xkcd guy

This evening Sweet Hubby and I attended a talk and book signing with Randall Munroe.  From his bio: "He is a former NASA roboticist who left that job to draw comics for the internet."  His daily comic is xkcd.  Don't bother trying to pronounce it.  You may not know its name, but if you've seen its stick figure characters, you know which one it is.  Smart, witty, and clever.

This talk was in conjunction with the release of a new book, this one titled what if? 2.  In it, he takes on actual absurd questions, such as "What would happen if the solar system was filled with soup out to Jupiter?" from a 5-year-old girl.  And he sincerely tries to figure out the answer, which sometimes comes just from common sense and sometimes from very complex mathematical calculations.  Everyone in the completely full audience got a signed copy of the book.  (I know it was an actual signature because it was different from the one in the young man's book next to me.  We checked.)  I've looked through the first pages and it looks as though it's going to be a hoot, but not without substance.  The questions his fans, who are from very young to not so very young, are so imaginative, both when they are absurd and when they are born of true curiosity.

I loved being in the presence of someone so smart and so unpretentious.  He seems young, maybe late 30's, and spoke as though he was truly thinking about what he was saying.  I hope the questions he gets asked by his hosts on this book tour end up being varied enough to keep him stimulated.  It must be hard to have the same public conversation over and over, to be asked the same questions.  That may be why he took some questions from cards filled out by audience members before the show.  I guess that's what's going to keep these sessions fresh.

I loved seeing so many people of so many ages come out to practically worship at the feet of this intelligent, fun, good-looking man.  I love it when the eggheads become the heroes.  (Neil deGrasse Tyson is a supreme example.)  And I love it when kids take an interest in books and science and cartooning and social commentary and question answering.  It makes the future seem less dark.