一本科幻书 经典科幻文学:《银河系漫游指南》第25章1

经典科幻文学:《银河系漫游指南》第25章1  

Chapter 25
There are of course many problems connected with life
of which some of the most popular are Why are people born? Why do they die? Why do they want to spend so much of the intervening time wearing digital watches? Many many millions of years ago a race of hyperintelligent pan-dimensional beings (whose physical manifestation in their own pan-dimensional universe is not dissimilar to our own) got so fed up with the constant bickering about the meaning of life which used to interrupt their favourite pastime of Brockian Ultra Cricket (a curious game which involved suddenly hitting people for no readily apparent reason and then running away) that they decided to sit down and solve their problems once and for all.
And to this end they built themselves a stupendous super puter which was so amazingly intelligent that even before the data banks had been connected up it had started from I think therefore I am and got as far as the existence of rice pudding and ine tax before anyone managed to turn it off.
It was the size of a small city.
Its main console was installed in a specially designed executive office
mounted on an enormous executive desk of finest ultramahagony topped with rich ultrared leather. The dark carpeting was discreetly sumptuous
exotic pot plants and tastefully engraved prints of the principal puter programmers and their families were deployed liberally about the room
and stately windows looked out upon a tree-lined public square.
On the day of the Great On-Turning o soberly dressed programmers with brief cases arrived and were shown discreetly into the office. They were aware that this day they would represent their entire race in its greatest moment
but they conducted themselves calmly and quietly as they seated themselves deferentially before the desk
opened their brief cases and took out their leather-bound notebooks.
Their names were Lunkwill and Fook.
For a few moments they sat in respectful silence
then
after exchanging a quiet glance with Fook
Lunkwill leaned forward and touched a small black panel.
The subtlest of hums indicated that the massive puter was now in total active mode. After a pause it spoke to them in a voice rich resonant and deep.
It said: "What is this great task for which I
Deep Thought
the second greatest puter in the Universe of Time and Space have been called into existence?"
Lunkwill and Fook glanced at each other in surprise.