“Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
My friend and I are both celebrating our upcoming birthdays in honor of that very special year, resonating to the ultimate answer to life, the universe and everything. And really, 2020 seems like such an appropriate year to have really dug into one’s own life introspectively and perhaps come up with something life shattering or at the very least, mildly remarkable. But I suppose life can seem like a lot of things. Just when you’ve got a grip on some sort of new idea or realization, it slips out from under you like a psychotic magic carpet with a mischievous edge.
Things change. Sometimes very suddenly. Take for example, one possible interpretation in the metaphor of the whale and the bowl of petunias. After engaging the infinite improbability drive, two deadly missiles spontaneously metamorph into the former and fall towards the planet helplessly, atmosphere and life streaking past their new found existence. The whale lives the briefest of moments becoming quickly enchanted by life before it abruptly dies, having learned too little. The petunias, on the other hand, appear to be conscious of a loop of some sort, having done this kind of thing before, perhaps many times before, and therefore knows its dreaded fate suggesting a greater consciousness of historical being, far more wisdom and therefore greater unhappiness. It is a recurring theme in the series: the less you know the happier your life. Take Marvin the Paranoid Android who has a brain the size of a planet. Chronically depressed but very likely to have in fact, known the ultimate question to the ultimate answer the entire time. But you know, no one asked him.
“I talked to the computer at great length and explained my view of the Universe to it,” said Marvin. “And what happened?” pressed Ford. “It committed suicide,” said Marvin.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
This Pandemic and quarantine life combined with my recent binge of the Murderbot Diaries Series has really gotten me hating people. Don’t get me wrong. Not ALL the people. Anyway, I love Murderbot who is also a Paranoid Android. I feel seen, (as my friend Rachel would say.) MBot is a bit adjacent to Marvin. Not planet-sized brain intelligent, but highly trained in security, brilliant in hacking, data collecting, extrapolating, and is far more dexterous. Mbot hacked it’s own governor’s module to gain free will, keeps this on the down low as much as possible, goes undercover, and is addicted to serials (basically Netflix.) MBot is also on a path to gaining a better understanding of what it means to be human, mostly as a means to better understand its relation to its favorite humans. Overall, MB is extremely self-aware, paranoid and often very opinionated. Meanwhile, the villains in the books are all humans motivated by greed and power, and treat life as trivial or disposable. Imagine a really really evil Zaphod Beeblebrox.
“What are you after?”
…
“Well,” said Zaphod airily, “It’s partly the curiosity, partly a sense of adventure, but mostly I think it’s the fame and the money….”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
The entanglement between enlightenment and dark knowing, I feel, is at the root of the ultimate question. What does it mean to care about others? What does it mean to know that the more you stuff-into-your brain, the less you have capacity-wise to care about others? The universe is far too prodigious and unknowing for human comprehension. The more you know,* the less you can relate to your physical being. The less you feel connected to your person, the more alien/robot you are to others. So with that floating apprehensively in mind, I’m taking a stab at a few questions.
(insert knuckle cracking and neck stretching)
- How many years can some people exist before they’re allowed to be free?
- How many seas must a white dove sail before she/he/they sleeps in the sand?
- How many times can a human turn their head and pretend that he/she/they just doesn’t see?
- How many ears must one human have before they can hear people cry?
The answer to all, naturally, is 42, but the true answer is…**
…
…
…
“For a moment, nothing happened. Then, after a second or so, nothing continued to happen.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
* Yes, this is quite the opposite to the lovely sentiments of the Reading Rainbow. Sorry.
** “Blowin’ in the Wind,” written by Bob Dylan