{"id":131,"slug":"adams-douglas","name":"Adams, Douglas","type":"person","created_at":"2026-08-08T04:34:52.519963+00:00","hidden":0,"aliases":[],"episodes":[{"id":"22a4beee-02a1-43e3-a862-cf3329478850","slug":"s19e04-just-enough-world-model-actually-its-about","subject":"s19e04: Just Enough World Model; Actually, it’s about Federalism","title":"Just Enough World Model; Actually, it’s about Federalism","publish_date":"2024-10-28T20:50:09.999943+00:00","year":2024,"month":10,"season":19,"episode":4,"episode_label":"s19e04","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/s19e04-just-enough-world-model-actually-its-about/","is_premium":0,"word_count":3252,"context":" … that has stuck in Dan’s brain over the decades”\n[1]\n\nFor starters, <mark>Douglas Adams</mark>’ 1990 BBC documentary Hyperland\n[2]\n. I did a rewatch of Hyperland back in … ","reading_minutes":16},{"id":"5e3ffcbe-d4fb-4f2a-88e5-1f38fe3e1f71","slug":"s18e04-what-are-we-doing-here-exactly-llms-are","subject":"s18e04: What Are We Doing Here, Exactly?; LLMs Are Playful, Actually","title":"What Are We Doing Here, Exactly?; LLMs Are Playful, Actually","publish_date":"2024-03-27T21:34:02.502635+00:00","year":2024,"month":3,"season":18,"episode":4,"episode_label":"s18e04","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/s18e04-what-are-we-doing-here-exactly-llms-are/","is_premium":0,"word_count":3553,"context":" … Like, on the one hand, this is better than Shitty Elon Musk’s attempts for his Grok AI bot to be “just like <mark>Douglas Adams</mark>”. I don’t … ","reading_minutes":18},{"id":"0f403938-db93-4e49-a3a0-4cb3e5d8ab3e","slug":"s17e11-context-is-king-explicit-people","subject":"s17e11: Context is King; Explicit People Personality Preferences; OS Licensing, but Different","title":"Context is King; Explicit People Personality Preferences; OS Licensing, but Different","publish_date":"2024-02-14T23:32:27.147055+00:00","year":2024,"month":2,"season":17,"episode":11,"episode_label":"s17e11","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/s17e11-context-is-king-explicit-people/","is_premium":0,"word_count":2828,"context":" … One way I’ve joked about this is in reference to <mark>Douglas Adams</mark>’ Genuine People Personalities from the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. There weren’t that … ","reading_minutes":14},{"id":"93e0dbf6-4f8f-44fc-b5c6-e5943985e8f6","slug":"s11e35-a-method-for-efficient-exploration-of","subject":"s11e35: A Method for Efficient Exploration of Search Space","title":"A Method for Efficient Exploration of Search Space","publish_date":"2022-04-18T22:41:21.178949+00:00","year":2022,"month":4,"season":11,"episode":35,"episode_label":"s11e35","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/s11e35-a-method-for-efficient-exploration-of/","is_premium":0,"word_count":1623,"context":" … And then what? We're still at There's More Shitty Stuff Than Before and oh my god here's another <mark>Douglas Adams</mark> reference coming: there's so … ","reading_minutes":8},{"id":"b07b5f52-65f3-41f8-bc35-f562ffa2c3f3","slug":"s11e19-stop-doing-that-its-making-you-look-silly","subject":"s11e19: Stop doing that, it's making you look silly","title":"Stop doing that, it's making you look silly","publish_date":"2022-03-18T16:16:24.075000+00:00","year":2022,"month":3,"season":11,"episode":19,"episode_label":"s11e19","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/s11e19-stop-doing-that-its-making-you-look-silly/","is_premium":0,"word_count":1488,"context":" … Surfaces versus infrastructure, scale\n\nGovernment digital services and service design\n\nA liveblog of <mark>Douglas Adams</mark>' Hyperland documentary and notes on intelligent agents\n\nLots about product/service design: washing … ","reading_minutes":7},{"id":"d3c76051-e1c1-4560-823d-dffbda246749","slug":"s08e16-whats-the-egot-for-technology-and-arts","subject":"s08e16: What's the EGOT for Technology and Arts?","title":"What's the EGOT for Technology and Arts?","publish_date":"2020-07-01T22:30:21.788000+00:00","year":2020,"month":7,"season":8,"episode":16,"episode_label":"s08e16","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/s08e16-whats-the-egot-for-technology-and-arts/","is_premium":0,"word_count":2680,"context":" … and didn’t break out in panic attacks about having to write (sorry, <mark>Douglas Adams</mark>), just didn’t exist.