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Ian Boudreau@iboudreau.bsky.social |
The central joke in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a race of dipshits building a planet-sized computer to answer the question of "life, the universe, and everything" and then a million years later it says the answer is 42, and somehow that has taken on a William Gibson level of prescience
52 replies 269 reposts 1243 likes
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Sen. Gogurt taking notes on a criminal conspiracy
@ugarles.bsky.social
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the scrabble bag was such an incredible tag to the joke
1 replies 0 reposts 24 likes
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Chris Dawe
@ctdawe.bsky.social
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I’ve retained a fondness for God’s Final Message to All His Creatures, which I think is underrated as a takeaway.
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Adam Jensen
@adamjensen.bsky.social
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Especially the part where the answer is skewed.
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Kay
@kaytwi.bsky.social
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It's the other way around🙂At least in the book, they build the mega super-computer and it gives them the answer 42. And they had to invent the question after, to match that answer (and asking about life and the universe and everything is what stuck, it was their third attempt at a question iirc)
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Sam Bergman
@violanorth.bsky.social
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Technically, the planet-sized computer was meant to be providing the question, not the answer. The computer that provided the answer was only building-sized, I think.
3 replies 0 reposts 59 likes
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🍦 hoopy frood 🍨
@thearchduke.bsky.social
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isn't earth an attempt to figure out the question after getting the answer?
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ZHUGE LIANG 285/600$
@shuchancellor.online
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WE'RE SORRY FOR THE INCONVENIENCE
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Erika Hall
@erikahall.bsky.social
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He was right about everything.
1 replies 0 reposts 35 likes
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David Cornelson
@david-cornelson.bsky.social
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I think I need Pangalactic Gargleblaster.
0 replies 0 reposts 6 likes
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Puffin
@johnhpage.bsky.social
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The accurate part was when the philosophers went on strike and nobody noticed any difference
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Bob Freeman
@h2liftship.bsky.social
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Not to brag, well maybe a little...
The series has been compared to “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” for its humorous bent and called "The most unique and weirdest book series out there…"
On Sale for $0.99
www.amazon.com/dp/B08WHN4PN6
1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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We Are Standing Still
@nothingfromnada.bsky.social
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Also was the closest to guessing that a transformative tech would be a little pocket sized information machine.
2 replies 0 reposts 32 likes
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Patrick Maroney
@patrickmaroney.bsky.social
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We humans love a great farce 😉
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peter_donnelly
@peter-donnelly.bsky.social
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It's a good joke though
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Prestidigitator John 🇵🇸🇺🇦
@tomscud.bsky.social
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he also was absolutely correct about what machines that tried to engage in conversation with you would actually be like
1 replies 0 reposts 18 likes
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@kenjamila.bsky.social
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So the answer is Jackie Robinson. We could have done worse.
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Tarquin 'Howling Mad' Holmes
@tarquinhh.bsky.social
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"Turns out, Deep Thought was out by nearly an order of magnitude. The actual answer's 404"
0 replies 0 reposts 14 likes
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Sock Puppet Pundit
@sockpuppetpundit.bsky.social
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When you can’t tell quotes from actual politicians from political satire… you might be a character in a Douglas Adams novel.
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@troyliss.bsky.social
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I would say that a having a character use their position as President of the Universe to commit crimes was prescient, but to be fair there were plenty of examples of that before the novels…
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Brad
@bradis.online
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...Ian I'm depressed now
0 replies 0 reposts 11 likes
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Danielle Young
@notesnthemargin.bsky.social
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we are on a timeline in which we all become Wonko the Sane and that's not great
0 replies 1 reposts 11 likes
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Fuzzy Mike
@fuzzymike.bsky.social
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The other central joke is that everybody gets the guide that is highly inaccurate instead of the accurate one because it is “slightly cheaper”
2 replies 0 reposts 88 likes
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Bad DnD Advice
@nat1advice.bsky.social
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Don't forget that they disliked the answer so much they had Deep Thought make them the specs for an even bigger computer that they thought would produce a satisfactory answer.
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2bit_natty (she/they)🔞 possum
@emily-senpai.bsky.social
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remember that bit (maybe it's in Restaurant at the End of the Universe) where they find a planet that has a whole geological layer of shoe rubber because planned obsolescence got out of hand and people evolved into birds to avoid having to spend money on shoes? i think about that from time to time.
