From: leaver@msc12.comlab (Andrew Leaver)
Newsgroups: alt.fan.douglas-adams
Subject: Re: Golgafrinchams
Date: 28 Aug 92 17:13:46 GMT
Organization: Oxford University Computing Laboratory, UK
Originator: leaver@msc12.comlab

In article <4921@news.duke.edu>, esa@acpub.duke.edu (EMILY ANGERER) writes:
> novels, "Life, the Universe, and Everything" suggests that the Golgafrinchans
> were not necessarily Arthur's ancestors.  The conversation is:
> 
> "'What happened to the Golgafrinchans?' asked Ford.
> "Arthur shrugged.
> "'A lot of them didn't make it through the winter three years ago,' he
> said, 'and the few who remained in the spring said they needed a holiday
> and set off on raft.  History says that they must have survived....'"

What Arthur clearly means is that *he believes* the Golgafrinchams are
his ancestors. He says "History says they must have survived" because their
descendants, inc. Arthur, were around 2 million years later. How else
would he know that history says they must have survived? Must
means *must,* not might. Why would he say that the Golgafrinchams
must have survived if he thought they weren't his ancestors? If he thought
he was descended from the cavemen, or didn't know, surely he would
have said they *might* have survived. 

And it is also true that Ford believes the same. From numerous other
lines I could have quoted:
Arthur : `... I come from an ancient & distinguished race...'
Ford   : `of hairdressers!'
Arthur : `Thank-you Ford.'
(Fit the Seventh of the Radio Series, if I remember rightly).

Clearly Ford thinks Arthur is a descendent of the Golgafrinchams. And
Arthur doesn't contradict him.

>The point is, the Golgafrinchans set off on a raft with a better than
>even chance of dying on the way, while the cavepeople remained firmly on
>land, so far as we know, since they don't seem to have evolved to the
>point of being able to build a raft yet.  And as I said before, Earth
>didn't seem ready to give up on the cavepeople yet, as is evidenced by
>the Scrabble game.

Eh? Where did any of this come from? Where do you get the `better than
even chance of dying' from? And how about the following quote from
Fit the Sixth, about the cavemen:
Ford : `... they're dying out, haven't you noticed?'
No.2 (or whoever, I don't recall)
     : `Yes, we must make a note to stop selling them life insurance.'

So, you have the cavemen who are dying out (`just since we arrived',
says Ford). You have the Golgafrinchams disappearing off on a raft;
nothing is said about their fate - except that both Arthur and Ford
believe they must have survived, because both Arthur and Ford
believe that they are Arthur's ancestors. Which seems more likely,
that DNA intended us to think that the Golgafrinchams survived and
are Arthur's (and indeed our own!) ancestors, or that he intended
us to think that the cavemen (who were dying out) survived, the
Golgafrinchams on their raft died, and Arthur & Ford are just
deluded in believing that the Golgafrinchams are Arthur's ancestors?
I venture to suggest that the first alternative is more likely.

>
>BTW, wouldn't Benji Mouse and Frankie Mouse have been aware of it
>if somewhere along the line their program had been that badly disrupted?

Well, if this was the real world, yes... but it's only a radio series.
It is usually fairly easy to pick holes in the plots of such things.

>
>I guess that puts me up to $0.04...
>
>-Emily

Well, I'm sorry to go on so, but to me the whole import of the
scene under discussion is obvious. I would be willing to bet a good
sum of money (say $100) that the following explanation is more or
less the one DNA would give if asked:

1. The Golgafrinchams arrive on Earth.

2. The cavemen die out because of their arrival.

3. Most of the Golgafrinchams die, but a few survive to become the human
   race, i.e. you and me.

4. As a result of the Golgafrinchams replacing the natives, the computer
   program screws up and delivers a false result. This is why the
   letters Arthur pulls out, which represent the pattern printed in
   Arthur's brainwaves and seen there by Marvin, give the question `What
   do you get if you multiply six by nine'. It ain't surprising
   that you don't get fourty-two, because the program was all
   screwed up, so it gave the wrong answer.

And don't give me any of that "Oh, it says in Fit 7 (or is it 8?) that the
Question and Answer can never be known together in one universe".
All the above was in Fit the Sixth. When this was written DNA had no
intention of writing any more - which is why he didn't mind ending the
series with Zaphod, Trillian and Marvin getting eaten by a carbon-copy
of the Ravenous Bug-Blatter Beast of Traal. So at this point DNA hadn't
even begun to speculate about the merest possibility of the thought
of the Question & Answer not being able to be known in the same universe
crossing his mind :-).

And just to bore anyone who has got this far even more - 

My guess (and it is only a guess) is that DNA meant us to assume that
the real Question was in fact `What do you get if you multiply six by
seven'. Why do I think that? Well, it just seems to fit - the answer
in Arthur's brainwaves is then a corrupted version of the real
question (and don't forget the Earth had had 8 million years of
computing by the time the Golgafrinchams arrived, so it could well
have got a good way towards the question). And also, DNA likes writing
jokes. I certainly find it quite amusing that after keeping us in
suspense about the Question, and after the mice have spent a large
amount of money and 17 1/2 million years on the problem of the
Question and Answer, the result turns out to be:
`What do you get if you multiply six by seven?' - `Fourty-two'.

But then again, maybe I just have a warped sense of humour >:->.

Wasn't that fun? No, perhaps not. Sorry, but I get fed up with people
reading ridiculous things into what DNA wrote. Or is that what I've
just done above. Oh dear...

Tarra all,
Andrew
--
From: rik@hplb.hpl.hp.com (Richard Beckett)
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 08:33:16 GMT
Subject: Re: Adams' books
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Labs, Bristol, UK