\n(The usual story I tell here is that when … ","reading_minutes":13},{"id":"3788a0a6-0650-4929-b4c5-89d976c9e4c0","slug":"s07e22-cynical-me-snow-crashing-ch-13-part-3","subject":"s07e22: Cynical, me?; Snow Crashing Ch 13, part 3","title":"Cynical, me?; Snow Crashing Ch 13, part 3","publish_date":"2019-11-26T04:47:43.167000+00:00","year":2019,"month":11,"season":7,"episode":22,"episode_label":"s07e22","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/s07e22-cynical-me-snow-crashing-ch-13-part-3/","is_premium":0,"word_count":2371,"context":" … at the moment) is something that feels like it’s straight out of <mark>Douglas Adams</mark>’\nHyperland\n, which I wrote about a good five years ago. Just the idea … ","reading_minutes":12},{"id":"7c222532-d5c7-43f4-bfa2-1a155d826c8f","slug":"s07extra01-stop-using-nouns","subject":"s07extra01: Stop Using Nouns","title":"Stop Using Nouns","publish_date":"2019-09-27T21:27:59.422000+00:00","year":2019,"month":9,"season":7,"episode":1,"episode_label":"s07extra01","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/s07extra01-stop-using-nouns/","is_premium":1,"word_count":1413,"context":" … what Tom is describing, especially the surly and un-cooperative personalities, is what <mark>Douglas Adams</mark> called\nGenuine People Personalities\nin The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.\n2 … ","reading_minutes":7},{"id":"5a1f0098-1098-4974-a6a9-0d7e0cca7a0b","slug":"s06e09-whats-the-target","subject":"s06e09: What’s the target?","title":"What’s the target?","publish_date":"2018-10-10T00:00:00+00:00","year":2018,"month":10,"season":6,"episode":9,"episode_label":"s06e09","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/s06e09-whats-the-target/","is_premium":0,"word_count":5623,"context":" … which feels like a great reminder that the simple pencil is a tool, and that the technology and tools we grow up with (obligatory <mark>Douglas Adams</mark> quote), are … ","reading_minutes":28},{"id":"4c9c5797-c38e-4cec-a362-c6f2910e26fa","slug":"s5e11-things-that-have-caught-my-attention","subject":"s5e11: Things That Have Caught My Attention","title":"Things That Have Caught My Attention","publish_date":"2018-05-04T00:00:00+00:00","year":2018,"month":5,"season":5,"episode":11,"episode_label":"s05e11","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/s5e11-things-that-have-caught-my-attention/","is_premium":0,"word_count":2294,"context":" … I'd also been rewatching <mark>Douglas Adam</mark>'s Hyperland[14, 15], his 1990 BBC Two documentary on hypermedia and hypertext. (Aside: the documentary includes the concept of \"micons … ","reading_minutes":11},{"id":"8f65a0f5-f890-4a73-ad58-6ecbbe741a86","slug":"s3e11-gigawatt-laser-array","subject":"s3e11: Gigawatt Laser Array","title":"Gigawatt Laser Array","publish_date":"2016-04-12T00:00:00+00:00","year":2016,"month":4,"season":3,"episode":11,"episode_label":"s03e11","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/s3e11-gigawatt-laser-array/","is_premium":0,"word_count":1296,"context":" … pretty much overcast and right in the middle of the afternoon of what <mark>Douglas Adams</mark> would probably call the long, dark, tea-time of the soul when it … ","reading_minutes":6},{"id":"6293c390-7264-49eb-be9a-ff0b8b89002a","slug":"s2e30-politeness","subject":"s2e30: Politeness","title":"Politeness","publish_date":"2015-12-18T00:00:00+00:00","year":2015,"month":12,"season":2,"episode":30,"episode_label":"s02e30","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/s2e30-politeness/","is_premium":0,"word_count":696,"context":" … a) Emily Saunders[5] from <mark>Douglas Adams</mark>' Mostly Harmless that I happened to read recently and thus b) Colin[6].