Historietas, lectores y máquinas de Turing = Comics, Readers and Turing Machines

Abstract

Observation of the history of the comic reveals that its mutations are in correlation with changes in its means of production and distribution. But it is also perceived that the cartoon mutates in time with the variations in self-awareness manifested by the agents involved in the medium. This paper proposes a theoretical approach that collects these two evolutionary aspects affect the development of the comic. In particular, this study focuses on one of the vertices of the semiotic triad and combines it with a hypothesis that equates the comic book reader with a Turing machine. Finally, after detailing the existence of a space of meaning that is common or accessible to all media, the author brings together the previous suggestions and illustrates the result through a reference to Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. The conclusion is that the aporias implicit in this novel and in its graphic version are as undecidable and unpredictable as the changes that technological development applied to the media will bring to cartoons, which makes it difficult to anticipate the next mutations of the comic.