back to article Eric Schmidt flicks INTERSTELLAR TOWEL at top tech fair

Google chairman Eric Schmidt is a big fan of the work of Britain's beloved sci-fi writer Douglas Adams, who died nearly 11 years ago. The author, who penned The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, had done a good job of predicting the future, according to Schmidt, who was talking at the opening of the world's biggest IT fair, …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    At the risk of invoking Godwin, even Hitler was an art lover! Schmidt is a the devil incarnate, end of.

  2. TeeCee Gold badge
    Alert

    If he's a fan of HHGTTG....

    ......why does he preside over something that looks suspiciously like the Marketing Division of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation?

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. TRT Silver badge
      Thumb Up

      Re: If he's a fan of HHGTTG....

      To be fair, I don't think Google *has* a complaints division. Oh, you said Marketing Division. Carry on, ignore me.

    3. Graham Marsden
      Thumb Up

      Re: If he's a fan of HHGTTG....

      Share and Enjoy!

  3. Admiral Grace Hopper
    Thumb Down

    Marvellous

    So it was all the fault of dead people.

    1. Andy Miller

      Re: Marvellous

      Captain Kirk is DEAD !!????!??!?!?!?!?!?

      1. Admiral Grace Hopper
        Unhappy

        Re: Marvellous

        I hate to break this to you, but Captain Kirk was only a character. Gene Rodenberry boldy went many years since, sadly.

      2. TRT Silver badge

        Re: Marvellous

        It's worse than that, Jim.

      3. LaeMing
        Facepalm

        Re: Captain Kirk is DEAD !!????!??!?!?!?!?!?

        Sure is. They droped a bridge on him in one of the TNG movies.

  4. armyknife

    Pure Comedy Gold.

    ""Governments will be able to spot the economic makings of a crisis before they happen"

    Maybe the technology played a role in enabling or enhancing the financial crisis, wacky idea I know?

    1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
      Big Brother

      Re: Pure Comedy Gold.

      Gold, indeed.

      Technology does not play a large part. But Central Banking and Fractional Reserve Banking, yes.

      Basically, Governments are the cause of the economic breakdowns and they know it. But they will never admit it. Just compare what Greenspan said BEFORE he managed to land his job at the Fed.

      Just today, there was a nice writeup here:

      http://mises.org/daily/5938/Seventeen-Years-of-Boom-and-Bust

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    All I need is a Point of View Gun

    and I'd use 'Marvin Style' against the Vogons!

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_in_The_Hitchhiker's_Guide_to_the_Galaxy#Point_of_View_Gun

  6. AndrueC Silver badge
    Joke

    >Governments will be able to spot the economic makings of a crisis before they happen.

    Really? Now that /is/ fantasy.

    1. hpwb
      Boffin

      Mr Smith obviously has his Joo-Janta Sunglasses on.

    2. ratfox
      Coffee/keyboard

      Yeah, I think he blew it on the last paragraph.

  7. Steve Evans

    Still waiting...

    I'm still waiting for a fish I can stick in my ear.

    Until this happens I will remain unable to communicate with my Geordie friend after he has drunk 4 beers.

    1. Code Monkey
      Trollface

      Re: Still waiting...

      There are already plenty of fish you can stick in your ear*

      * admittedly none of the available fish can translate what your inebriated Geordie friend says and he'll be even less intelligible when you've got a sardine jammed in your lughole. :o)

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Googlfrinchans

    We should be very worried if the next generation of Google phones all come with a sachet of Triclosan.

  9. Pete 2 Silver badge

    A more accurate SF prediction

    Sadly, the future will probably turn out more like Incompetnece [sic] by Rob Grant.

  10. Kirbini
    Thumb Down

    Screw the technology

    Where's my pangalactic gargle blaster?

    1. Steve Evans

      Re: Screw the technology

      I'm sorry Sir, we're out of stock at the moment.

      I can however offer you a smack round the head with this slice of lemon...

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Screw the technology

        No brick?

        Next bar!

