# 114: BOOK OF THE WEEK — The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1)
Story behind the Book Choice
It is pretty simple. The more you get into tech, the more you are interested in the future — or what the future looked like to people in the past. Hence, you end up with science fiction. Actually, when I bought my “new” used car a few months ago, the previous owner left a full bag of sci-fi books in the trunk. Of course, when I found it, I asked if I should deliver it to his house. “No,” he said, “they were supposed to go to the trash anyways.” For sure, that meant they were mine! Sorry, but I do not throw away books — no way. Is this how I found my way to the “HG2G,” as people abbreviate Adams’ masterpiece?
No!
Actually, I bought the book a few months ago when I read which books had influenced Elon Musk. And the Hitchhiker’s Guide was one of them. As you will read online, this was not a book sequel in the first place, it was a radio series. I decided to buy all five (or actually six) novels that came out of this in print. I am starting with only the first one today because I feel it would not do justice to the books if I simply dealt with all of them at once. You have to see, the entire volume has close to 800 pages. There is no way that I could squeeze that into one post, even if I managed to read all this in a week — which I did not this time. I have to say, there is much you can learn from this altogether very strange and brilliant work.
- Using human intelligence
Trillian and Zaphod, for those of you who have no idea about HG2G, are characters whom Ford Prefect and Arthur Dent meet in space after the earth gets destroyed. As always, I am not going into the details of the plot. This is not only because my book discussions are neither summaries nor reviews. In this particular case, it is also because a book like HG2G can hardly be summarized in a structured way. At least, I just cannot do it. For someone who is new to sci-fi, it is a challenge. What can be stated about it, however, are some of the unique features that make the book(s) an exciting and humorous read. Most of the humor really is in the dialogues.
This description of Trillian above obviously is not a dialogue. Still, it allows for deep insights into the way the characters tick. Even though they are not human (most of them), they of course have very human inter-personal difficulties and conflicts. And the fact that some people are “pretending to be stupid” because they “couldn’t be bothered to think” is something that you find quite often — do you not? Especially now with the ensuing triumph of digitalization, I wonder how long some people can actually maintain this strange behavior. I am deeply convinced that the time has come now when people cannot pretend to just be stupid anymore. We are wasting so many resources because of this and, sorry to say this, but the fact that organizations are under immense economic pressure now also has the positive consequence that they have to give up their ignorance and reveal how much brain power is hidden inside — hopefully.
2. Whale identity
Of course, it hardly ever happens that a whale asks itself these fundamental questions found in the passage. But humans do so sometimes. Especially if they somehow feel out of place. I very often think of this now during Covid but also with respect to the general technological climate right now. Sometimes, I often feel like the whale, this is what I am saying. I feel like I skipped one period in history. I felt like some “sperm” in my old academic existence and then because of my work in the startup environment, I now ended up on some alien planet two generations ahead. This planet does not feel alien anymore and never really has because counter to the alien experience, I have chosen it as my destination — as my water to swim in, float, and flourish. But whenever getting in touch with the ‘old world,’ the one in-between these eras, it feels a bit strange.
The positive thing about getting into tech is that many of the questions the whale is asking, despite some disorientation, are rather easy to answer. “Why am I here? What’s my purpose in life?” Without getting too deeply into them, if you simply assume that all of us are on this planet to make some contribution — big or small (no one except for you has the authority to judge this anyways) — then tech is one way of doing this. It does not matter if this answer is fabricated in a way that it suits you. What matters is that you spend your days with something that makes you happy and satisfies your thirst for learning — if you have that, of course. If not, that is fine but highly unlikely. You would not be reading my stuff if you were as ignorant as Zaphod above.
3. Super computer
Remember that Adams published this in 1979! Yes, this is sci-fi and many things in sci-fi actually become reality. But really, it is amazing how you find terms such as “notbooks” and “digital watches” in there. The same holds true for the “super computer.” The super computer Deep Thought is actually asked to find an answer to the most fundamental question in life — even more encompassing than the questions asked by the whale. This question is the one on:
“Life, the Universe, and Everything.”
Actually, as it turns out, this is not really the question but it becomes a task that Deep Thought actually agrees to answer. This part is so revealing about the dimension of the entire book. Is it not so true that we humans, no matter how rational or intelligent we try to be, all bear this question inside? The question of why all this exists, “Life, the Universe, and Everything”? I know from personal experience that especially physicists care a lot about this question. It is a driving motivation behind their choice of study and research. This is also why physics is so closely related to philosophy. These fields are dealing with the really fundamental questions of human existence. But as you will learn in the book, the answers are not always easy to understand. Just consult Deep Thought…
Reflection Questions
1) Do you ever read science fiction? Why/not?
2) Did the Covid pandemic make you raise fundamental questions of human existence?
3) If you were to write a sci-fi book — what could be a possible plot?