37 photoshop layers later and this comic doesn’t seem like such a great idea anymore. Oh well, it was fun trying something different. I hope it turned out OK.
I got to watch the Bob & Bob movie the other day and it’s awesome! Bravo to everyone involved in making it. It was a very sureal but exciting experience watching a movie version of my imagination.
hahahahaha. Nice!
Love it! I can relate to these thoughts. How free will is really an oxymoron and stuff (I mean: If free will is the ability to choose your own path, isn’t that just will? Doesn’t free will then mean the ability to choose outside of your own will? Where does the “free” come from??). Determinism I think it’s called.
The only conclusion I managed to get from it was that (although the acceptance that our path is laid out in front of us has no practical use whatsoever (we can’t see the future, so it doesn’t matter)) we should realise that if we were in someone else’s shoes we would do the exact same thing they did. Or said another way: We couldn’t be in someone else’s shoes without actually being them. So I guess understanding or atleast an acceptance of other people’s actions might come out of it 🙂 Hope that made sense 😛 Anyways, I love your comics and keep up the excellent work 🙂
37 layers?! Jesus, man, that’s borderline Heroic. Totally worth it though, i mean good for you for trying something like this. That fifth panel especially looks Amazing.
Where can I see the Bob&Bob movie?
@Keegan: Thanks!
@valla: Freewill vs. determinism has always been interesting to me. While I usually land in favor of freewill I was thinking about how everyone disagrees on questions of morality and I was thinking about where people’s concepts of right and wrong originate and how the origins are usually dubious at best. However, how can you get to a reliable origin? I think your point about understanding others and their choices is well taken. If one had the exact same genetic predispositions and experienced the exact same experiences one would act in the exact same way — neglecting the idea that there is some outside factor, some extra-physical essence to who we are or “soul” if you will. Twin studies are interesting in this regard as we have two people with the exact same genome raised in nearly identical circumstances and yet resulting in often strikingly different outcomes. Anyway…thanks for the awesome comment!!
@Winston Rowntree: Yeah, at least 37 layers. The 5th panel is my favorite too. I hadn’t planned on “painting” him into the scene like that – at first I was just going to paste him in. Then I grabbed the colors from the scene and decided to use the airbrush and then I thought “what if the outlines were gone?” It was certainly the least efficient way to do it.
@Eight (under “Dumbass server”): I was thinking about how one could avoid being “brainwashed” and thought about living alone in the woods free of influence – but you’d be remarkably ignorant and that’s maybe the worst kind of brainwashing,
@Jonny Paycheck: The film’s got to make the festival rounds. If it comes to a festival near you you could see it there. Otherwise I’m not sure when Andrew will be letting copies out. But it’s awesome! I’m excited for people to see it.
Oh man I want to see BoB and Bob so badly, that was such a great read, and im sure it’d be just as good as a watch.
I really liked this comic, great idea, and I like the execution
How do we check where the festival rounds take Bob and Bob?
Also: really cool format. And subject. I think the best think to get from that line of thinking is that everything we encounter influences us and everything that came before us influenced us too, but by making ourselves aware of those influences we can decide what to do with them and really be in control of ourselves. If you believe in cause and effect you have to believe in determinism, that everything that happens is the only thing that could have happened based on everything that came before it, but from the limited perspective of the human mind that doesn’t mean much beyond what I said about being aware of and controlling our influences. Sure, a being with infinite knowledge could predict every single decision that you’ll ever make based on everything that came before you, but so? They’re still your choices. You’re free to be able do whatever you want, so in terms of actions we’re free, it’s just that our wants are determined by something that’s literally incomprehensible.
“Aliens?” — I love that.
Last time when I said I hated Trent, I think I was using too strong of a word. I do find it annoying how he’s capable of articulating such complex ideas, but through his cynicism and nihilism, it doesn’t sound much like he’s realized a higher truth. The ideas are just used as tired old excuses to justify his laziness and unwillingness to try any harder. I’m still very intrigued by him and everything he says of course. Maybe I’m just frustrated knowing tons of people like him exist, and they don’t do much with their capable minds.
Anyway, I really enjoyed this strip, the idea of it, the style, everything. I think one of my favorites so far. 🙂
@b.patrick thanks for the awesome reply 😀 Anyways, I stumbled across this video coincidentally checking my youtube subscriptions. It’s made by Athene, If you don’t know him he’s a famous poker/world of warcraft player and he recently claimed to have found some revolutionary new findings in neuroscience, physics and more that touches on the subject of your comic.
Regardless of the validity of his research (it remains to be verified), the documentary about it is very interesting and is alot about how the brain reacts to new ideas and how it forms neural connections during our upbringing that become our views and beliefs. Like how Trent ended up with the views and beliefs he has now. I haven’t viewed the whole thing yet (it’s 47 minutes), but the first 10 min is very interesting and about the brain. Definitively worth a watch if you have time 🙂
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbh5l0b2-0o&feature=channel
well, even if you think it wasn’t a great idea, i, as the avatar of your readership, commend you for trying something a little different every now and again. i dug it, anyway.
Let me know if the film festival is coming to Vancouver, BC, Canada. Otherwise you will have to sedate me with some more Curious Urgency and Onan until it is ready for public viewing.
I asked myself this question once.
Stripped everything away until I could find one thought that was really my own.
“I want a cookie. Do I want a chocolate chip cookie or a peanut butter cookie? I want a peanut butter cookie.”
Take that for what you will.
Great comic. Love the art, totally justifies using colour when comics like this are produced.
Had an intense conversation about this once which eventually lead to my best friend admiting he had become depressed near the point of suicide due to the seemingly hopeless situation of the theory. I believe there is freewill, although it’s probably just because it is better than believing in the alternative; or watching too much TV?
two movies come to mind: the Matrix and Inception. There’s no escaping reality or even grasping it in the first place. Language speaks us and we are just bricoleurs (tweakers) who keep refining what has already been designed and created before us.