Infinite Improbability Drives & AI
A Satirical Literary Look Back to Understand Where We are Headed
The other night, I finished a rereading of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and throughout its vivid retracing I laughed—then groaned—then laughed again.
Somewhere between Marvin’s robotic melancholy and Deep Thought’s mathematically precise but utterly unhelpful answer of “42,” it hit me: Douglas Adams wasn’t predicting the future. He was documenting it…far too early for us to see.
In a world where AI writes doom-scrolling headlines faster than we can question them, and political leaders seem to float through crises with Zaphod Beeblebrox-level charisma and comprehension, the parallels between fiction and fact feel less like coincidence and more like prophecy. If The Guide is meant to help us survive a chaotic universe, then today’s equivalent might just be the digital echo chambers we scroll through—confident, confusing, and curiously devoid of actual guidance.
We’ve outsourced our thinking to machines we barely understand, trusted algorithms that can’t comprehend context, and built bureaucratic systems so convoluted they’d make Vogon poetry seem coherent.
And yet, here we are—still hopeful, still human, still reaching for a towel.
AI Technology: The New Deep Thought
When the supercomputer Deep Thought announces “42” as the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything, it’s played for a laugh. But these days, it feels eerily familiar. We’ve built complex machine learning systems, capable of feats so impressive we mistake them for understanding, and dare I say reasoning. We ask these systems profound questions—how to cure diseases, run cities, even write love letters—and in return, we get answers that are, in their own way, just as ambiguous as “42.”
It’s not that these systems are useless. Quite the opposite—they are powerful, fast, and increasingly omnipresent. But their insights lack the nuance, the context, the very human “messiness” required to make meaning. Because in the mess we find the message. We continue to take the shortcut and mistake precision for wisdom. And in doing so, we risk becoming mind-atrophied spectators to decisions we no longer know how to critique.
Like the Guide itself, our technologies promise to be “definitive” and “mostly accurate.” But in our reliance on them, we’ve dulled our instincts for doubt, for dialogue, for discernment. We've embraced automation not just in function, but in thought.
Power Politics: Zaphod Beeblebrox in a Press Briefing
It’s hard not to see traces of Zaphod Beeblebrox—the two-headed, attention-seeking, mostly-clueless galactic president—in the parade of public figures we watch every day. Cooked up charisma has overtaken competence. Distraction has become a strategy. And like the people of the galaxy, many of us suspect the decisions are being made somewhere else, by someone—or something—we’ll never fully understand.
Adams’ satire wasn’t aimed at any one administration. It was aimed at the tendency to mistake flash for substance, and to accept nonsense when spoken confidently enough. Sound familiar? Sounding all too familiar?
We find ourselves governed by people AND systems designed for inertia: committees that never meet, audits that never happen, reports no one reads, crimes that are never prosecuted, decisions made by “protocol.” It’s all so absurd that the absurdity itself becomes numbing. And this numbness—this cultural somnambulism—is perhaps the greatest danger of all.
Remembering Reading: Mindful Power in a Digital Age
And yet. There is hope in the laughter. Because the absurdities in publications like Hitchhiker’s Guide are not just there to entertain—they're invitations…unveilings even. Invitations to pause, to notice, to question. To read something weird and wonderful and walk away never to find an answer but emboldened with better questions. Therein lies the currency of the galaxy.
In an age where we are bombarded by the “new,” there is something quietly revolutionary about returning to the old — especially the speculative, the satirical, the stories that now make us uncomfortable in their accuracy. Books like Adams’ offer welcomed critique and outdated clarity. They become improbability drives of their own— shaking us loose from default settings, snapping us out of passive scrolling, and reminding us of the rich inner life required to make sense of the outer one.
Reading doesn't fix everything. But it sharpens the tools (and mind) we need most right now: curiosity, critical thinking, and the courage to laugh at what should never have been normalized.
Don’t Panic. But Do Pay Attention.
So yes, we are living in deeply strange times. But maybe that’s exactly why it’s the perfect time to revisit a book written by a man who knew just how strange we could get. Let the absurdity remind us of what’s real. Let the satire sharpen our sense of what's serious. Let the Guide be a map AND a mirror.
And always—always—know where your towel is.
So much goodness here, Bill! Thank you for the gift you are and share…
“Adams’ satire wasn’t aimed at any one administration. It was aimed at the tendency to mistake flash for substance, and to accept nonsense when spoken confidently enough. Sound familiar? Sounding all too familiar?
"We find ourselves governed by people AND systems designed for inertia: committees that never meet, audits that never happen, reports no one reads, crimes that are never prosecuted, decisions made by “protocol.” It’s all so absurd that the absurdity itself becomes numbing. And this numbness—this cultural somnambulism—is perhaps the greatest danger of all. …
"In an age where we are bombarded by the “new,” there is something quietly revolutionary about returning to the old — especially the speculative, the satirical, the stories that now make us uncomfortable in their accuracy. Books like Adams’ offer welcomed critique and outdated clarity. They become improbability drives of their own— shaking us loose from default settings, snapping us out of passive scrolling, and reminding us of the rich inner life required to make sense of the outer one."