Steroids
A human is a system for converting dust billions of years ago into dust billions of years from now via a roundabout process which involves checking email a lot.
A human is a system for converting dust billions of years ago into dust billions of years from now via a roundabout process which involves checking email a lot.
This comic is about steroid usage to enhance humans performance; it is likely inspired by Lance Armstrong's then-recent confession to blood doping in a televised interview with Oprah Winfrey (although Armstrong's confessions did not itself include anabolic steroid use; "steroids" is a common catch-all phrase often misused to reference other forms of doping).
This comic is making the point of the opinion that the criterion about which chemicals (steroids) humans may or may not take in to be considered the strongest or fastest is an artificial criterion. This is demonstrated by Megan explaining the whole concept to an energy sphere representing a non-humanoid intelligence; when framed the way Megan explains it, the explanation sounds rather trivial and silly. A better explanation would be to say that some chemicals make humans faster and stronger but also damage the human body, so these chemicals are banned so the competitors won't destroy themselves. Another point Megan has missed is that the competitions aren't unrestricted, they're designed around specific rules and structures, to which all participants agree. The chemicals in question are a violation of those rules, and so are both dishonest and subvert the entire purpose of the competition.
This comic is one of many instances where Randall attempts to trivialize sports.
The title text changes the perspective again by suggesting that humanity itself is trivial in the grand scheme of things and that really all we are is a "transition" state between old dust and new dust, with a bunch of emailing in between. This is a version of the saying that the Universe is just trying to turn itself into Iron, which is the atom with least energy, and it can thus neither be fused in stars or decay radioactively.
The comic was published on Ash Wednesday (Western liturgical start of Lent). The dust to dust reference calls to mind the charge, "Remember man that thou art dust and unto dust you shall return," which is traditionally spoken by priests as they place ashes on the foreheads of observers on Ash Wednesday, in addition to the idea that all atoms in the universe other than Hydrogen, Helium, and some Lithium, were created after the big-bang via Stellar nucleosynthesis, with further production and dispersal via Supernova nucleosynthesis. Thus the reference by Joni Mitchell in the song Woodstock: "We are stardust..."; and echoed by Carl Sagan: "We are star stuff."
Similar talking floating energy spheres have been used later to represent super intelligent AIs both in 1450: AI-Box Experiment and 2635: Superintelligent AIs, where it is clearly a different sphere and then in the Time traveling Sphere series. There is no indication of it here, but the sphere here could be another time traveler as well, back to try and understand humanity.