How Douglas Adams Put “A. Dent” In The Universe (Arthur Dent)

“When you destroy planet Earth in the first few pages of your book, you’re kind of committed to the Sci-Fi genre, aren’t you?” — Douglas Adams, in a BBC Book Club Interview (January 2nd, 2000).

The premise and idea behind starting the Rule 42 publication, was to acknowledge the effect that intelligent shamanic creativity has had on humanity through the ages. And as we start exploring the true nature of the doctrines of world-changing giants such as Steve Jobs, we will also try to understand how creative geniuses like Douglas Adams were able to encapsulate their own response to those early-era shamanic messages into popular culture.

More specifically, I want you to closely examine one of the statements that Steven Paul Jobs made in an interview with Playboy magazine in 1985. The context for the statement was mostly about the kind of people Apple was inclined to hire. Steve famously said, “…we want people who are a little in over their head, the kind that want to put a dent in the universe.”

And even as Noah Wyle (who played Jobs in the 1999 mock-documentary Pirates of Silicon Valley) famously twisted that line to say “We’re here to put a dent in the universe. Otherwise, why even be here?”, Steve’s wife (and widow) Laurene Powell Jobs recently confirmed in an interview to the New York Times, that the late tech-wizard had said the words in an entirely different context.

According to Laurene, Steve was referring to the continuous control that humans truly possess over their circumstances, and the ability to modify the value systems and processes that only “seem” to govern their lives at the surface. If you’re someone who has already traversed deep into the magical realms of Steve’s imagination and “bent reality”, then this won’t be too hard to grasp.

But what I found most amusing, along the way, was that Douglas Adams, perhaps most famously credited with the introduction of the number 42 in the context of understanding the meaning of life, the universe, and everything, actually did put “a. dent” in the universe, when the first chapter of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy featured the lead character of the series, a clueless human being called “Arthur Dent”, being thrust into the infinite improbability drive aboard a fantastic spaceship, and quite literally, “into the universe”.

More to follow. Do subscribe if you like brooding over things like this. And remember to follow Rule Number 42.