A few years ago I read the Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy end I enjoyed it and its originality. I started reading the second novel in the series, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, but I stopped soon after I started, I don’t remember why.

This time, I started listening to the audiobook. I had trouble following the story for the first four hours in part because I was in the middle of a recurring nightmare: I had missed the “I have enough margin of safety”-local-bus in a chain of local bus, intercity bus, and intercity train, and I was sure to miss the rest of the chain. But I also had trouble with the audio version because of the robotic voices they gve to the main robots and AIs in the book which I found hard to understand.

The book starts with that the main characters being chased by the vogons, the bad guys race. Then one of the main characters, who has two brains and has suffered a lobotomy, feels like finding the editor of The Hitchhiker’s Guide, and they start looking for him. A bit later, the heroes are in a building that is attacked and then towed to another planet with the heroes inside. Then, a bit later, they finally find the editor, who had been in a stasis bubble along with other passengers for 900 years. Later, they end up in a restaurant at the end (time) of the universe. After that, they steal a ship and get saved from crashing into a star as part of a concert, but a ghost ancestor of one of the main characters and the party receives forcefully split. Half of the party meets the ruler of the universe, and the other half ends up on a young planet Earth.

More keywords: computer simulation, Shoe Event Horizon, Total Perspective Vortex.

I enjoyed reading the book, but to me, it was more of a sci-fi Terry Pratchett on LSD and a triple expresso and less of a story.

Memorable scenes

Marvin, the depressed robot

Many worlds have now banned their act altogether, sometimes for artistic reasons, but most commonly because the band’s public address system contravenes local strategic arms limitations treaties.

Talking on the phone with Marvin:

The Paranoid Android! I left him moping about on Frogstar B.

When was this?

Well, er, five hundred and seventy-six thousand million years ago I suppose," said Zaphod,

[…]

“Hey, Marvin, is that you?” Said Zaphod into the phone, “How you doing, kid?” There was a long pause before a thin low voice came up the line.

“I think you ought to know I’m feeling very depressed,” it said.

And a bit later.

“Hey, Marvin,” said Zaphod striding over towards to him, “Hey, kid, are we pleased to see you.” Marvin turned, and in so far as it is possible for a totally inert metal face to look reproachfully, this is what it did.

“No you’re not,” he said, “no one ever is.”

And later

“The first ten million years were the worst,” said Marvin, “and the second ten million years, they were the worst too. The third million years I didn’t enjoy at all. After that, I went into a bit of decline.”

Meeting the ruler of the universe

You don’t understand that what you decide in this shack of yours affects the lives and fates of millions of people? This is all monstrously wrong!"

“I don’t know. I’ve never met all these people you speak of. And neither, I suspect, have you. They only exist in words we hear. It is folly to say you know what is happening to other people. Only they know, if they exist. They have their own Universes of their own eyes and ears.”

Trillian said:

" I think I’m just popping outside for a moment."

She left and walked into the rain.

“Do you believe other people exist?” insisted Zarniwoop.

“I have no opinion. How can I say?”

“I’d better see what’s up with Trillian,” said Zaphod and slipped out.

Connections

• As an author, who do you write for?
• As a reader, what are you looking when you’re reading? Entertainment? Meaning?
• Compression and learning: how much data can we actually store in our brains? Human bodies seem to fall apart around 80 years old and the older people get, the lower the neuroplasticity. How big of a brain would you need if you were to live a million years? If we had essentially the same brain hardware but without decay, what kind of meta-models would we end up with if the brain kept refining models making them more and more abstract and fundamental? Would the brain reach a point where it basically just refines existing models and is unable to learn new things?