Me. Welcome to the You Are Not So Smart Podcast. Episode 13.

Oh, oh, oh, oh. And, um, and, uh, and, uh, Are you tired of linear non-interactive television Mr Adams? Don't even know what linear non-interactive television means, Mr Adams?

Are you tired, Mr Adams, of the sort of television that just happens at you, that you just sit in front of like a couch potato, that doesn't involve you.

Come on, interact with me.

Wait a minute.

Yes, what is it you want to know?

Who the hell are you?

Me?

It's Tom Baker, that's who it is, as in Dr. Who, Tom Baker, the one with a fantastic scarf.

And Mr Adams is Douglas Adams, the man who wrote The Hitchhacker's Guide to the Galaxy, among many other fantastic things.

And this program that you're listening to right now, this is Hyperland.

It's this incredible video created by Douglas Adams in 1990 right about the same time the first

web browsers were being created. This person, Tom Baker, he's basically playing an AI version of Google.

I am merely a simulacram, an artificial and completely customizable personality, and I only

exist as what we call an application in your computer. I have the honor to provide instant

access to every piece of information stored digitally anywhere in the world. Any picture or film, any sound, any book, any statistic, any fact,

any connection between anything you care to think of, you have only to tell me, and it will be my humble duty to find it for you and to

present it to you for your interactive pleasure.

Is there anything I can do so realize this is in 1990 and if you're like me you often think that 1990 was

10 years ago but no we're talking 20 years ago we're talking before web

browsers we're talking before websites really, people were still using

bulletin boards and other weird things. In fact most websites didn't even come

...