The Science Behind the Fiction: A Tribute to Douglas Adams

Greetings, travelers!

It's been some time since I finished reading "Mostly Harmless", the fifth book in the trilogy of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I read it for the first time in Brazilian Portuguese, but started to re-reading it in the original English during the 2020 happenings, and it was like meeting an old friend after some years without seeing each other.

These two moments are illustrated in the two photos of this post caption: on the left side, back in Towel Day 2017, a freshman in University, starting to understand (in so many ways) that I did not understand a lot about Mathematics (and a lot more), but I continued to enjoy the morning ligth, my dear friends like Gustavo, who masterfully captured this moment, and with my ptbr five-in-one edition of the Guide; on the rigth side, a more recent version of myself, with my pocket version of the last book in the trilogy, after having finished it, some weeks ago.

Time goes by fast, and I am proud to say I've enjoyed it a lot. Nostalgia and longing for a past time is a really complex concept to describe, even though every human experiences it. We have a really beautiful word for it in Brazilian Portuguese, that has its roots in Latin, and it is saudade. I wrote a little about it here.

Like the good nerd I am, I've always enjoyed science fiction a lot, and Douglas Adams' work got me hooked from the first time I read it. When I finished rereading it this time, I wanted to write an email to Adams telling about the importance that The Hitchhiker's has had and still has in my life, and reflect on this crazy technological moment we're living, with incredibly fast AI advances. There's a great quote in one of my favorite books, The Catcher in the Rye: "What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it."

Alongside the unique and brilliant humor of Adams, there is a lot of scientific basis, and that is the point I wanted to make: the value that Science Fiction has as a Scientific Divulgation.

Of course the science topics are not always explained in depth as it could be, but that's the nature of fiction and entertainment writing. In my opinion, the value comes from the curiosity that bringing up knowledge throughout the book brings; it should serve as a catalyzer for the reader to delve deeper into complex topics.

An Improbability Spaceship is a piece I made back in the start of 2023, using an image generated with a quote from the first book of the trilogy in an early version of Stable Diffusion, an open-source AI Image Generator.

I'm sure that my interest for Science has only grown since I first read The Hitchhiker's. I've gotten more interested in a bunch of relevant and complex themes after my readings, like String Theory, Time Travel and Flying Dolphins, all mentioned in the books, as well as Artificial Intelligence.

Obviously AI has been a heated up and controversial topic for the past two years with the advancements in Generative AI, but this discussion has been going on for many decades, specially since Isaac Asimov's book "I, Robot" published in 1950. Throughout all of Adams' trilogy we can observe AIs being part of the narrative.

One of my favorite characters is a Robot named Marvin. The poor thing is a deeply depressed and gloomy figure, that gets his comedic value out of it too: his sadness comes from his immense knowledge and processing capabilities, that makes him uninterested in basically everything in the Universe, because of the lack of intellectual challenge it presents. It is contrasted by his inefficient social skills, that end up isolating Marvin even more. However, he has his value and shines in some important moments in the narrative.

I discussed about the topic with ChatGPT4o, specially because I thought it would be interesting to get the AI's point of view about Marvin, but also to reflect on this idea of introducing complex topics with absurdity and humour, that Adams' masterfully does. I found it funny that the GenerativeAI also said that "society tends to overlook the real capabilities of AI",and I pointed out to it that it was a clear bias from his perspective. I asked it to generate an image based on our discussions, which it did using DALL-E 3, and I have uploaded it together with the text I asked it to generate to go with it.

"Marvin, much like artificial intelligence in today’s world, is constantly underestimated. His gloomy demeanor hides an immense, often overlooked potential, mirroring how society tends to overlook the real capabilities of AI. As we’ve explored, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy cleverly uses humor and absurdity to help us grasp complex ideas—whether it’s AI, string theory, or the infinite improbability of life itself. Marvin reminds us that just because something, or someone, seems disconnected or underwhelming, it doesn’t mean they don’t hold the keys to the bigger picture. And in this sci-fi universe, where the impossible becomes possible, maybe Marvin’s melancholy is just what’s needed to save the day." -ChatGPT4o

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I've been working on this post for a few weeks now, and I feel like I'm putting an unfair pressure on myself about its quality, since Douglas Adams is one of my favorite authors and people, and specially because I've decided to title this post as a tribute to him. I read in one biograohy about him that he really struggled with creating, writing, and more often then not paralyzed during his process, so I'm gonna try to be happy with what I've written, because it's from my heart.

Douglas Adams will always live in our nerdy memories, and I hope his stories continue to engage people all over the Universe to be more curious about this complex mish mesh that surrounds us. Take care, travelers, and don't forget your towel! 🖤