this post was submitted on 31 Dec 2025
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While the bowl of petunias thought "Oh no, not again" and if we understood why that was, we'd know a lot more about the universe than we do now.
A random joke that was paid off years and years later
I will never not upvote Hitchhiker's Guide quotes
I listen to the radio version of hitchhiker's while I go to sleep often, if I managed to hit play in the middle of the whale's pondering I always back up a bit. It's one of my favourites of the entire series and not as good when played mid pondering.
Also the line about the bowl of petunias having relevance later is quite amusing to be sure. Though I assume not thought of when written.
IIRC the radio scripts were the very first version. Which means that the joke in the radio show was probably deliberate.
I know for a fact that in the books there's a throwaway gag that the petunias thought, "Oh no, not again," and the narrator mentions something about the fact that if anyone knew what that meant, the universe might make a whole lot more sense.
That's pretty much the radio version as well the books were pretty close on those lines.
As they are highly flammable it is good that they spend quite a bit of time in water.
Far away from the big ball of fire in the sky
Now this is an HFY prompt.
Is it tho
Or is it a "humans are fucking cringe" prompt
I was envisioning a story where sperm whales became the dominant species of the galaxy with sonic beams. Maybe more Deathworlders Fuck Yeah?
"Intelligent design"
Oh, I don't think so.
Is that phrase even used anymore, or did it run its course of insanity and die off?
I don't see that phrase anywhere?
A super fun counter argument I heard once is that if it's intelligent design, surely it's not for humans. The universe is BIG with lots of empty space, lots of massive elements to it. Surely it was designed for something much bigger than humans.
I haven’t heard of since there was a clear explanation of how the eye evolved - since that one was a specific example they were referring to
Considering the human eye is basically backwards, I always found it funny people would try to use it as an example of an intelligent creator
Like we seriously have all the working bits in the path of light, permanently blocking our vision in spots. We just hide it with some post-production brain magic, and I'm supposed to believe that's evidence of an intelligent creator?
While you're right, it's also funny to say that god was a software developer under deadline pressure
Dawkins' book "Climbing Mount Improbable" is a great and easy read to introduce the idea of making something complex and seemingly designed for its purpose a much more probable thing to happen if broken into small changes over huge amounts of time. And it's like 30 years old, so probably outdated with more and better evidence now.
There is an old Youtube video by cdk007 (that's still up!) that tackles a related fallacy, where finding a watch on the beach implies a watchmaker because nothing complex can evolve. He created a simulation using watch parts and evolutionary rules to show complexity does arise with the right conditions and enough time.
'We'll fix it in post' has been plaguing us longer than expected.
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Eh, maybe God just has a sense of humor. After all, platypus.
But we made bananas (and most other fruits) the way they are!
Fucking good for nothing gods, always taking credit for things we humans did all by ourselves...
Possibly the most complex language in the animal kingdom
That... seems wrong.
To be fair I think they meant "most accoustically complex language" which is different from like human languages (which have a degree of nonverbal complexity and ideation clearly beyond whales)
Tonal Languages have entered the chat
Good luck producing super sonic frequencies. These whales seem to have sonar as factory default equipment.
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Literally not a single mention of their testicles. 5/10.
I’m gonna regret this… so tell me about their testicles? Size of basketballs or something?
Yes, male sperm whales possess testes, which are the equivalent of "balls" in other mammals. However, unlike most terrestrial mammals, their testes are internal, located within the abdominal cavity rather than in an external scrotum.
Size: Sperm whale testes are remarkably large, particularly in mature males. A single testis can weigh up to 500 kilograms (over 1,100 pounds), making them among the largest testes in the animal kingdom, both in absolute size and relative to body mass. This enormous size is thought to be an adaptation related to sperm competition, where larger sperm reserves can increase reproductive success.
yes that is one large, loud, flammable fish that certainly has warm blood and gives live birth and lactates. We shall name it after the yet to be observed massive and majestic balls it will most certainly have somewhere in its belly.
It definitely has majestic balls, though, so they lucked out on that one
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Be careful, I've become positively obsessed with them. Well, one in particular...
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It's the loudest animal on the planet
Apart from Brian Blessed, of course.
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That's why I'm always wary to swim in the ocean. I have a strict no schlorp policy.
Ohh, so you are afraid to be "schlorped"? By the "sperm" whale?
Oh yeah, no big schlorp for me, thanks.
Big schlorp is probably the words I'll think about from now on whenever I see something about whales.
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