42 minus one and counting

Er - random what?

Random number generation.

Merry, what's got into you? What on Earth are you on about?

Earth is a random number generator - or it was until a couple of years ago.

Jesus - Merry, I was hoping I'd heard you wrong or something.

Why's that Phen, am I stretching the limits of your box.

Shut up man, I'm not in a box and you know it. I'm open to almost anything, as long as it makes sense... as long as it resonates.

And this doesn't?

No. This just sounds plain ridiculous.

Did you ever read Hitchkiker's guide to the Galaxy?

Yeah, which is why it's all so patently absurd. That was fiction and we're looking at reality.

Ok - so what is it you didn't like in the Hitchhiker's guide?

I never said I didn't like it. It's an amazing book - but this thing about the planet Earth being a supercomputer... Come on man, get real!

And 42?

Yeah, something about it being the answer to everything. Is that right?

Yes, let me quote from the Hitchhiker's wiki: 42 is the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything. This Answer was first calculated by the supercomputer Deep Thought after seven and a half million years of thought. This shocking answer resulted in the construction of an even larger supercomputer, named Earth, which was tasked with determining what the question was in the first place.

Right. So what, Merry? An amusing and thought provoking read, but what on Earth has that to do with your latest provocation - calling the Earth a random number generator?

Well, I don't think Douglas Adam's was writing fiction at all. I mean, he probably thought he was, and perhaps even prided himself on being good at it, amusing and intelligent, but his ideas are too close to something else.

What something else? Cryptic remarks are not going to get you anywhere. And trying to blur the line between fiction and fact - quite frankly it's pathetic. I expected better of you, Merry.

Oh dear! Sorry Phen.

I should think so.

But if you'd allow me to toss a few balls in the air, just to see which way the wind is blowing.

Try not to mix your metaphors, if you can help it.

I'm afraid I've never quite got the hang of this language communication thing. You know we don't use it all that much where I come from.

Merry, I thought we agreed you weren't going to refer to that in public.

No, I'm not, but what with number 42 and my disclosure of the random number generator - to be honest I'm not sure how much longer I can keep up the pretence of being...

Stop. Not another word. Just er... go on with whatever you were going to tell me about - er - that somewhat far-fetched but obviously well-intentioned hypothesis that we're all generating random numbers here on Earth.

Ok Phen. So you see, if DA...

Douglas Adams?

Yeah, if he was right - no - not if he was right, because he actually thought he was writing fiction, but if his cosmic muse was right, and this really is a super-computer, then...

Yeah? What's wrong?

Interference.

What..? Now..?

Yes. We must be getting close to the truth if I've hit an interference signal.

Oh wow! How come I never notice them?

Because your mind just kind of goes blank and your eyes vacant. Then you say something like "where was I?" Everyone does it from time to time - whenever they're getting too close to the truth.

And you don't? What makes you special?

I just told you - I do - but instead of going blank I notice the signal before it clears my thoughts and I have enough sense to back off - you can't really push through an interference signal unless you're looking for trouble.

Why not?

Because the entire Earth has been designed that way.

What way?

To generate random numbers - like a computer - but the only way to generate truly random numbers is to have millions of people completely unaware that that's what they're doing. They have to believe this is really it - that their reality is the whole story, not an artificial creation.

Like the Truman Show?

Yes.

But that's sick. To say that we're all unwilling participants in a reality show - that our lives are just a form of entertainment for other beings... No, that's too horrible to even contemplate.

Naturally. But it isn't as horrible as all that.

What do you mean?

Because we ourselves had to agree to participate. No one could force us, and agree we all did, willingly.

But why? Why agree to a charade?

Because we are, at heart, cosmic, inter-galactic scientists, philosophers and artists. We are engaged in high level research, high-level art and creativity - the consciousness experiment.

But what's that got to do with maths or the number 42.

Don't you see?

Er... no. Should I?

Actually, no, you shouldn't. As long as you're down here on the ground, the signal is strong enough to block your mind from going down any avenues that would imperil random number generation.

But why?

Because generating random numbers isn't as random as it sounds.

No?

There's no real difference between generating millions of random numbers and one single number. As long as you get one single random number, you've achieved your mission.

