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

Yeah yeah, we've all read Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy... That is totally unoriginal.

Ha! Just what I expected....

while this may be unoriginal, I for one would be disappointed if this entry didnt exist...

I think you've wildly missed the point here, and at an insensitive time to do so. You may think that this is a website which gets extra visitors because it is riding on popularity of the Hitchhiker Guide to the Galaxy. If that was the case, you'd be right - the gag would be poor, predictable, unoriginal etc. etc. etc. However, you're wrong.
This is NOT a website. This IS the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. If it didn't exist, you'd have to make it up. Douglas Adams did exactly that. When, all those years ago, he wrote the gag which ended "Mostly Harmless", that was original. He was a lucky man, in that he lived to see something he created, and imagined as a product of incredibly advanced technology actually start to exist. This entry commemorates the single most famous entry in that Guide. It would be a crime not to have it here.

Where as this could be considered so, you must remember that this is NOT the hitch hikers guide to the galaxy. This is the EARTH BASED FORM of the hitch hikers guide to the galaxy. There's a difference there.

As to Douglas Adams's death, I was told by email. I didn't believe it until I spoke to a good friend who told me it was true. I have not been so gutted since my granddad died. I actually bought a copy of The HHG2TG on Monday for my Dad as a birthday present. I knew he'd read it, but didn't have a copy. I found out Wednesday. I still can hardly believe it.

Anyway, returning back to the most important part of the discussion... It's unoriginal - but I'll let it pass in light of recent events. Have a happy life people.

-Lowey.

Yes, it's the earth based form of the guide (I'm not that much of an anorak, despite what people who know me think! ). But everything has to start somewhere. There had to be a first map, a first A-Z, a first dictionary etc. Similarly, technology permitting, there may, one day, be something like the Guide as described in the book. If there ever is, we can only hope that what we are all part of here is the beginning. So the only difference is - time! Given time, technology and the continued enthusiasm of fans and contributors, this will be the guide, one day. That will be a fitting memorial for Douglas Adams.
In some ways, the entry "Earth - Mostly Harmless" shouldn't even be in "Humour". To me, it could even be considered a fitting epitaph to its author - who I'm sure we'll all miss.

Having a hitchiker's guide to the galaxy at this point is impractical ...

because as far as we can tell, the internet is only available to those hitchhiking across the galaxy who are on EARTH, which makes it useless around for the rest of the galaxy.

because most galactic hitchhikers who just so happen to be on earth aren't likely to know of the earth computer, and thus find it hard to look up a guide entry explaining how to use one without knowing how to use one. If you want to learn, you'll have to already know. A catch 22.

because all information is biased towards earth, and even then, most of it isn't hitchhiking related in any respect.

However, if you get yerself a palm pilot and then decide to slum it across this little planet of ours, it might make the experience a bit more like the real thing.

Having a hitchiker's guide to the galaxy at this point is impractical ...

because as far as we can tell, the internet is only available to those hitchhiking across the galaxy who are on EARTH, which makes it useless around for the rest of the galaxy.

because most galactic hitchhikers who just so happen to be on earth aren't likely to know of the earth computer, and thus find it hard to look up a guide entry explaining how to use one without knowing how to use one. If you want to learn, you'll have to already know. A catch 22.

because all information is biased towards earth, and even then, most of it isn't hitchhiking related in any respect.

However, if you get yerself a palm pilot and then decide to slum it across this little planet of ours, it might make the experience a bit more like the real thing.

I was hoping that this entry was to be here,as
1)Douglas Adams was one of the founders of the site
2)Most, if not all of the people who visit this site are hitchiker fans, so it would be fitting for Mostly Harmless to be here anyway
3) This site wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Hitchikers
4) We are on the planet Earth
and most importantly
5) I think it's a fitting tribute for Douglas Adams so it has every right to be here

So, fair enough, it's not original, but there are valid reasons why it should bean entry.

