Chapter 30 Summary

Meanwhile, Arthur and Slartibartfast are commiserating about the Earth's destruction, made even more futile by the fact that it happened only five minutes before the computer program was to be completed. "Well, that's bureaucracy for you," Slartibartfast comments. Then a light begins to flash on the wall, and the elderly gentleman tells Arthur he is being summoned to meet the mice. They are excited to have Arthur there, since he was on Earth just before its destruction and may be able to tell them something important.

Chapter 30 Analysis

Bureaucracy and incompetence continue to show up as a central theme alongside random, improbable coincidence. It is beginning to sound a bit like Chaos theory, which holds that order can be found in seemingly random data. One aspect of chaos theory is a phenomenon called sensitive dependence on existing conditions. The thought is that small...