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

We can explain everything about the world, yet we're less representative of the world than the old men who sit in the Vatican.

PS: They also know all the answers.

I can explain why we're here, where we're going and what happens next. But most people don't find my answer comforting. They prefer the imaginary future of those old guys. We all want someone to tell us not to worry, they'll sort things out.

I've never gotten why some people find that* alternative version of 'where we're going', more comforting.... I much prefer the actuality of just not existing and rotting away seems to have a greater sense of completeness and finality to it, to me at least

Not sure we've 'all the answers really'.... Some things in the universe still utterly baffle me, especially 'other people'

I think you baffle a lot of people yourself, 2Legs.

" I much prefer the actuality of just not existing and rotting away" [2Legs]

Your body still exists, but no longer does it have a consciousness. I wouldn't mind thinking of my decomposing body nourishing plants and fungi and animals, but our species throws human corpses in boxes where they can't do that.

Don't worry, Paul. The boxes are made of wood, and they rot down nicely although it takes a little bit longer.

"We can explain everything about the world, yet we're less representative of the world than the old men who sit in the Vatican" [KB]

I'd be interested in discussing what it would take to be representative.

Take genetic representation. The genetic difference between any one human and any other human on the planet is remarkably small. Why couldn't one human, chosen at random or by any other method, represent the human race?

Linguistic representation is a much harder goal to achieve. There are roughly 6,500 languages spoken worldwide. of those, the one spoken by the most people is Mandarin Chinese, with 1,213,000,000 speakers. H2G2 frowns on the use of any language but English, thus forcing us to be linguistically representative. Native speakers of Spanish number about 405,000,000 people. Native speakers of English number about 360,000,000.

Dietary representation. I've seen estimates that, worldwide, roughly 3% of the world's population is vegetarian. That seems low to me, but it would be even lower if more countries were like France, where only 1.5% are vegetarians.

Internet access. This is an Internet website. 40% of the world's population has Internet access, so we are definitely not representative.

Sorry, "H2G2 frowns on the use of any language but English, thus forcing us to be linguistically representative" should have ended with the word "nonrepresentative."

>Sorry, "H2G2 frowns on the use of any language but English, thus forcing us to be linguistically representative" should have ended with the word "nonrepresentative." (paulh)

Um, that's not the case any more. The BBC had a policy against non-English posts, but currently, non-English posts are perfectly acceptable, provided the moderators have a reasonable chance of translating them if necessary (and then it's just pretty much skimming for hardcore swearwords). Linking to web sites entirely not in English is frowned upon, but there are a few users who regularly make posts entirely in languages other than English, and no one has any problem with them.

As for h2g2 being representative or non-representative, I have often wondered why we do not have more Asian, Central American and South American researchers. But then most of our European researchers seem to be from more "stable" countries. Perhaps it is more a political thing related to the internet in general, than an h2g2-specific thing?

Well, there seems to be an expertise in other people's parts of the world, without any of the people from that part of the world giving their side of the story.

Or to say "Well, before you tell me what is in my own interests, you could ask me," and so on.

Ran into some more Hootooers on FB. Not only does it accept other languages but it provides translations if you wish. There is very little of the Beeb Hootoo that i miss (except the smilies of course!)

I'm not sure why you told me that.

" I have often wondered why we do not have more Asian, Central American and South American researchers. But then most of our European researchers seem to be from more "stable" countries." [Psychocandy]

I've wondered that as well, but when the Vogons demolished Earth, none of the lucky few who were rescued hailed from those countries. At least the Star Trek people represented major parts of Earth, with the possible exception of crew members from the Middle East. Really, it's very hard to get things exactly right. The average human has one testicle, one ovary, and 1.5 X chromosomes.