1984: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy • Hacker News Board

Re: 1984: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

#81

Post by bityard » Thu, Apr 08, 2021, 9:41 PM UTC

BLKNSLVR wrote: post #42

Also off-topic: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. I read both the books and they were good. There was a short lived British TV series starting Stephen Mangan that was great and seemed at least partially based on some events and descriptions in the books, and two seasons of a US TV series on Netflix that was off-the-fucking-wall crazy in a not-quite-Douglas-Adams way, and unique to the point that I was pleasant…

I thought I was the only one who actually liked the Netflix version. It was delightfully surreal. At the time, all I found were intensely negative reviews complaining about the fact that the show had nothing at all to do with the books.

Which is admittedly true. But it is still one of those shows where the characters are entertaining enough on their own that you don't even care about the plot, which isn't half bad.

I would not have minded a third season.

Re: 1984: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

#82

Post by alanbernstein » Thu, Apr 08, 2021, 10:09 PM UTC

w0mbat wrote: post #70

I used to hang with Douglas back in the day and we worked together a bit. Douglas once told me he got sent a very detailed PhD thesis that described how The Hitchhikers Guide was an elaborate parody of John Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" (1678). The main evidence was that "Pilgrim's Progress" is known to be partly inspired by a pamphlet called, "The Plain Man's Path to Heaven", written by, get this, a puritan named Ar…

You might even call that... infinitely improbable.

Re: 1984: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

#83

Post by bleair » Thu, Apr 08, 2021, 11:18 PM UTC

grawprog wrote: post #62

Not long ago I got this urge to go back and replay the Hitchhiker's Guide game. >Then there were the puzzles, and it’s impossible to talk about Hitchhiker’s without talking about the Babel Fish puzzle. Going through that part again and trying to remember it and figure it all out was a bit of a challenge. But I don't think the puzzle itself is really all that hard, it's the whole beginning on the vogon ship, all of it…

I'm pretty sure I read the game was "a carefully crafted artificial intelligence test" as in how artificial is your intelligence. :)

Re: 1984: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

#84

Post by CobrastanJorji » Thu, Apr 08, 2021, 11:26 PM UTC

OnACoffeeBreak wrote: post #14

This is off-topic, but I've always wanted to bring this up with fellow geeks... Integer code of the asterisk ('*') ASCII character is 42, which, is the answer to life, the universe and everything. The asterisk character is used as a wildcard character to indicate anything and everything. Adams never revealed the origin of 42. [0] So, just because we really don't know, I'd like to think it originates with ASCII table…

It could very well have been chosen at random, but it's just as likely that he simply picked it up as the go-to "silly arbitrary number" from Lewis Carroll, who used it multiple times. "Rule 42" in the court, "Rule 42 of the Code" when hunting the Snark.

Re: 1984: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

#85

Post by _carbyau_ » Fri, Apr 09, 2021, 12:58 AM UTC

BLKNSLVR wrote: post #42

Also off-topic: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. I read both the books and they were good. There was a short lived British TV series starting Stephen Mangan that was great and seemed at least partially based on some events and descriptions in the books, and two seasons of a US TV series on Netflix that was off-the-fucking-wall crazy in a not-quite-Douglas-Adams way, and unique to the point that I was pleasant…

If you enjoyed the "off the wall" and uniqueness maybe check out "Love, Death + Robots" on Netflix.

10min story bites - cruisy, drama, comedy, horror. Little bit of everything except the usual.

Re: 1984: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

#86

Post by jacquesm » Fri, Apr 09, 2021, 1:13 AM UTC

BLKNSLVR wrote: post #42

Also off-topic: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. I read both the books and they were good. There was a short lived British TV series starting Stephen Mangan that was great and seemed at least partially based on some events and descriptions in the books, and two seasons of a US TV series on Netflix that was off-the-fucking-wall crazy in a not-quite-Douglas-Adams way, and unique to the point that I was pleasant…

The Electric Monk is a masterful character.

Re: 1984: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

#87

Post by DonaldFisk » Fri, Apr 09, 2021, 1:37 AM UTC

The source code for the game is here: https://github.com/historicalsource/hitchhikersguide

Re: 1984: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

#88

Post by charlieflowers » Fri, Apr 09, 2021, 2:04 AM UTC

hilbert42 wrote: post #53

dylan604 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Earth was the computer before the Vogons destroyed it. Earth2.0 was what Slartibartfast was building for the mice. Just providing computer names from within the book. Deepthought can still exist even if the user replaces it with a new computer.

I wish TV stations would rerun the BBC serialization of Hitchhiker's . I've actually read Adams' books but it'd be nice to see the TV version again. (I used to love Peter Jones as The Book , his matter-of-fact tone made him just ideal for the job.)

I’m pretty sure I’ve seen some on YouTube

Re: 1984: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

#89

Post by BLKNSLVR » Fri, Apr 09, 2021, 6:21 AM UTC

_carbyau_ wrote: post #85

BLKNSLVR wrote: post #42

Also off-topic: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. I read both the books and they were good. There was a short lived British TV series starting Stephen Mangan that was great and seemed at least partially based on some events and descriptions in the books, and two seasons of a US TV series on Netflix that was off-the-fucking-wall crazy in a not-quite-Douglas-Adams way, and unique to the point that I was pleasant…

If you enjoyed the "off the wall" and uniqueness maybe check out "Love, Death + Robots" on Netflix. 10min story bites - cruisy, drama, comedy, horror. Little bit of everything except the usual.

Seen it through twice, love it, want another installment!

Re: 1984: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

#90

Post by iggldiggl » Fri, Apr 09, 2021, 10:39 AM UTC

dcminter wrote: post #48

OnACoffeeBreak wrote: post #14

This is off-topic, but I've always wanted to bring this up with fellow geeks... Integer code of the asterisk ('*') ASCII character is 42, which, is the answer to life, the universe and everything. The asterisk character is used as a wildcard character to indicate anything and everything. Adams never revealed the origin of 42. [0] So, just because we really don't know, I'd like to think it originates with ASCII table…

He posted (on his own usenet fan group) the following: "The answer to this is very simple. It was a joke. It had to be a number, an ordinary, smallish number, and I chose that one. Binary representations, base thirteen, Tibetan monks are all complete nonsense. I sat at my desk, stared into the garden and thought '42 will do' I typed it out. End of story." But of course nobody is an entirely reliable narrator, and cer…

Before Hitchhiker's, he'd interestingly already used that number in a sketch for the Burkiss Way [1], which featured a reference to "42 Logical Positivism Avenue".

[1] https://www.buttercookie.de/The%20Burkiss%20Way/Transcripts/...