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

Just for a change, I watched a movie tonight - "The Dish".
It took me back to the day of the landing, waking No1Son (6 1/2 at the time) to see it - and me trying to give him an idea of the scale of it.
A couple of thoughts:

Tonight, there was me, watching the film in front of a wide screen all-singing-all-dancing, wifi if I wantit, TV, while theirs were the great lumpen things we all had at the time.
and
Their computer power had made my, then ageing, mainframe look pretty puny but still, today's versions seem more appropriate to that task.

What a helluva thing that was...



What great events might catch the world's imaginations in a similar manner?

Just in case not all of yez caught on: - First man on the moon

I hope the first man on the Moon was careful not to disturb the sleeping Decepticons.

Extinction of the Tiger in the wild.
Extinction of the Rhino in the wild.
End to cheap petrol.

If the Olympics hadn't been on, I'm pretty sure the frankly incredible landing of the Curiosity rover would have been pretty imagination catching. Most people I know haven't heard about it, and those that have don't realise just how it was done and how incredibly cool it was.

I'm curious about the number of legs that Martians walk on. Do they really get around on three legs?

You may be right, Hoo but it somehow didn't click in, did it?

They're a pretty well educated lot, paulh - they've al l earned a tripos.

It clicked in with me. And it clearly clicked in with some other people... http://thedoghousediaries.com/4471

Yes, Hoo, I do understand and it is/was near incredible.

The olympics too - though on a different scale (and they're a regular event) - I bet you're looking forward to the next opening ceremony.


I think what I'm asking is "What might catch the zeitgeist" today?

"I bet you're looking forward to the next opening ceremony"

Not really. Certainly not on the evidence of the Brazilian presentation during the closing ceremony. However bad you thought the prior parade of packaged pop stars was, the Brazilian bit was surely worse.

The only faintly interesting looking part of that was the capoeira performers - but I couldn't see them because it was apparently far more important that I watch a man in a white suit sashay up a ramp really, really slowly. Television direction fail.

And then as a big finish, look, here's someone from our country who was famous before you were born! Yay! (I'm forty three).

So no, I'm very much not looking forward to the next opening ceremony. In fact, I predict that I shall not watch it at all. I didn't watch the one from Beijing.

The only planned events that seem able to catch the zeitgeist internationally are sport and music, and music only rarely and usually in relation to something else (e.g. Live Aid). Ultimately nobody will care how big or complicated the machinery we're able to land on Mars is - we (as a species) will only care in numbers if there's a person going.

There is talk of setting up a reality show where the prize is to spend the rest of your life on Mars. I'm not even making this up. THAT might, possibly, generate some interest. I'd enter...

Could be a very short life on Mars though. I'd read the small print

and the link http://i862.photobucket.com/albums/ab190/nerdtoyourmother/post/total-recall-mars-face.jpg

I'm forty three. I'd swap the rest of my life for 24 hours on the surface of Mars. Who's with me?

I'm mumble% more than 43. Sounds like a satisfactorily quick end. I'm with you.

I don't know for sure, but I suspect they wouldn't actually be allowed to do that. Yes, the person(s) going into it would have *full knowledge* that it meant certain death further from home than anyone has ever been before, but I think the legalities would interfere. ISTR there are some human rights you're not *allowed* to waive, under the laws that govern these things.
Admittedly, there may be some countries of the world where they are willing to be more flexible, but I think those countries would not be the ones with the resources to pull off the actual Mars shot.

"I'm forty three. I'd swap the rest of my life for 24 hours on the surface of Mars. Who's with me?"

You left yourself wide open with that line, Hoovooloo.

I wouldn't mind dying on a different planet, but the timing is bad right now. I'm in good health [knock wood], the global warming induced sea level rise has not gotten to my street yet [I'm about 60 feet above sea level, and ten miles inland], and my life is far from boring. I'm 64 now.

Can take a 25-year rain check on that?

I'm in for the trip to Mars... Just so long as It means I don't ever have to suffer another global all-inclusive, exclusive to anything else in the world happening, constant barrage of sports, as we've just been forced to endure...

there are no sports, although the flight has been heavily sponsered by McDonalds,who not only have the monopoly on , they just narrowly beat Virgin to the sponsership deal

Richard has still reserved a ticket, although he might send a repesentative, or put it on ebay, depends,

Would it be possible to have an Olympics with no athletes at all?
Does anyone remember the movie "Wag the Dog"? Actors would pretend to compete as athletes, and their scenes would be filmed. Sctiptwriters would concoct entertaining sports moments to keep the viewers entertained.....

Great idea paulh.
How about wing dancing?
http://youtu.be/_rRXXnrooXs
It was big in 33 but Hitler wouldn't
allow it in the 36 Berlin Limpix.

~jwf~