Sounds like a Ted Chiang story: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v436/n7047/full/436150a.html http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v436/n7047/full/436150a.

Sounds like a Ted Chiang story: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v436/n7047/full/436150a.html http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v436/n7047/full/436150a... It sounds more like an SMBC comic than an XKCD one, societal collapse for unexpected reasons is an ongoing theme.