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"Time" is the 1,190th strip of Randall Munroe's webcomic ''xkcd''. Beginning with a single frame published at midnight on March 25, 2013, the image was updated every 30 minutes until March 30, 2013, where it was updated periodically every hour for 118 days (123 days in total), ending on July 26 with a total of 3,099 unique images.〔 Each image represented a single frame in a larger story, essentially making the comic a video with an extremely low frame rate. Referred to by some as Munroe's "magnum opus", "Time" attracted significant attention and was well received online, and several projects, wikis and web communities were built about it. In 2014, it won the Hugo Award in the Best Graphic Story category. ==Plot== The strip begins with two stick figures, a woman and a man, building a sand castle complex on a beach. The woman notes that the sea (visible on the right side of the frame) is rising. After construction is completed, and after temporarily stopping the sea from eroding the castle away, the two decide to go on a journey to discover the cause behind the rising sea level. As they leave, the frames slowly fade to white, with the beginning of the destruction of the complex shown. The two journey out, finding a river that they were unaware of; the male loses his water jug in it. The couple follow the river and make observations as they go. While resting under a tree, the man finds the remains of a campsite, discovering that the area they were in was (or still is) inhabited. Later, they find another campsite and massive, oddly shaped trees with markings on one. They find a decrepit boat they could use to cross the river, but continue up into the mountains. While climbing a small hill, the man sees a snake, and falls down on the woman. Further on, they hear chirping in a tree, and pause briefly to observe a bird and its chick in a nest. While resting at a miniature river, the woman discovers that they are on the cliff of a large waterfall. After contemplating it, they decide to discover what the mountains are like. They climb up and eventually reach a small abandoned house. While there, the man is attacked by a big cat. The woman beats it away with a piece of wood. The man is unscathed; however, the woman sustains a wound to her leg which they wrap with a flag brought from when they were creating the sandcastle. Deciding that traveling in search of people towards the top of the mountain, where they see a structure, would be a better medical option than heading back home, they continue towards the mountaintops. As night falls, they rest in the wild. The man takes the first guard shift, and the stars in the night sky time lapse behind him. He wakes the woman to take his turn to sleep. When he eventually wakes up, they press on with the intention of turning around if they do not find people. They find a small structure, and from its top the woman spots people. As they leave the structure, they think upon their sandcastle, wondering its fate. The screen flashes to a scene of a lone bucket floating on a body of water, then flashes back. After a bit more traveling, they finally make contact with other people, three androgynous people wearing headgear. The woman attempts to communicate, but the native language is incomprehensible. She shows them her wound, and they treat it with a paste. They then beckon the man and woman to follow them into town. After receiving water, the man and woman sleep. The man communicates with one of the locals by drawing pictures in the dirt. The local communicates back that the sea level is, in fact, rising and that they should follow and see someone to talk to. They rest while on the way, where the man and woman look over a map from one of the locals. They continue to a city, and a castle behind it. They are led to the natives' leader, who, speaking the language of the protagonists poorly, explains the reason for the sea rising. She reveals that her people had erected a berm to keep what she calls "the planet's mightiest river" at bay, which is presently days away from breaking through and flooding the man and woman's home. She explains that the journey back to reach their home to warn the others living there would take too long and that they have no choice but to remain with the mountain people. Ignoring her, the man and woman flee and run back home, taking some of the mountain people's provisions on the way out and guiding themselves with maps that the woman stole from the leader. Upon returning home, they attempt to coordinate an escape with their fellow people. A girl appears in a boat she constructed from wood used in the sand castle from the beginning of the story. This causes the tribe to abandon their plans and instead attempt to float up the river. After expanding the boat, they load onto it and set sail. Soon they join the remaining members of their tribe, who had been in their own smaller boat. After a night of drifting, while the others are still asleep, the man and woman spot land. When they reach it, the story ends with the man and woman, last to depart, going into the new wilderness to explore it, with the boat seen bobbing in the water.〔 The final five frames of the comic, in which the boat is bobbing on the water, are currently rotating in an undetermined pattern for the comic on the ''xkcd'' website.〔〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Time (xkcd)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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