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So the best people to rule would be those who have no desire to rule?

Who can possibly rule if no one who wants to can be allowed to?

"Pussy! Pussy, pussy! Coo-chee, coo-chee, coo-chee, coo-chee! Pussy want his fish? Nice piece of fish, pussy want it?"

WISE OLD BIRD: Now listen. Our world suffered two blights. One was the blight of the robot.
ARTHUR: Tried to take over did they?
WISE OLD BIRD: Oh my dear fellow, no, no, no, no, no. Much worse than that. They told us they liked us.
ARTHUR: No?!
WISE OLD BIRD: Well, it's not their fault, poor things, they'd been programmed to. But you can imagine how we felt, or at least our ancestors.
ARTHUR: Ghastly.

Eerily prescient, that. AI is "Clippy" - the computer guesses what you are trying to do and tries to help you, invariably making any task more difficult unless you can second-guess the heuristics. Don't pretend you want to help me! Give me a shell and obey my commands, that's all I ask.

I can't remember if it was Plato or Aristotle who said it, but one of the two said that the people who want to be rulers are more often than not just in it for their own glory, not to advance the civilization, and are generally the last people you'd want in power. He said that the most qualified people should be forced into positions of power, even if they don't want the position. That may as well be, but I find Douglas Adams' wording on the manner far more entertaining. Part one:

Zaphod Beeblebrox's full title was President of the Imperial Galactic Government. The term Imperial is kept, though it is now an anachronism. The hereditary Emperor is now nearly dead, and has been for many centuries. This is because in his last dying moments he was- much to his Imperial irritation- locked in a perpetual stasis field.

All his heirs are now, of course, long dead and the upshot of all this is that without any drastic upheaval political power has simply and effectively moved a rung or two down the ladder, and is now seemed to be vested in an elected governmental Assembly, headed by a President elected by that Assembly. In fact, it vests in no such place - that would be too easy.

The President's job- and if someone sufficiently vain and stupid is picked he won't realize this- is not to wield power, but to draw attention away from it. Zaphod Beeblebrox, the only man in history to have made Presidential telecasts from the bath, from Eccentrica Gallumbits bedroom, from the maximum-security wing of the Betelgeuse State Prison, or from where ever else he happened to be at the time, was supremely good at this job. and part two:

The major problem... one of the major problems, for there are several... one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it. Or, rather, of who manages to get people to let them do it to them.

To summarize: it is a well-known and much lamented fact that those people who most want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it.

To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should, on no account, be allowed to do the job.

To summarize the summary of the summary: people are a problem.

And so this is the situation we find: a succession of Galactic Presidents who so much enjoy the fun and palaver of being in power that they never really notice that they're not.

And somewhere in the shadows behind them, who? Who can possibly rule if no one who wants to, can be allowed to? Followed by, of course, his answer: the man who "tr[ies] not to" rule the Universe, a quite philosophical gentleman himself.

I can't remember if it was Plato or Aristotle who said it, but one of the two said that the people who want to be rulers are more often than not just in it for their own glory, not to advance the civilization, and are generally the last people you'd want in power. He said that the most qualified people should be forced into positions of power, even if they don't want the position. That may as well be, but I find Douglas Adams' wording on the manner far more entertaining. Part one:

Zaphod Beeblebrox's full title was President of the Imperial Galactic Government. The term Imperial is kept, though it is now an anachronism. The hereditary Emperor is now nearly dead, and has been for many centuries. This is because in his last dying moments he was- much to his Imperial irritation- locked in a perpetual stasis field.

All his heirs are now, of course, long dead and the upshot of all this is that without any drastic upheaval political power has simply and effectively moved a rung or two down the ladder, and is now seemed to be vested in an elected governmental Assembly, headed by a President elected by that Assembly. In fact, it vests in no such place - that would be too easy.

The President's job- and if someone sufficiently vain and stupid is picked he won't realize this- is not to wield power, but to draw attention away from it. Zaphod Beeblebrox, the only man in history to have made Presidential telecasts from the bath, from Eccentrica Gallumbits bedroom, from the maximum-security wing of the Betelgeuse State Prison, or from where ever else he happened to be at the time, was supremely good at this job. and part two:

The major problem... one of the major problems, for there are several... one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it. Or, rather, of who manages to get people to let them do it to them.

To summarize: it is a well-known and much lamented fact that those people who most want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it.

To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should, on no account, be allowed to do the job.

To summarize the summary of the summary: people are a problem.

And so this is the situation we find: a succession of Galactic Presidents who so much enjoy the fun and palaver of being in power that they never really notice that they're not.

And somewhere in the shadows behind them, who? Who can possibly rule if no one who wants to, can be allowed to? Followed by, of course, his answer: the man who "tr[ies] not to" rule the Universe, a quite philosophical gentleman himself.

And to think, it was only a couple of days ago that folks in these parts were arguing that only 12 year old girls would care about the range of customizable face available to change the look of the xbox 360....

I'm somehow reminded of the golgafrinchams, who had problems with the invention of the wheel because they couldn't decide what colour it should be...

But to remove Milliways, Disaster Area, and prehistoric Earth completely? Thats just horrible. It is not the same story. They have commited murder here. This movie should be renamed.

Indeed. Disaster Area was so wonderful that that hack Douglas Adams should have been shot for not including it in the original radio play.

But to remove Milliways, Disaster Area, and prehistoric Earth completely? Thats just horrible. It is not the same story. They have commited murder here. This movie should be renamed.

Indeed. Disaster Area was so wonderful that that hack Douglas Adams should have been shot for not including it in the original radio play.