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320 pages, Hardcover
First published October 12, 1979
鈥he ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't.Number 3: This gentleman DOES NOT appear in the book:
鈥� 鈥榊ou know,鈥� said Arthur, 鈥榠t's at times like this, when I'm trapped in a Vogon airlock with a man from Betelgeuse, and about to die of asphyxiation in deep space that I really wish I'd listened to what my mother told me when I was young.鈥�
鈥榃hy, what did she tell you?鈥�
鈥業 don't know, I didn't listen.鈥�
鈥� Now it is such a bizarrely improbable coincidence that anything so mindboggingly useful could have evolved purely by chance that some thinkers have chosen to see it as the final and clinching proof of the non-existence of God. The argument goes something like this: `I refuse to prove that I exist,' says God, 鈥榝or proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing.鈥� 鈥楤ut,鈥� says Man, 鈥楾he Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED.鈥� 鈥極h dear,鈥� says God, 鈥業 hadn't thought of that,' and promptly vanished in a puff of logic.
鈥or instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much - the wheel, New York, wars and so on - whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man - for precisely the same reasons
鈥� 鈥楢h,鈥� said Arthur, 鈥榯his is obviously some strange usage of the word safe that I wasn't previously aware of.鈥�
鈥淭ime is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.鈥�
"For a moment, nothing happened. Then, after a second or so, nothing continued to happen.鈥�
鈥淒on鈥檛 panic.鈥�
鈥淵ou know," said Arthur, "it's at times like this, when I'm trapped in a Vogon airlock with a man from Betelgeuse, and about to die of asphyxiation in deep space that I really wish I'd listened to what my mother told me when I was young."
"Why, what did she tell you?"
"I don't know, I didn't listen.鈥�
鈥淪o this is it," said Arthur, "We are going to die."
"Yes," said Ford, "except... no! Wait a minute!" He suddenly lunged across the chamber at something behind Arthur's line of vision. "What's this switch?" he cried.
"What? Where?" cried Arthur, twisting round.
"No, I was only fooling," said Ford, "we are going to die after all.鈥�
鈥淔or instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much鈥攖he wheel, New York, wars and so on鈥攚hilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man鈥攆or precisely the same reasons.鈥