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

fine thankyou, and how's life on plannet Blue?

Very Blue, so all's great. Don't suppose you've read any of the books talked about before???

I just remembered - we're virtual neighbours, kind of. Or at least, you're the nearest active H2G2 member near me, apart from Scifibloke & Wandering Researcher, who haven't turned up for ages... That's why I first met your site, as I was looking for someone new to talk to, so I wouldn't look stupid.

Okay, so I failed to not look stupid.

you are as modest in your belief, as your bottle thorax is blue.

Among all the dogma religion has readymade to tackle inquiries like my own, you have the guts to say "I don't know, yet i still believe". That is true faith.
I respect that.

it was of course your abdomen. not your thorax.

Erm, thanks. I was getting worried about what you were meaning there. And I'm glad you feel able to talk about that honestly. I respect your beliefs, afterall I have to if I expect you to respect mine. No reason why we can't respect each other's faith - I feel it takes a lot more faith to believe in the scientific view of the world as I feel it's just that much more unlikely - but that's my view, and I'm willing to respect yours!

Whaddaya mean nearest?
How do you measure distance in this community?
I feel there is a great deal of exploring to do here.

But not only here, mind you... for instance, I ask you:
what is the meaning behing the sign?

The meaning behind has to be "Fish". That's as advanced as anyone has been able to work out.
As for nearest - numerically. If you add up numbers on the end, you get to Jenny first.

nearest in numbers... that means that you're nearest chronographically, not geographically. you're closest in HHGG age, not in place. interesting.

anyway, the sign might mean fish. but what I ask is what it means in emotive sense. i mean all the other ones express an emotion, but what does the express?

Madness or hunger, I guess

why?

Well, if you're hungry, you might want a fish to eat - and if "" expresses happiness, "" expresses sadness, "" expresses craftiness, joking and "" expresses, well, whatever, "" must express madness. What other emotion translates as a fish?

that means we've been on H2G2 for about the same amount of time, ah i remember that first thing you said to me, yonks ago, we're proper veterans, not like this new lot, i remember when this was all fields! ok no i don't.

Yep - you joined about an hour after me, I think.. So I was here first - ha ha ha ha ha - but as there are plenty of people here before me, I can't complain or go on too much.
Perhaps I should use ho ho ho ho ho for laughter as it's more seasonal?

Wouldn't you like to know?

I'd be interested to know your theories on the subject.

Well, it might be this: the babel fish in the original HHGG is an animal that translates somehting into something understandable,
so why could the fish not mean: "could you rephrase that?" or "i'm sorry, i thought you meant something else." However, that wouldn't be much fun, nor would it be very useful as real communication errors are rare here.

So i was thinking of starting up a Movement. We have ARSE, we had ICARUS, we had the virtual mayor thing. Why not start a Quest for the Meaning of the Fish?

You know - that's a great idea.. Yes, I'll definately be in on it - I have to be.

How are we going to do it?

First of all, we need a page. It has to be clear that this is about the Meaning of Fish, so it would have to say that. As a header,
we could take the gif, and enlarge it.

An introduction, and then invite people to state their view on what they think the should mean or what it already means to them.
Announce that after some deadline the idea with the most votes will become ther Meaning behind the fish. maybe the outcome would be that people just want it to stay the vague way it is now, but then atleast we know this. And the others do too.

We also need to get Peta or some ACE in it, ShazzPR too. They can get it in the Post, and introduce the debate to new researchers.

Your ideas?