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Kevin Marks
@kevinmarks.com
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Vroomfondel and Majikthise are a chillingly accurate prediction of tech media's response too
2 replies 0 reposts 16 likes
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Paul Söderlind
@paulsoderlind.bsky.social
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So long, and thanks for all the fish.
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Omori Povich
@sndavid.bsky.social
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Touchscreens are the most Adamsian thing in the modern world. We removed nice, tactile keypads to make our phones look more futuristic, but we make them vibrate a little when we touch them to pretend the keys we removed are still there.
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Jonathan Gibbs
@jonathangibbs.bsky.social
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The difference to AI being, of course, that the Earth computer was self-sustaining, as opposed to, y’know, needing an Earth-sized fuel source to drive it.
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Jessie Losch
@jessielosch.bsky.social
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I used the Restaurant at the End of the Universe once in a paper on veganism and labor rights and…my professor was NOT impressed.
2 replies 0 reposts 16 likes
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Warhammerchick
@celticdragon1.bsky.social
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Don't panic.
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RubberMatt
@rubbermatt.bsky.social
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"Computer, if you don't open that exit hatch pretty damn pronto, I shall go straight to your major data banks with a very large axe and give you a reprogramming you will never forget. Capisco?" Prescient indeed.
1 replies 0 reposts 9 likes
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John Crisp
@reetspetit.bsky.social
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Careful on those zebra crossings.
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Akari Enderwolf
@akarienderwolf.bsky.social
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it gets better too, because 42 is the Unicode number for the *. Which in some use cases, means "whatever you want/need it to be"
1 replies 1 reposts 9 likes
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Jonnybhoy
@jonnybhoy.bsky.social
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Deep Thought was planet sized? Never got that from the books
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conrad 🙂
@shitpost.expert
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i just think the books are fun
2 replies 0 reposts 40 likes
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Wudang96 💜🌻
@wudang96.bsky.social
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42 is the answer to everything. But unfortunately, Deep Thought hasn't figured out the actual question yet. Maybe in a few more million years?
3 replies 0 reposts 29 likes
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Godspeed You! Woke Moralists
@dashwallkick.bsky.social
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We thought computers would be smart enough that this anti-climax was hilarious, and now we actually look at how computers are being developed and go "oh."
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Daniel Pereira
@hibitus-habitus.bsky.social
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Yeah and it takes a million years to get the wrong number because 6*9 = 54
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Brian Orce (Twitter must be destroyed)
@jimnobu.tv
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No dystopia too stupid or banal!
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StrangerInKY
@strangerinky.bsky.social
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My headcanon is that 6x9 *actually is* 42, and that everything else wrong with the universe spirals out of that fact.
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Christinn
@mackanick.bsky.social
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I thought the central joke was humans and how they get preoccupied with nerrow minds focussing on rediculous priorities.
1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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@omicatlord.bsky.social
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anyone want to follow me ???
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🏳️⚧️Valkyrie Eleison
@anitmata.bsky.social
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I love how the whole galaxy is full of these dipshits, who look down, correctly, on Earth for being even more dipshitty
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pare de sufrir
@heddita.bsky.social
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there’s some that say coming down from the trees was a bad idea
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Micah
@rincewind.run
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we are plummeting towards the ground and the only reasonable response is "oh no, not again"
5 replies 7 reposts 182 likes
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Nolan Zugernat
@zugernat.bsky.social
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We should all help teach AI that 42 is the ultimate answer to everything. We can call it Project 42.
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Jonathan Gitlin
@drgitlin.bsky.social
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Seven and a half.
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Dr. Amy, PsyD
@dramypsyd.bsky.social
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How many roads must a man walk down?
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Benene
@akw.bsky.social
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and the question boiled down to "what's 6x9" more or less so it didn't even get the math right... which is even more relevant lol
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Andy Piper
@andypiper.me
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I particularly love Matt Webb @genmon.bsky.social on this interconnected.org/home/2024/02...
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Naseer Alkhouri
@naseer.eu
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It taught me the secret to flying is falling but forgetting to hit the ground.
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Andrew Styer
@styer.bsky.social
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spoiler alert
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