Hitchhiker's Guide Quote BotFrogstar Robot: Out of my way little robot
The story so far:
In the beginning the Universe was created.
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.
Tim BöttcherAt the (indirect; I saw her post1 about the IndieWeb Book Club) urging of Johanna, I read the first book of the Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency series by #DouglasAdams .
It's a great read if you love absurdity and a meandering writing style (I mean, that's just Douglas Adams for you). If you enjoyed the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, you'll enjoy this.
One thing that struck me was a surprisingly astute observation on cognitive offloading to technology in general, fitting LLMs in particular: Adams introduces the concept of Electric Monks which have the task of believing things so you don't have to bother believing them yourself. Which is all fun and games until you chose to offload things to them which you shouldn't believe but know--such as whether a vital repair was, in fact, successful. #CognitiveOffloading #AI #Books #Reading
https://dead.garden/blog/indieweb-book-club-dirk-gentlys-holistic-detective-agency.html ↩︎
As you stare at the clock the hands will move relentlessly on to four o’clock, and you will enter the long dark teatime of the soul.
"We all like to congregate... at boundary conditions. Where land meets water. Where earth meets air. Where body meets mind. Where time meets space. We like to be on one side, and look at the other."
"Some factual information for you. Have you any idea how much damage that bulldozer would suffer if I just let it roll straight over you?"
"How much?" said Arthur.
"None at all," said Mr. Prosser.
Ford Prefect: Don't suppose we could get picked up by a bird?
Zaphod: A bird?!
Ford Prefect: Yean, a bird. You know, with wings.
Zaphod: Have to be a swutting big one, man!
Ford Prefect: Or two of them.
Zaphod: Hey, will you get your head back on?! The chances of one guy falling onto a passing bird are ten to the power of my overdraft, but two?! That's just -
I am now a perfectly safe penguin, and my colleague here is rapidly running out of limbs!
The ship was rocking and swaying sickeningly as Ford and Zaphod tried to wrest control from the autopilot. The engines howled and whined like tired children in a supermarket.
In Search of a Better WorldFrankly, I'm of the opinion that even coming down out the trees was a bad move.
#DouglasAdams #HitchhikersersGideToTheGalaxy