    2. Steve 26
      Coat

      Re: Screw the technology

      Would rather have the triple breasted whore myself.

    3. Pastey
      Pint

      Re: Screw the technology

      Gargle Blaster recipe can be found here: http://h2g2.com/A87738565

      It was fun trying it out.

  11. FartingHippo
    Unhappy

    Dirk Gently

    Speaking of Mr Adams' works, did anyone catch Dirk Gently last night on BBC4.

    Not good. Not good at all. Trying so hard to be clever, but ultimately a big fat miss.

    1. John A Blackley

      Re: Dirk Gently

      Yep, and your comment said almost exactly what I was thinking at the time. 'Trying too hard'.

    2. Lloyd
      Facepalm

      Re: Dirk Gently

      Did you not watch the pilots? I managed the first one and vowed never again to watch it, abhorrence doesn't do it justice, Mangan as Gently is just risible.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Dirk Gently

        I have it recorded... should I just hit delete and watch Take Me Out instead??

  12. Rustident Spaceniak
    Childcatcher

    Governments spotting a crisis...

    Yeah sure!

    Though unfortunately, some clever fund managers will have spotted it even earlier, and made gadzillions by screwing ordinary folk out of their savings, before the government even formed a committee to start thinking about it! (The crisis I mean, not the screwing...)

  13. stupormundi
    Flame

    Eric Schmidt, being a big H2G2 fan ...

    ... really irks me, in a big way. If the incarnation of evil likes the guide, doesn't this mean writing sci fi novels is pointless?

    As any right thinking person knows, Eric Schmidt will be among the first up against the wall when the revolution comes.

  14. Tom 35

    So having been rated harmless they went to work.

    They quickly reached mostly harmless around the time they went public, but didn't stop there.

    They have also mastered the privacy statement that is almost but not entirely unlike privacy.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "Oh dear" said Google, "I hadn't thought of that" and promptly vanished in a puff of logic.

    "That was easy!" says Microsoft and went on to prove black was white and got killed on the next zebra crossing.

    Many leading technologists say that this argument is a load of dingos' kidneys, but that didn't stop Oolon Kaloofid making it the central theme to his best-selling book "Well that about wraps it up for Google"

  16. J. Cook Silver badge
    Headmaster

    Um...

    Mr. Adams died on May 11th, 2001- it's been nearly *twelve* years.

    Mines the one with the towel in one pocket and the HHGTTG in the other pocket.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Um...

      2012 - 2001 = 11 years on May 11th? unless some weird math does elude me....

  17. Alan Esworthy
    FAIL

    crisis management

    "Governments will be able to spot the economic makings of a crisis before they happen..."

    We've had the technology to do that for a very long time. It's called a "mirror."

    All economic crises I can think of have been the unintended consequences of govt laws and regulations.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    WTF?

    "Think back to Star Trek, or my favourite, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Much of what those writers imagined is now possible,"

    I was just thinking this myself, the other day, when two missiles were turned into a bowl of petunias and a surprised whale...

  19. Mark Eccleston

    Total Perspective Vortex

    Eric Schmidt held the press conference while eating a piece of fairy cake and telling the crowd that he was, in fact, the single most important person in the universe.

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Move that apostrophe

    "Douglas Adams takes the rap for Google mission's creep"

  21. This post has been deleted by its author

  22. Euripides Pants
    Big Brother

    If only...

    If only Google could invent something to connect Mr. Schmidt's ears to his mouth so he could hear what he's saying...

  23. mtp
    Holmes

    Bistro maths

    The result of 2012 - 2011 clearly depends on what kind if bistro you are in.

  24. Gannon (J.) Dick
    FAIL

    um, Eric ?

    "Governments will be able to spot the economic makings of a crisis before they happen ..."

    Last I heard, Google had $44 Billion in Bermuda awaiting the proper payment of bribes so that it can be repatriated at a lower tax rate. I'm not sure we can afford Governments who are as brilliant as you claim they can be, and yet are so easily gamed by the likes of you.

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