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Arising from the aforegoing
Mar. 22nd, 2016 01:43 amTHE VOICE: There is a theory which suggests that the instant anyone discovers why the universe is here and what it is for, it will immediately vanish, to be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.
There is another theory which states that this has already happened.
There is also a third theory, which remarks offhandedly that if one takes the first two theories to be true, then the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe and Everything--to which the answer is famously "forty-two"--becomes rather obvious.
It is "How many times has this already happened?"
The proponents of the third theory go on to explain, with much hand- or tentacle-waving and impromptu diagram-drawing on any nearby flat surface, that to speak of a universe "vanishing" is manifest nonsense; where, after all, could it vanish from, since its spatiotemporal volume is coterminous in all respects with its physical existence? What would happen to all the energy involved, and how would a new (and more bizarre) universe be powered up, demanding as it would a much higher level of energy than anything our universe could generate? Who, in the end, would be there to observe that it had vanished, and in that sense could it be said to have vanished at all?
The fact is, these somewhat wild-eyed enthusiasts contend, that our universe, the forty-third in its line, may already have been in some way superseded by a more bizarre and inexplicable forty-fourth. We have no way of knowing.
Apart, that is, from odd hints and fragments of data recovered from the remains of the ill-fated Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy Mark II, during the investigation into its sudden and total systems failure--hints and fragments which seem to indicate that the Guide knew, or guessed, that the universe it inhabited might not be, as it were, the latest model. It has been suggested that it was this idea which resulted in the parachronically involuted quantum untanglement error which caused the Bird's demise. The investigation is ongoing.
In the meantime, the whole question is best consigned to the place reserved for Things Nobody Needs To Know--like the fact that InfiniDim Enterprises, the Vogon-backed cartel behind the whole scheme, got their starting capital by bailing out the foundering Sirius Cybernetics Corporation, which had been forced to go into receivership after having been sued for non-payment by British Telecom...or the fact that at any given point in space/time, logically, there may be as many as thirty-seven separate Marvins roaming around in this galaxy, spreading gloom and despondency wherever they go. A sobering thought.
Meanwhile, Arthur Dent, having spent subjective years roaming the galaxy after his planet was destroyed, and only having managed to rack up a couple of (admittedly very enjoyable) weeks on the reconstituted version before it too was destroyed, is determined to find a way of bringing it back again. If only to prove Ford Prefect wrong about him...
[no, this will definitely not be continued in any way. I know my limitations, and anyway the continuation's been done by someone else, as mentioned in previous post]
There is another theory which states that this has already happened.
There is also a third theory, which remarks offhandedly that if one takes the first two theories to be true, then the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe and Everything--to which the answer is famously "forty-two"--becomes rather obvious.
It is "How many times has this already happened?"
The proponents of the third theory go on to explain, with much hand- or tentacle-waving and impromptu diagram-drawing on any nearby flat surface, that to speak of a universe "vanishing" is manifest nonsense; where, after all, could it vanish from, since its spatiotemporal volume is coterminous in all respects with its physical existence? What would happen to all the energy involved, and how would a new (and more bizarre) universe be powered up, demanding as it would a much higher level of energy than anything our universe could generate? Who, in the end, would be there to observe that it had vanished, and in that sense could it be said to have vanished at all?
The fact is, these somewhat wild-eyed enthusiasts contend, that our universe, the forty-third in its line, may already have been in some way superseded by a more bizarre and inexplicable forty-fourth. We have no way of knowing.
Apart, that is, from odd hints and fragments of data recovered from the remains of the ill-fated Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy Mark II, during the investigation into its sudden and total systems failure--hints and fragments which seem to indicate that the Guide knew, or guessed, that the universe it inhabited might not be, as it were, the latest model. It has been suggested that it was this idea which resulted in the parachronically involuted quantum untanglement error which caused the Bird's demise. The investigation is ongoing.
In the meantime, the whole question is best consigned to the place reserved for Things Nobody Needs To Know--like the fact that InfiniDim Enterprises, the Vogon-backed cartel behind the whole scheme, got their starting capital by bailing out the foundering Sirius Cybernetics Corporation, which had been forced to go into receivership after having been sued for non-payment by British Telecom...or the fact that at any given point in space/time, logically, there may be as many as thirty-seven separate Marvins roaming around in this galaxy, spreading gloom and despondency wherever they go. A sobering thought.
Meanwhile, Arthur Dent, having spent subjective years roaming the galaxy after his planet was destroyed, and only having managed to rack up a couple of (admittedly very enjoyable) weeks on the reconstituted version before it too was destroyed, is determined to find a way of bringing it back again. If only to prove Ford Prefect wrong about him...
[no, this will definitely not be continued in any way. I know my limitations, and anyway the continuation's been done by someone else, as mentioned in previous post]