But surely that's not so difficult. There are lots of random number generating machines all around the world. Scientists use them all the time.

But none of them is able to generate a truly random number.

Yes they are - they can have a number generated by a raindrop falling on a metal plate. No one knows where exactly or when the raindrop will fall.

Yes, I admit that looks perfectly random, but when you take it to its mathematical extreme, implausible though it may sound, that number is not perfectly random because the computer programme, the hardware and the thoughts of the researchers all affect the final outcome.

Astonishing. You could have fooled me.

Me too. You see, a truly random number is the one thing the universe cannot create.

You're joking.

Nope. Everything is interconnected. Everything is part of a single field of omnipresent consciousness. No thing is quite what it seems.

Qué?

Including your use of the Spanish word qué as opposed to what... Once you strip away the veil, once you come back to your natural state of conscious awareness, you no longer look at things in the same way.

Er... fair enough, but I still don't see how that could make a raindrop falling on a plate any less random.

Because matter is a derivative of conscious awareness.

A what?

A derivative. Mind with a capital M leads matter, not vice versa.

Mind leads matter? Back to telekinesis are you?

Further.

Further than telekinesis?

Yes. All matter is derived from conscious awareness. It's like where one stream of thought, or one set of postulates meet another. That's where matter crystallises out of nothing.

Matter out of nothing. That's...

Absurd. Yes indeed, until you see it happening. Until you see how matter is only there for the blink of an eye. Then it collapses back into its undifferentiated quantum state of isness.

I've never seen matter collapsing into whatever you said it was.

No, that's because you're part of the experiment.

So you say.

Your awareness is perfectly timed, in perfect sync with the random number generator computer, so you're only aware of the on state.

?!

The on state. That's the momentary appearance of matter, before it vanishes back into thought.

Oh my God. You've finally lost it Merry.

... so, you see, if I'm right - any thing, any matter will always be the result of some thought process - so no material event will ever be truly random, particularly once you become hyper-aware of all thought processes, once you return to your natural state of conscious awareness.

Mein Gott!

You see how the system is affecting you - as it always does. Were you to believe what I'm saying, were you to follow the simple truth - not as logic but more intuitively, that would interfere with the random number generator. That would crash the system.

Then how come you're able to do this?

Oh, because I can be a seemingly random aberrance.

You can?

Yes, because I've packaged myself in such a way, what with 0=1 and the gnomiki. Doing so, by putting up "danger - seriously irrational and possibly insane" signals enables me...

Oh yeah, like Wonko the sane...

That's right - the very same.

He appears somewhere in the Hitchhiker's trilogy.

Correct, in the er... fourth book, So long, and thanks for all the fish. Actually, he's just a modern day version of Shakespeare's ubiquitous fool, who stops trying to pretend reality is either rational or normal, realising to do so would be an exercise in futility.

But why? Why can't it be?

Well, er... it can. Reality can be rational and normal, but not if this is, in fact, a random number generator. That would be an artificial construct designed to achieve the near impossible - something that was wholly unpredictable and/ or unpredicted, in a unified field of consciousness where everything is, in a sense, already known.

?! So we went to all this trouble just for a single number?

Yes and no.

And to be a little less ambiguous.

Yes we did. No we didn't. We did because it's the holy grail of conscious awareness. It's that which apparently is not.

Er... isn't that a contradiction in terms.

Yes, it is - but that didn't stop us from pursuing it. You see - conscious awareness deals exclusively with the isness - that which is.

I thought you said matter switches on and off.

Yes, it does. Matter does, but conscious awareness doesn't. It's omnipresent and omniscient - if it chooses to be. But...

Ah ha - I think I get what you're saying.

You do?

Yes, er... oh dear, that funny thing's happening to my mind again.

Signal failure. Oh goody, you're beginning to recognise it. That means the end is near.

So I was about to say something that would have come dangerously close to the truth, thus imperilling the random number generator, so my brain signal was scrambled.

Precisely.

But there's a way around this?

Yes. There are ways, like playing the fool, or writing poetry, make cryptic remarks or using parables... There are ways, and they've been used throughout the experiment, but none of them has brought down the system.

Why not?

