8: "Humanity specialized into endless forms most functional—"

Panel 9: "Automotive repairers" "Chemical engineers" "Computer programmerfolk"

Panel 10: "When the time came to merge with our tools, there was no humanity left in us to oppose the change." "We want to put some electrodes on your cerebellum so you’re no longer able to stop thinking about industrial solvents." "My whole life has been leading up to this moment."

Panel 11: "It’s better this way." "Can you imagine what it was like being distracted by love, hope, and beauty when you really needed to focus on making smoother beryllium spheres?" "What a nightmare."

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