I think that everybody has missed the point. This entry does not contain any factual information abou Earth what-so-ever. I have propsed an updats at the Update Headquarters, so I advise you check it out there. Everywhere I look on H2G2 I read things that say 'This is NOT the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'. This is the Earth edition of that great book. If someone sbmitted an entry to Peer Review now called Small Furry Creatures from Alpha Centuri, with the information:

@Small Furry Creatures from Alpha Centuri appear in The Hitchhiker's Gyide to the Galaxy and come from Alpha Centuri.@

it would be rejected. In the same way, this entry, in it's present form should not be in the edited guide. Read my proposed update.

spook

here here!
I agree entirely
the entry may be a bit vague but it is, at least, not apocryphal.

When I was younger and all around hre was Goo version 1.0. Someone once said that the reason thsi article was put into the guide was becasue any fan of the book would look for it and expect to see it. The link from the article now has an updated entry much as Ford found himself while drinking himself into oblivion.

i hate to say it but just because i am a fan of The Hitchiker's Guide to the galaxy doesn't mean I expect to see an entry on vogons in the edited guide. Just because i'm a fan of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy doesn't mean I expect to see an entry on the Babel Fish in the edited Guide. Just because i'm a fan of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy doesn't mean I expect to see an entry on the Magrathea in the edited Guide. Just because i'm a fan of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy doesn't mean I expect to see an entry on the Restaurant at the End of the Universe in the edited Guide. Just because i'm a fan of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy doesn't mean I expect to see an entry on the the spaceship Heart of Gold in the edited Guide. Just because i'm a fan of Doctor Who doesn't mean I expect to walk into a police box in London and find that the inside is bigger then the outside. Just because I'm a fan of Star trek doesn't mean I expect George Bush and Tony Blair to be changelings. If there is an updated entry that actually deserves to be in the edited guide, then get rid of this entry and that can replace it.

All this entry does is go against all the principles that H2G2 stands for, and make H2G2 look like a joke. If this entry is in the edited guide, then H2G2 has failed and allowed fiction into a factual guide. Maybe we should be telling people that you can get fictional entries in the edited guide, as long as the fictional entries are about things found in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

spook

No Sppok that was not the intention of these original entries. In fact these were really put down in the day before there really were members of the public on site adding the content. If people want to write entries about things which appear in the Hitchhikers Guide they should be factual such as the entry on Jodrell Bank.

I realise what you are saying that this could encourage fictinal entries to attempt to get through Peer Review, but these are a part of the guide and if you want to do As Joanna did and expand one of these with a factual update.

Oh please! Come on people, you're looking in the Hitchhiker's Guide under an entry titled 'Earth'. What did you expect?

Did anybody stop to think that it may be true?

I live in a small town in Canada called Welland. I definetly think it is mostly harmless (if not Completly Harmless). On a larger scale I think of the Province I live in, Ontario as being made up of small towns and cities not unlike mine, maybe larger (and perhaps less harmless) but on average Mostly Harmless. Again on a Larger scale Canada, made up of provinces not unlike Ontario, and Canada Is not unlike many other countries (Although quite a few are less Harmless than Canada on a whole most are mostly harmless) so therefore the Earth is indeed Mostly Harmless. Don`t forget the Mostly can account for alot. (Plus, I am sure there are more dangerous places in this universe)


This article reminds us of so much that is true in our world.
And if you have a problem with it click the link and it will take you to the "hard" facts of our Earth.

Elle

If somebody would have put All Ford Prefect's entries on Earth here it would have been very original . (and accurate)
... but that would have been an awfull lot of work.

True??? OK...I may have missed the point, and far be it from me to contradict the great DA himself, but:

We have a planet with Israelis and Arabs blowing seven shades of s**t out of each other, Civil War in most South American countries, fatal earthquakes in the middle-East and Pacific Rim and Bill Gates running a conspiracy to reduce everybody of 120IQ or less to gibbering morons. Of course it's not Mostly Harmless.

B

The question should be to whom this "Mostly Harmless" Is directed to. Think of the world. Think of all the bad is the world and all the good in the world. I hope there is more good in the world, or there would be no hope for us. The good is trying to take over and by this act alone we are mostly harmless...

Or maybe i am talking noncense. I can never tell. I take it as a complement. "Mostly Harmless" is like saying "Attemping for peace"

...
Elle