h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

missed it

:: sips ::

i'm enjoying a rare night off by staying in & playing with the PC

me too. Funny that not many others awake at this hour though. My excuse is shiftwork. Whats yours?



ah

oh man, dig the

i meant me too about the pc 3 time thing. Not the telly u didn't see. I videoed it - and most is probly online anyway...

mumble mumble mumble

err excuse hmm...
trying to configure an apache server...

:: sips ::

hits the spot

ps: take a look at http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/F59030?thread=117699

optimism hah. my friend watched pilger and returned full of hope. all of his ideas were interesting but full of holes. i hate that.

go on - pick a hole poppet.

i'll darn it for ya!

pj

well, the way i see it, is that the whole world is bumr*ped, and theres nothing we can do about it.

The E.U. & the U.N.F.C.C.C. have come up with a deal to save 'Kyoto'.
Watching 'press conferance' now.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/low/english/sci/tech/newsid_1451000/1451950.stm
&
http://news.bbc.co.uk/low/english/in_depth/sci_tech/2000/climate_change/default.stm

hurray! but what will it do in the long run

You know UH, what you're doing here on the UCB, where we're trying to discuss serious issues, might be considered trolling! Why not make a meaningful and helpful suggestion for a change?!

I thought that UH post was a fair question.

everyone go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/F24975?thread=129865&skip=0&show=20 NOW !!!

Okay, sorry UH! But seriously, don't you have any ideas if things like that don't work, what there might be that will?

Hiya. *long post altert*

I'd just like to remind y'all nicely that I won't even have the slightest suggestion of accusations of flaming or trolling in here. I'd like utopia to be unmoderated, [perhaps self-moderated].



*purplejenny takes her purple pen, and discreetly highlights some of the words from the front page of the UCB* http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A465842


"Welcome to the utopia cafebar, serving tea, toast and optimism. The cafebar is an imaginary place in a perfect world to which everyone is invited...

...Sneerers and cyncics are also welcome, but will be subjected to relentless positivity."







Now then. Uncle H. Why does it matter? Why bother to be optomistic?

To paraphrase a cynic "We are all just F**ked, so Fukkit."

Wrong. Wrongity wrong wrong. Sez me.

It's a complex struggle, the eternal battle of good vs evil. Karma, catastrophe, chaos, cause and effect and the underlying inter-connectedness of all things.

Utopia, essentially, is the ideal world where people live in a good and healthy society. Where human rights are observed. Where sane and just laws or civil/moral codes maintain individual's safety. Where sustainabilty and the needs of future generations are considered. Where people are essentially just free to get on with being people - being living humans on a beautiful, tiny planet in the backwaters of an unfashionable galaxy in a massivley improbable universe.

Dystopia, is where everything is fukked. The ice melts, the seas boil, the land floods, war, famine, opression, disease, disaster, George Bush, etc.

- certainly humanity - seems to be teetering between the two. Both concepts are just ideas, memes that some person invented a while ago to describe abstract and fuzzy concepts like 'the perfect society.' They are useful terms, and to many extents negotiable. My utopia is probably much purpler than yours.

I believe that each person can in a tiny, tiny, tiny way tilt the balance from utopia to dystopia because of the fundamental interconnectedness of all things.

eg. My grandma discovered stuff that in a little way helps treat cancer. Cos of her ppl might have lived a bit longer, done a but more, invented something ace that the next set of ppl get to enjoy.

We stand on the shoulders of giants - as a species we have gone from barbarity to civilisation, ignorance to knowledge and the evolution just keeps coming. Imagine what humans will be doing 25000 years from now. Hopefully some ace stuff. in space.

The future is not a fait acompli. You can do stuff and change things if you want to. Thats why it matters that Kyoto hasn't failed yet. Thats why where u buy your food matters. Thats why i'm optomistic, becuse the brain is a powerful thing, and positive thinking gets results. Finally, i quote you the TRUTH through the medium of POP.

"You got to have a dream... If u don't have a dream... How u gonna have a dream come true?"

Well, i did say relentless positivity but i need to catch a breath now. Feel free to fart and cynicise everything, sell out and work for the MAN forever and drive a gas-guzzler. Feel free to be grumpy and cynical and never even try to make changes. I shall be doing stuff, planting seeds and smiling to myself, dreaming of sunrises and utopia.

lots and lots of love

pj

Lots of love,

pj

xx

oh - and never, ever make mistakes like signing a posting twice, cos then you'll just look silly.

you silly ??? never

and the case for pessimism.

We have never stepped out of barbarity. mob rule, rascism, hooloiganism, terrorism, wars, aggretion, distrust, the way people say f*** you to beggars on the street, the way people cheat on thei partners, the way we all lie to make our lives better. humans are not intrinsically good. and, when the push comes to the shove, largely, they take the easier route. especially when money is involved.

i would say im not a troll. ive just lost all hope.

you may all think im a teribe depressive, but im actually quite sunny of disposition, if you were wondering