\n\n\n\nThe point here of course is the Etiquette … ","reading_minutes":3},{"id":"98e8c9f9-909d-4389-a0ff-856f3873305e","slug":"s2e28-podcasts-other-things-hue","subject":"s2e28: Podcasts; Other Things; Hue","title":"Podcasts; Other Things; Hue","publish_date":"2015-12-16T00:00:00+00:00","year":2015,"month":12,"season":2,"episode":28,"episode_label":"s02e28","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/s2e28-podcasts-other-things-hue/","is_premium":0,"word_count":2455,"context":" … not that old!) biomedical animations[1] of things like DNA replication and misquoting <mark>Douglas Adams</mark> by saying \"Life is really, really complicated. I mean, you might think figuring … ","reading_minutes":12},{"id":"0be138db-3e75-4cb8-a856-bf555312e405","slug":"episode-one-hundred-and-sixty-eight-continued","subject":"Episode One Hundred and Sixty Eight: Continued Careening","title":"Continued Careening","publish_date":"2014-09-24T00:00:00+00:00","year":2014,"month":9,"season":null,"episode":168,"episode_label":"episode 168","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/episode-one-hundred-and-sixty-eight-continued/","is_premium":0,"word_count":1132,"context":" … America, as <mark>Douglas Adams</mark> would say, is *big*. And unique in that it believes in - and carries out - ideological devolution of power to the lowest local level. The … ","reading_minutes":6},{"id":"110f762d-d74d-4718-8e48-e3a896a9f64f","slug":"episode-one-hundred-and-fifty-eight-watch-berg","subject":"Episode One Hundred and Fifty Eight: WATCH; BERG","title":"WATCH; BERG","publish_date":"2014-09-10T00:00:00+00:00","year":2014,"month":9,"season":null,"episode":158,"episode_label":"episode 158","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/episode-one-hundred-and-fifty-eight-watch-berg/","is_premium":0,"word_count":1637,"context":" … He'd built Dirk, was obviously a fan of <mark>Douglas Adams</mark> and we both had had our brains exploded by Greg Egan and books like Permutation City and … ","reading_minutes":8},{"id":"aee1624c-f2e9-4f2d-a70f-714f77b03d4c","slug":"episode-one-hundred-and-thirty-five-digital","subject":"Episode One Hundred and Thirty Five: Digital Watches; Stay In Control; Unreasonable Empathy; Odds","title":"Digital Watches; Stay In Control; Unreasonable Empathy; Odds","publish_date":"2014-08-05T00:00:00+00:00","year":2014,"month":8,"season":null,"episode":135,"episode_label":"episode 135","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/episode-one-hundred-and-thirty-five-digital/","is_premium":0,"word_count":2308,"context":" … that he was alive when digital watches came out and they were, as <mark>Douglas Adams</mark> said, \"a pretty neat thing\". And this guy is sitting opposite me at … ","reading_minutes":12},{"id":"edf6f3a5-8dbe-4779-b8cf-f2d585de5947","slug":"episode-one-hundred-and-twenty-one-dark-value-the","subject":"Episode One Hundred and Twenty One: Dark Value; The Latest Attempt; Five Eyes","title":"Dark Value; The Latest Attempt; Five Eyes","publish_date":"2014-07-11T00:00:00+00:00","year":2014,"month":7,"season":null,"episode":121,"episode_label":"episode 121","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/episode-one-hundred-and-twenty-one-dark-value-the/","is_premium":0,"word_count":3341,"context":" … In fact, comedy and satire - the stylings of Red Dwarf's Talkie Toaster, <mark>Douglas Adams</mark>' sighing doors and Richard Morgan's AI-run hotels that keen desperately for … ","reading_minutes":17},{"id":"beab5d3c-4c8d-4af2-90fc-c5ee28d4c0d2","slug":"episode-one-hundred-and-twelve-probationary","subject":"Episode One Hundred and Twelve: Probationary Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.; The Blog Unbundled; A World of Connected Objects","title":"Probationary Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.; The Blog Unbundled; A World of Connected Objects","publish_date":"2014-06-28T00:00:00+00:00","year":2014,"month":6,"season":null,"episode":112,"episode_label":"episode 112","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/episode-one-hundred-and-twelve-probationary/","is_premium":0,"word_count":4019,"context":" … course, that a world full of incessantly chattering objects perhaps best illustrated by <mark>Douglas Adams</mark>' Genuine People Personalities, would in all likelihood be one that was unbearable.