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Of course the entire universe is a quantum computer! When using the earth as one failed, the mice re-contracted to have the entire universe rebooted as one.
Of course, the answer is still 42.
(Douglas Adams)

Yup, it's like what Douglas Adams said about the puddle of water in the pothole. "This is an interesting world I find myself in – an interesting hole I find myself in – fits me rather neatly, doesn't it? In fact it fits me staggeringly well, must have been made to have me in it!"

You have been awarded 1 Power Point for fixing the embed code for Dead Pool video The Douglas Adams episode of "The South Bank Show". Thank you for helping maintain VideoSift's reliability.

>> ^obscenesimian:

Another man in our times that matches his caliber?
Let me list a few that pop into my head:
Noam Chomsky
Carl Sagan
George Carlin
Stephen Jay Gould
Richard Dawkins
David Suzuki
Douglas Adams
Bill Hicks.
Granted, they all differ, but they certainly hold up in my eyes.
The same thing could have been said when Sagan passed, but others moved in to fill his shoes.
It's all good, we just have to keep an eye out for the new person who is waiting to have a go.
>> ^bcglorf:
He will be so very sorely missed. I truly can not think of or name another man in our times that nearly matches his caliber.
....................
It is a very sad day and our world is considerably diminished by his loss.



I think you slightly diminish Hitch's name including Carlin, Hicks and Suzuki. Even Chomsky only bares inclusion for his great heights in the past.

I get your point, but you may want to read up on Hitchen's some more. He stood apart from almost everyone on your list by willingly putting himself in harms way to put his beliefs and understanding to the test, and in many cases surviving the ordeal to come back and declare that what he learned had changed his mind.

Another man in our times that matches his caliber?

Let me list a few that pop into my head:

Noam Chomsky
Carl Sagan
George Carlin
Stephen Jay Gould
Richard Dawkins
David Suzuki
Douglas Adams
Bill Hicks.

Granted, they all differ, but they certainly hold up in my eyes.

The same thing could have been said when Sagan passed, but others moved in to fill his shoes.

It's all good, we just have to keep an eye out for the new person who is waiting to have a go.

>> ^bcglorf:

He will be so very sorely missed. I truly can not think of or name another man in our times that nearly matches his caliber.
....................
It is a very sad day and our world is considerably diminished by his loss.

“Man has always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much...the wheel, New York, wars and so on...while all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time.
But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man...for precisely the same reason.”

Douglas Adams

I normally like Penn, but this argument is total bullshit. How on earth do you change ANYTHING about the way your country is run if you assume the worst will come to pass? Oh right, thats like, the basis of conservatism. You know what, perhaps when republicans stop trying to drag the country back into the 50s with every term the democrats can stop trying to leap ahead 50 years and you'd have a more balanced country overall.

Honestly Penn, I expected better. And yes, that Douglas Adams quote is perfect.

Great stories, and perfect for Earth Day :-)

FYI - I found this transcript of the talk, with links to some of the animals he mentions, and a link about his favorite book.

Parrots, the Universe and Everything - Transcript
http://navarroj.com/parrots/

"Last Chance to See", Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine, 1990
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_Chance_to_See

As an American raised on British comedy (Python, the Goodies, Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett, Eddie Izzard, Ricky Gervais....) it appears that the strain of snobbery still runs deep in the English psyche. There seems to be a sense of entitlement among the upper class that its fine to be horribly rude to those you consider to be less educated. While the Cambridge-Oxford educated Python's took the upper class to task for this, I wonder if Ricky Gervais, who has working class roots, has affected this as a social climbing technique. He is very funny, and obviously very intellegent, but he is unbelievably cruel to Karl, and other people he considers to be friends. The woman and last man that Karl talks to treat him with the contempt that I find offensive.

That was quite enjoyable. At the end of part 5 he addresses the reason why his friend Douglas Adams picked 42. The interview portion is the best part.

Far out in the unchartered backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the galaxy lies a small, insignificant yellow sun. Orbiting this, at a distance of roughly 98 million miles is a planet whose ape-descendent lifeforms are so primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea.

-Douglas Adams (from memory

I want you to know that as an otherwise staunch atheist, I don't resent you for believing what you do. I, however, feel exactly the opposite of what you do - believing with heart and soul in a God is depressing - the God of the Bible is a wholly unsympathetic character, and while "goodness" in itself doesn't say anything about existence, it certainly changes what I want to believe.

I am curious as to why a spiritual world makes more sense to you than a physical one? To me the physical world makes sense, because all I have sensed exists in the physical world, we can measure it, smell it, observe it, test and manipulate it. It's all really there and when you see some of the fantastics vistas the physical world presents to us or just contemplate the complexity of something as simple as a physical object like an hourglass, you cannot help be be in awe. Each grain of sand interacting against the other, causing each other to fall in a random but precise manner.

As Douglas Adams put it "Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?" Putting in a spirit world makes no sense to me, seeing as it explains itself just nicely without it.

Finally I saw this comic which you might like or dislike, anyway, it's worth a read: http://www.everythingdiescomic.com/?s=44

>> ^lantern53:

My God is pretty awesome, which totally makes sense to me. I don't believe He was ever jealous. Anyway, not believing in God, I think, would be very depressing. To think there is no spirit world goes beyond what is totally believable...in other words, a spirit world makes far more sense to me than a physical world.

"I'd take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance any day." Douglas Adams. *quality

Penn could have stated all this more concisely, and honestly. Rambling on as long as he does just makes him look drunk, either literally or with the sound of his own voice.

According to his own version of Libertarian ideals the problem with Obama as President, is that despite everything else, that still means he is the President. Apparently an existential sin, in and of itself.

Apparently he believes that Douglas Adams' half-joking quote has no humour in it at all:
"Anyone capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job."