Chris @ 🦣Aug 7, 2024
The advent of LLMs masquerading as artificial intelligence has made the notion of an absurdly powerful computer, constructed at great expense, and given unseemly resources to answer a meaningful question, only to return the answer “42”, feel more and more prophetic.
Show threadStuck HereAug 8, 2024

@tenzochris

Here's a mind bender to Douglas Adams. He worked with computers in the 1970s and knew that 42 is the ASCII code for *.

An asterisk is used as a wild card. It can mean anything.

So the meaning of life is anything you want it to mean. 42.

The real answer to the meaning of life was given by the computer in the way a computer could relate it.

Show threadPete Alex Harris🦡🕸️🌲/∞🪐∫Aug 18, 2024

@MyWoolyMastadon @tenzochris

I made the connection, but never bothered to check if Douglas Adams had a background that would make it intentional, and add it almost as a little nod and wink the reader didn't need to get but might. That's very satisfying.

Show threadSimon Brooke
@petealexharris @MyWoolyMastadon @tenzochris Typical of Adams, in fact. There are many very subtle jokes in the five books of the trilogy.
Aug 19, 2024 at 6:21amWeb
Show threadSimon BrookeAug 19, 2024

@petealexharris @MyWoolyMastadon @tenzochris (My favourite Douglas Adams joke is his plan to control inflation: it's my favourite because it is

1. Extremely logical;
2. Extremely dark;
3. An extremely clear-sighted observation of the human condition, and consequently
4. Prescient.)