\nCoates … ","reading_minutes":20},{"id":"88c6fd19-864d-4a32-9b75-9c4974202c3b","slug":"episode-ninety-eight-engineering-serendipity","subject":"Episode Ninety Eight: Engineering Serendipity; Genuinely Useful People Personalities; Hubris","title":"Engineering Serendipity; Genuinely Useful People Personalities; Hubris","publish_date":"2014-06-10T00:00:00+00:00","year":2014,"month":6,"season":null,"episode":98,"episode_label":"episode 98","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/episode-ninety-eight-engineering-serendipity/","is_premium":0,"word_count":3028,"context":" … follow on Twitter[1] called out the intensifying of some sort of local <mark>Douglas Adams</mark> field. References to the tall one had been cropping up more frequently, lately … ","reading_minutes":15},{"id":"16da5399-a67c-4cfb-bcc0-0adbe8934620","slug":"re-send-wformatting-fix-episode-ninety-eight","subject":"(Re-send w/formatting fix) Episode Ninety Eight: Engineering Serendipity; Genuinely Useful People Personalities; Hubris","title":"(Re-send w/formatting fix) Episode Ninety Eight: Engineering Serendipity; Genuinely Useful People Personalities; Hubris","publish_date":"2014-06-10T00:00:00+00:00","year":2014,"month":6,"season":null,"episode":98,"episode_label":"episode 98","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/re-send-wformatting-fix-episode-ninety-eight/","is_premium":0,"word_count":3063,"context":" … follow on Twitter[1] called out the intensifying of some sort of local <mark>Douglas Adams</mark> field. References to the tall one had been cropping up more frequently, lately … ","reading_minutes":15},{"id":"a96bc172-9546-41aa-87b4-cd3271e85954","slug":"episode-ninety-seven-that-most-killer-of-deals","subject":"Episode Ninety Seven: That Most Killer Of Deals; Need To Know","title":"That Most Killer Of Deals; Need To Know","publish_date":"2014-06-07T00:00:00+00:00","year":2014,"month":6,"season":null,"episode":97,"episode_label":"episode 97","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/episode-ninety-seven-that-most-killer-of-deals/","is_premium":0,"word_count":2018,"context":" … somewhat-reasonable machine-learning algorithms over them and came up with something (paraphrasing <mark>Douglas Adams</mark>) that was almost, but not entirely unlike artificial intelligence in narrow domains. Perhaps … ","reading_minutes":10},{"id":"ddcccdb3-5d21-4b97-bafb-aa0d6c46c24f","slug":"episode-eighty-two-the-next-big-thing-in-drugs-as","subject":"Episode Eighty Two: The Next Big Thing In Drugs; As If You Needed Another NYT Opinion; Experience This; The Value Of The Thing","title":"The Next Big Thing In Drugs; As If You Needed Another NYT Opinion; Experience This; The Value Of The Thing","publish_date":"2014-05-17T00:00:00+00:00","year":2014,"month":5,"season":null,"episode":82,"episode_label":"episode 82","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/episode-eighty-two-the-next-big-thing-in-drugs-as/","is_premium":0,"word_count":2586,"context":" … a revenue mark out of? Or, are we destined in some sort of <mark>Douglas Adams</mark>-esque dystopian future to only ever travel to Airbnb managed properties and endure … ","reading_minutes":13},{"id":"6ff1d848-3db0-46b7-b9d9-9b34975661f8","slug":"episode-eighty-motion-controlled-the-childish","subject":"Episode Eighty: Motion, Controlled; The Childish Myth; Odds","title":"Motion, Controlled; The Childish Myth; Odds","publish_date":"2014-05-15T00:00:00+00:00","year":2014,"month":5,"season":null,"episode":80,"episode_label":"episode 80","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/episode-eighty-motion-controlled-the-childish/","is_premium":0,"word_count":1382,"context":" … I'm quite happy to go back to the well and quote <mark>Douglas Adams</mark> on motion control here:\n\n\"For years radios had been operated by means of pressing … ","reading_minutes":7},{"id":"ecf678c2-0ea7-4b89-b7ec-6b859a83012b","slug":"episode-fifty-three-yet-more-vr-tv-is-still","subject":"Episode Fifty Three: Yet More VR; TV is still fucked; Vox.com; Ugh","title":"Yet More VR; TV is still fucked; Vox.com; Ugh","publish_date":"2014-04-07T00:00:00+00:00","year":2014,"month":4,"season":null,"episode":53,"episode_label":"episode 53","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/episode-fifty-three-yet-more-vr-tv-is-still/","is_premium":0,"word_count":2188,"context":" … 1.0 Yet More VR\n\nWith apologies to <mark>Douglas Adams</mark>:\n\n\"Virtual reality is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it … ","reading_minutes":11},{"id":"3b0e9d48-a50d-4e99-9da2-32a274883810","slug":"episode-forty-nine-living-in-an-immaterial-world","subject":"Episode Forty Nine: Living In An Immaterial World; Snow Crashing 4; Odds","title":"Living In An Immaterial World; Snow Crashing 4; Odds","publish_date":"2014-04-01T00:00:00+00:00","year":2014,"month":4,"season":null,"episode":49,"episode_label":"episode 49","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/episode-forty-nine-living-in-an-immaterial-world/","is_premium":0,"word_count":2301,"context":" … They make a lovely whooshing sound as they <mark>Douglas Adams</mark> reference by.