The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (proper)
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy itself, after which the series is called, is a small electronic device designed to help people who want to hitchhike round the galaxy:
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Ford handed the book to Arthur. “What is it?” asked Arthur. “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. It’s a sort of electronic book. It tells you everything you need to know about anything. That’s its job.” |
Ford Prefect (an alien friend of Arthur) is a journalist for the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The reason he was on Earth is that he was writing an article about the Earth. Ford didn’t work too hard though:
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“If you’re a researcher on this book thing and you were on Earth, you must have been gathering material on it.” “Well, I was able to extend the original entry a bit, yes…” “And what does it say now?” asked Arthur. “Mostly harmless,” admitted Ford with a slightly embarrassed cough. |
Ford does not realise that during his time away, the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy has been taken over by the Vogons. The Vogons plan to subvert the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy to their own purposes. In the end, the Vogons successfully use the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy to destroy the earth once and for all, together with Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Mark 2
The second edition of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is the most complicated plot device in the HHGTTG.
Whereas the first edition of the HHGTTG is simply an electronic atlas of the galaxy, the second edition of the HHGTTG is an AI device which can make anything happen for you. Your wish is its command.
The way the Guide Mk II accomplishes this genie-like feat is as follows:
- The Guide Mk II is trans-dimensional. It can survey the total expanse of all dimensions, including time.
- Probability is also a dimension; which is accessible to the Guide Mk II.
- Subsequently, if you want something to happen, the Guide Mk II will effectively go back in time and influence the course of events (by selecting the desirable outcome from a number of possibilities), in order that things turn out in your favour.
In short; the Guide Mk II will ensure that you always get lucky, even where this is incredibly unlikely.
Danger
Despite, or perhaps because of, its wondrous convenience, the Guide Mk II is highly dangerous:
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…if you’ve got the Guide you think that you are the one it’s working for. Everything went swimmingly smoothly for me from then on, up to the very moment that I come up against the totty with the rock, then, bang, I’m history. I’m out of the loop.’ `Are you referring to my daughter?’ `As politely as I can. She’s the next one in the chain who will think that everything is going fabulously for her… everything will just swim for her until she’s done whatever she’s supposed to do and then it will be all up for her too. It’s reverse temporal engineering, and clearly nobody understood what was being unleashed!’ |
In other words, the only person whose purpose is truly served by the Guide Mk II, is the first person who got hold of it. Anyone who subsequently gets hold of the Guide Mk II will think that the Guide Mk II is doing their bidding, but in reality that person themselves is only a pawn in the game that the Guide Mk II has organised for the initial owner.
Too late, Arthur and Ford realise that the first people who got hold of the Guide Mk II are the Vogons. Their request of the Guide Mk II was to eliminate Arthur together with the world; and this is what happens in the last page of the book:
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Arthur sat on the stairs with his head between his hands and had not the faintest idea what to do… Around him people were beginning to rush and shout a lot, but it was suddenly very clear to him that there was nothing to be done, not now or ever. Through the new strangeness of noise and light he could just make out the shape of Ford Prefect sitting back and laughing wildly. A tremendous feeling of peace came over him. He knew that at last, for once and for ever, it was now all, finally, over. …Options collapsed, possibilities folded into each other, and the whole at last resolved itself out of existence. |
Caught in a web of intrigue that spanned the galaxy, the earth was at last laid to rest, together with all its inhabitants.