Given that many of us carry the HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY . . .

[xiphias]

Elsewhere on my friendslist, someone made the comment about how cool it is to live in the future, observing that people who are growing up now are not aware that this is the future, because, to them, it's the present.

And someone else pointed out that they, effectively, have the HHGTTG in their pocket. (Or, as a different friend said at dinner last week, when some question of trivia came up, "If only some of us were carrying a device that was were wirelessly connected to some sort of global information network!"

And the wallpaper that Lis designed and helped me put on my phone is "Don't Panic!!!" written in big, friendly letters.

Which brings me to the question -- I am not really comfortable navigating or figuring out the back end of Wikipedia, so -- how often is the Wikipedia entry on "Earth" changed to "Mostly harmless"?

Comments

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Earth&action=history

Didn't see any instance, though didn't scroll through too far. Earth has a hyuge entry, so it would be a pretty destructive act.

[navrins]

I was just reading HHGTTG (the novel) a few months ago, and commented that from the descriptions of the HHGTTG (the guide referred to in the novel), it's basically a Kindle or iPad. I really hope there's a Kindle edition of HHGTTG that takes advantage of this fact.

[shmuelisms.livejournal.com]

Does Kindle support animation yet? Because the HHGTTG is most cleverly animated (as seen in the awesome BBC TV series).

My teens were discussing Ancient Technology, explaining to one another how before MP3 players (before cellphones obviously), we had portable CD players and even cassette players, and they were all "Whoa! Seriously? How did you manage?" so, a dusty memory popped-up from the murky Mists of Time, and I replied that before THAT, we thought pocket "Transistor" radios were The Coolest (remember?). They thought I was kidding.

But your question is awesome. :-D I'll have to ask a friend, who's a Wikipedia Admin, if we can slip in a Planet Earth (HHGTTG) entry, with that as the content. Obviously, it would require SOME additional text to explain the reference, but still definitely worth it!

[sarianna.livejournal.com]

It's not Wikipedia but it has the relevant information.

[wildcard9.livejournal.com]

If I ever restart my Champions campaign, I am going to be facing this very problem. The super-tech I used in my game is now outdated compared to everyday tech today. I could cheat and set the game back in the mid-80's (when the campaign first began), the campaign faded out in the early 90's which was probably a good thing for my super-hero base :-) At least the transporter and interstellar travel are still science fiction instead of science fact. Gotta have something to strive for.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Yeah; it's one reason people tend to like setting games in the past, now. Steampunk, for instance, lets you have cool tech but still avoid instant universal communication and information retrieval.

[unquietsoul5.livejournal.com]

I think that's the reason why some authors have gone to great effort to create plot and setting reasons to either cut off access to modern Tech ('I can't get a signal here') or have the characters act stupid (failing to realize concepts like redial, cell phone records of most recently called or who's on speed dial, or that cell phone towers keep track of connections passing thru them that can be hacked or gotten via court order).

Jim Butcher comes to mind 'Magic screws up technology over time, electronics and radio very rapidly' which is why cell phones are useless around the main character in the Dresden Files.