DOTLAN EveMaps

u"\u201cAnother thing that got forgotten was the fact that against all probability a sperm whale had suddenly been called into existence several miles above the surface of an alien planet.

And since this is not a naturally tenable position for a whale, this poor innocent creature had very little time to come to terms with its identity as a whale before it then had to come to terms with not being a whale any more.

This is a complete record of its thoughts from the moment it began its life till the moment it ended it.

Ah \u2026 ! What\u2019s happening? it thought.

Er, excuse me, who am I?

Hello?

Why am I here? What\u2019s my purpose in life?

What do I mean by who am I?

Calm down, get a grip now \u2026 oh! this is an interesting sensation, what is it? It\u2019s a sort of \u2026 yawning, tingling sensation in my \u2026 my \u2026 well I suppose I\u2019d better start finding names for things if I want to make any headway in what for the sake of what I shall call an argument I shall call the world, so let\u2019s call it my stomach.

Good. Ooooh, it\u2019s getting quite strong. And hey, what\u2019s about this whistling roaring sound going past what I\u2019m suddenly going to call my head? Perhaps I can call that \u2026 wind! Is that a good name? It\u2019ll do \u2026 perhaps I can find a better name for it later when I\u2019ve found out what it\u2019s for. It must be something very important because there certainly seems to be a hell of a lot of it. Hey! What\u2019s this thing? This \u2026 let\u2019s call it a tail \u2013 yeah, tail. Hey! I can can really thrash it about pretty good can\u2019t I? Wow! Wow! That feels great! Doesn\u2019t seem to achieve very much but I\u2019ll probably find out what it\u2019s for later on. Now \u2013 have I built up any coherent picture of things yet?

No.

Never mind, hey, this is really exciting, so much to find out about, so much to look forward to, I\u2019m quite dizzy with anticipation \u2026

Or is it the wind?

There really is a lot of that now isn\u2019t it?

And wow! Hey! What\u2019s this thing suddenly coming towards me very fast? Very very fast. So big and flat and round, it needs a big wide sounding name like \u2026 ow \u2026 ound \u2026 round \u2026 ground! That\u2019s it! That\u2019s a good name \u2013 ground!

I wonder if it will be friends with me?

And the rest, after a sudden wet thud, was silence.

Curiously enough, the only thing that went through the mind of the bowl of petunias as it fell was Oh no, not again. Many people have speculated that if we knew exactly why the bowl of petunias had thought that we would know a lot more about the nature of the universe than we do now.\u201d
\u2015 Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"