Somewhere, years ago, I read one the the shortest science fiction stories, just one page of a paperback. The plot line depicted a clever bloke who who tinkered for years to build a super-duper computer; it got better and better (chess and all that), could answer all kinds of questions about arcane maths and philosophy. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The great day came.Our hero knew the machine was ready. He typed the question (don\u2019t think the writer had thought about ordinary speech back then): \u201cIs there a God?\u201d Back came the answer, quick as the proverbial flash: \u201cNow there is!\u201d<\/p>\n
HHGTTG\u2019s version is somewhat better of course, and truer in the context of today\u2019s over-excitement about the imminent arrival of AGI. When the hyper-intelligent pan-dimensional beings built Deep Thought and demanded the answer to the question: \u201cWhat is the Meaning of Life\u201d It takes 7.5m years to compute the answer 42! The question, says Deep Thought, was too vague. And besides, various cosmic accidents interfered with my processing.<\/p>\n
Oh well!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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