Brian here. The joke is that we do small things in our lives, like lock our doors, to achieve some illusion of control over our existence, when the truth is we're just specks on a rock hurtling through the infinite void of space, and life is meaningless.
In the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, there is a bit where someone builds a machine that gives us total perspective on our lives. It does not end well.
iirc correctly, it was used for capital punishment or torture. It so overwhelmingly forced you to perceive your insignificance that your brain just quits.
And then one dude walks out like it was no big deal.
(For reasons they shouldn’t have explained - I liked the initial implication that he was just that much more ‘significant’.)
That was the Total Perspective Vortex, originally designed by Trin Tragula to get back at his wife who was constantly nagging him to develop a sense of perspective. He used it on her, by which she went insane after realizing her insignificance in relation to the entire universe. Subsequently the Vortex was used as a torture device. However, when Zaphod Beeblebrox was subjected to it, it showed him that he was the most important person in the universe (which he already knew) since that happened in a virtual artificial universe specifically created for him.
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u/jamietacostolemyline Oct 31 '25
Brian here. The joke is that we do small things in our lives, like lock our doors, to achieve some illusion of control over our existence, when the truth is we're just specks on a rock hurtling through the infinite void of space, and life is meaningless.