\nBest,\nDan","reading_minutes":12},{"id":"e824757d-76e3-40d4-ae24-f6325a441a4a","slug":"episode-forty-seven-building-better-worlds-mobile","subject":"Episode Forty Seven - Building Better Worlds; Mobile; More video","title":"Building Better Worlds; Mobile; More video","publish_date":"2014-03-28T00:00:00+00:00","year":2014,"month":3,"season":null,"episode":47,"episode_label":"episode 47","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/episode-forty-seven-building-better-worlds-mobile/","is_premium":0,"word_count":1454,"context":" … In the talk, I paraphrase <mark>Douglas Adams</mark> by saying:\n\n\"Mobile is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I … ","reading_minutes":7},{"id":"bde9d31b-ed7a-4a27-b292-65e8f35cb313","slug":"episode-forty-six-snow-crashing-3-video-is-a","subject":"Episode Forty Six - Snow Crashing 3; Video is a Content-Type; Blame Your Tools","title":"Snow Crashing 3; Video is a Content-Type; Blame Your Tools","publish_date":"2014-03-27T00:00:00+00:00","year":2014,"month":3,"season":null,"episode":46,"episode_label":"episode 46","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/episode-forty-six-snow-crashing-3-video-is-a/","is_premium":0,"word_count":2691,"context":" … There's no <mark>Douglas Adams</mark>-esque VCR, watching all the realtime YouTube feeds and discerning knowledge from them. At least all the textual documents getting sucked into Google … ","reading_minutes":13},{"id":"6eb2232f-7450-4af1-9189-c3507885fd13","slug":"episode-twenty-three-the-difficulty","subject":"Episode Twenty Three: The Difficulty","title":"The Difficulty","publish_date":"2014-02-25T00:00:00+00:00","year":2014,"month":2,"season":null,"episode":23,"episode_label":"episode 23","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/episode-twenty-three-the-difficulty/","is_premium":0,"word_count":4218,"context":" … watching Hyperland[1], a 50 minute documentary written by <mark>Douglas Adams</mark> for the BBC. You can watch along, if you want. It's important to remember that Hyperland … ","reading_minutes":21},{"id":"ef278e9c-1fc2-428f-8509-50542d176c53","slug":"episode-twenty-four-this-inexplicable-future","subject":"Episode Twenty Four: This Inexplicable Future, Where Did All The Agents Go, Brittle","title":"This Inexplicable Future, Where Did All The Agents Go, Brittle","publish_date":"2014-02-25T00:00:00+00:00","year":2014,"month":2,"season":null,"episode":24,"episode_label":"episode 24","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/episode-twenty-four-this-inexplicable-future/","is_premium":0,"word_count":1413,"context":null,"reading_minutes":7},{"id":"ed85886d-1e30-4bd1-bc9f-2c4c2dba1111","slug":"episode-sixteen-feynman-and-adams-surveillance","subject":"Episode Sixteen: Feynman and Adams, Surveillance","title":"Feynman and Adams, Surveillance","publish_date":"2014-02-13T00:00:00+00:00","year":2014,"month":2,"season":null,"episode":16,"episode_label":"episode 16","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/episode-sixteen-feynman-and-adams-surveillance/","is_premium":0,"word_count":1076,"context":" … Feynman, had fallen into my possession and I had devoured it, and <mark>Douglas Adams</mark>, when a visiting uncle had left a dog-eared copy of The Hitch-Hiker … ","reading_minutes":5},{"id":"749fef55-b14d-414e-8dcb-0601ef66b438","slug":"episode-eight-we-build-worlds","subject":"Episode Eight: We Build Worlds","title":"We Build Worlds","publish_date":"2014-02-03T00:00:00+00:00","year":2014,"month":2,"season":null,"episode":8,"episode_label":"episode 8","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/episode-eight-we-build-worlds/","is_premium":0,"word_count":611,"context":" … And the thing about the UK is, to borrow a phrase from <mark>Douglas Adams</mark>, is that's it's really small. Like, really, really small. There are \"only … ","reading_minutes":3}]}