From: Gordon Worley (redbird@rbisland.cx)
Date: Tue Apr 16 2002 - 20:35:47 MDT
On Sunday, April 14, 2002, at 09:36 PM, Eliezer S. Yudkowsky wrote:
> simply doesn't care one way or the other. If the Life rules say their
> world
> is destroyed, their world is destroyed. They have no guarantee of a
> happy
> ending. They are beyond the intervention of God.
While Eliezer takes care to explain why this world view is important and
valid, I think it's equally effective to read /The Hitchhiker's Guide to
the Galaxy/ not as a comedy, but as a brilliant piece of fiction that
reflects how "life, the universe, everything" really is, rather than how
we want it to be.
<SPOILERS BELOW!>
When Arthur Dent finds that Earth has been miscalculating the question
to THE answer, it's not some great, final insult; that's just how things
go in this universe. Oh well, better luck next time. This idea turns
up on nearly every page of the series. Whether Adams realized it or not
(I have no idea, since I haven't invested a great deal of time reading
what he wrote about his writing), in poking fun at reality he managed to
expose the uncaring nature of the universe to millions of readers.
Bye Doug ... and thanks for all the memes. ;-)
-- Gordon Worley `When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty http://www.rbisland.cx/ said, `it means just what I choose redbird@rbisland.cx it to mean--neither more nor less.' PGP: 0xBBD3B003 --Lewis Carroll
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