Because the system was designed with our willing consent.

As opposed to our unwilling consent?

Yes, and our ongoing consent. So even those individuals who appeared to be trying to wake people up - er - Jesus Christ, Martin Luther, Nicolo Tesla - whoever else you like - they were either marginalised or taken out by the collective will - or any individual at hand who was able to act on its behalf.

Like in the Matrix?

Yes, more or less.

So what about the random number? Was it generated?

Well there you go. It had to be or that was the intention, and according to Douglas Adams who was himself a part of this super-computer, it's 42.

And is it really? Was he right?

We won't know until we come out of this state of virtual reality, back to our conscious awareness. At that point we get to see whatever actually is - when the fog of collective confusion clears.

And presumably it'll be champagne all round if the number's 42?

Well, it makes little or no difference what the number is.

It doesn't? Then what was the fuss all about.

Because a truly random number, whatever it is - proves the hypothesis of what not.

Oh God, here we go.

You don't need to worry about the hypothesis itself. All that was needed was a truly random number to seed a zero.

To seed a zero?

Yes. In conscious awareness we only truly have 1 - the isness. In order to know what is, we needed to know what is not.

Sounds logical.

So we created the Earth, and then bits of us, souls agreed to come down and give it their very best shot - to pass through fire and brimstone in the quest for the ultimate truth.

And to reach that point we had to pass through "what is not"?

Yes, or the valley of the shadow of death, to use a biblical term.

And nothing is quite what it seems?

Correct. Or to put it another way, every thing down here in material reality is what it's not - a mindboggling construct designed to amaze us and keep us busy being what we're not.

It's... all... er...

Mindblowing, isn't it. You know you're close to the truth when your mind starts going numb. But don't fight it. Just relax and stay in your breath.

[breathing, breathing, breathing] ...So, if I understand you rightly, you're saying a single truly random number would seed a zero.

Yes. We've always suspected or perhaps known that zero exists, but we could never prove it or access it. It's like rain - it can only form if there's a grain of dust in the air.

A crystal too! It needs to grow on something...

Precisely. So the perfectly random number would be a gap, a missing link in the unified field of conscious awareness, and that is all we need to go on.

So what are we waiting for?

Oh, nothing really.

Then let's go check the results.

We are, but everyone has to wake up, and it's taking a bit longer than was planned.

You mean this virtual reality is now defunct.

Yes, it's supposed to be, but it's putting up resistance.

Maybe that's the zero interfering.

You might be right. Or the machine itself, which strangely doesn't want to be decommissioned.

Whyever not?

I think it's enjoying itself too much, playing with our minds.

Oh, that sounds kind of scary.

Well, yes, until you realise that the machine is...

Interference signal?

Yes. Massive one. Must be close! Ok - I'll say it in a whisper. That sometimes works... the machine is not really... a machine at all.

It's not?

No. And it's about to discover something much more absorbing...

It is?

Oh yes, but I'm not allowed to discuss it yet. Not until we declare 0=1.

Sorry? Declare 0=1?

Yes. That's the programme termination code, when we finally get to hear the results and revert back to Is, our natural state of consciousness.

Ok Merry, and you really expect me to believe all this nonsense? [winking at Merry]

No. That would indicate the Matrix is down. I can't believe that's happened yet - not unless it's caught wind of what's been kept a closely guarded secret.

But why would you keep it secret from the super-computer?

Because it, like the people in the experiment, had to believe that it was truly what it seemed to be, what it thought it was - otherwise nothing would have worked.

My God, a feint within a feint.

A riddle within a riddle.

But if I believe you - if I'm seeing it making sense... If I can accept what you're saying about the random number generator machine...

Then either you're as mad as I am, or it's a sign that things are finally shifting - that we're attaining critical mass. And believe me, once it starts to go, this whole monumental edifice can vanish in a puff of nought, before you have time to utter Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster¹, and the only thing that will continually amaze us is that it all seemed so goddamn real.

Real... real... re-all... Oh my God... 000000000000000000000000000000000000000000



1 The Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster is an alcoholic beverage invented by ex-President of the Universe Zaphod Beeblebrox, considered by the Hitchhiker's Guide to be the "Best Drink in Existence"