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Mysteries of Life

Mosesatm

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 18, 2005
Messages
9,018
One of the great mysteries of life is explained in a book called A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It's the mystery of what happens to ratchet screwdrivers that vanish from junk drawers.

Here is an excerpt from the book:

"Very few things actually get manufactured these days, because in an infinitely large Universe such as, for instance, the one in which we live, most things one could possibly imagine and a lot of things one would rather not, grow somewhere.

A forest was discovered recently in which most of the trees grew ratchet screwdrivers as fruit. The life cycle of ratchet screwdriver fruit is quite interesting. Once picked it needs a dark dusty drawer in which it can lie undisturbed for years. Then one night it suddenly hatches, discards its outer skin that crumbles into dust, and emerges as a totally unidentifiable little metal object with flanges at both ends and a sort of ridge and a sort of hole for a screw. This, when found, will get thrown away. No one knows what it is supposed to gain from this. Nature, in her infinite wisdom, is presumably working on it."


Just thought you'd like to know what happened the next time you find yours missing.
 
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Mosesatm

Mosesatm

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 18, 2005
Messages
9,018
I still haven't gotten to the real question. This is a long book.
 

p51

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Joined
Aug 2, 2005
Messages
1,025
Location
NorCal
I still haven't gotten to the real question. This is a long book.

Oh, are you presently reading it? If so, I've gotta say its one of most humorously entertaining (not exactly "funny" per se) books written, especially if you like science, math/logic, and sci-fi. The "logic" applied is similar to that in Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland". Have you gotten to the use of the "infinite improbability drive" yet? The description of the whale and his thought process during his short, but confused life, is very funny. And the Babelfish "proof" is pure genius writing.
 

franklinair

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 1, 2007
Messages
4,744
You guys are intellectually light years ahead of me. Forrest Gump was deep enough for me. :embarass:

Neil
 
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