“Transtextuality” seems to be how a small text crosses over to becoming and inspiring anything else it can spawn or become, from a complete story to an essay like this.  So, since we have started with my text to you about an item of food, I will go on to build some trans-textuality unity and link this essay to the most expensive dessert in the world found in the country I chose to research for this class, Sri Lanka. 

While traveling our Grand Galaxy, this dessert called “Marry Me” is not to be missed at a mere price of $14,500 US dollars per serving, (which can fluctuate with the cost of the 80-carat aquamarine stone treasure it comes with, so check your mineral stock report before you go.)  It’s found at Wine3, a restaurant in the Fortress Resort and Spa in Galle. You can see from the picture there is a little stilt fisherman figure made from chocolate.  This has to be ordered with at least 2 days of notice due to the complexity of making him along with its studio-flared glass from a local place actually named “Glass Studio.” It has many decadent high end dessert ingredients and also includes a Dom Perignon champagne sauce with both gold and silver leaf. 

What surprises me about this country is that it has strong traditions and loyalties to Buddhism and certain colors, even down to the presentation of this dessert.  Yellow represents the sun and unity of the many ethnic groups.  This philosophy is one we should always adhere to, the superpower of helping us all get along with eachother, and as we travel, we should adhere to the motto:  “do unto others as you would like done to you.” 

My classmates and fellow guides Arthur, Ford, and the crew of the Heart of Gold, are curious about the Universe and always willing to explore and try new things.  We face many challenges in this class such as this essay, but we don’t lose hope and just keep writing.  At this Sri Lankan “Resaurant at the Edge of the Universe” we will have to use our imagination a tad. We are to believe that the jewel will give us luck, protection and riches of cash.  Blue is the color of the ocean and repeatedly used in this country to represent the fisherman, sky, the National Flower the Blue Water Lilly, its Sapphire mines, and “peace” although there has been way more political turmoil and current world events happening than I expected to find.  

The country has other colors with strong meanings but if I cover them now, you might not travel to my essay.  So I will leave you with some links if you wish to know more, but please don’t forget to bookmark my page, so you can return to explore more with my crew! 

The Grand launches “Marry Me” The most expensive artistic dessert – YouTube

The $14K Sri Lankan Dessert (therichest.comLinks to an external site.)

For $14,500, Sri Lanka Resort Serves Indulgent Dessert — with Jewel (pcma.orgLinks to an external site.)

SPOILER ALERT! Don’t panic and take this answer express link, draw your own conclusions from the movie first!

The Real Reason For the Watermelon in BUCKAROO BANZAI [Movies] – The Geek TwinsLinks to an external site.

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Why the fishy title? The Babel Fish is Not at babelfish.com. DO NOT go there.  I just did and it is a terrible ill-functioning site that stole its name from the real thing.  The REAL Babel Fish is a useful tiny yellow worm that goes in your ear, siphons energy from you and anyone around you as it’s intake or “food,” source, but THEN poops back out the speech patterns of those around you so that SUDDENLY, you can understand anyone no matter what language.  Douglas Adams created and placed this creature into the Hitchhiker’s guide 44 years ago.  We can’t quite buy a worm yet…but we CAN buy a few nifty wearables that translate today. 

This kind of tech puts Moore’s Law to use which observed that around every 2 years, the tiny switches (transistors) in circuits doubles and gives us even stronger microprocessors capable of advancing everything we wish to accomplish! For example, there are big upgrades in smartphone, camera, and video game technology every 2 years. Thus, we are coming closer to the Babel Fish with many earbuds available on the market. These fit in your ear wirelessly and pair with devices.  None of them can translate every language yet. The number of languages and accents supported by each earbud varies, but you can sift though some ads on your browser and find claims that  they can translate 45 to 85 languages and 90 or so accents.

There is a new glove being patented at UCLA that can translate American Sign Language into speech.  It uses sensors attached down the fingers of the glove and  real-time algorithms to detect movement and translates through a smartphone.  This is similar to the new Apple Watch technology that detects gestures in the air to perform certain functions.  The glove uses an app to translate while the watch uses its own display but can access an app called Sign-Time to get a live interpreter from Apple via the American Sign Language (ASL) and only translates 11 languages as its main focus is entertainment at this time.  Stanford is developing a spray on mesh for the back of the hand that creates a tiny electrical network that stretches and senses to make communication easier as well.

Boasting its language capabilities also, is a new AI pin you can wear by Humane that projects its app onto your own hand. I have a link to the demonstration on their site below of this and other amazing features.  In the video one person is speaking in Spanish.  The other person hits the button on the pin and suddenly hears it in English.  They then speak back, and it plays the reply in Spanish!  This will revolutionize both sales and customer service processes in the business and travel industry since it can not only auto-detect the language but can be forced into any language.  

There is also a pair of glasses made by Google that are able to translate words and sign language and also, into words you read on the lenses.  So many fish have come from the Babel fish concept including a brain transplant we are moving toward that lets us share our thoughts in progress at Duke University. Having one with you is as important as having your towel and if you don’t know what that means…check out my Hitchhiker’s guide page. This would allow us to communicate with so many different people who are suffering disabilities that made communication impossible before.  

Keep an eye on my blog as I bring your more advancements in tech that help bring us all closer together and help us in our daily lives. PLEASE be sure to bookmark my page first, but if you would like to further explore my sources, they were:

Order Ai Pin Now (ma.ne)

https://www.earth.com/news/brain-implant-may-allow-people-to-communicate-through-their-thoughts/

Wearable-tech glove translates sign language into speech in real time (techxplore.com)

Spray-on smart skin uses AI to rapidly understand hand tasks (techxplore.com)

Google Debuts Smart Glasses Built With Real-Time Language Translation | PCMag

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in Ubik a sci-fi novel by American writerPhillip K. Dick, Joe Chip is sitting in his apartment; he walks to his front door to open it.

The door refused to open. It said, “Five cents, please.”

He searched his pockets. No more coins; nothing. “I’ll pay you tomorrow,” he told the door. Again it remained locked tight. “What I pay you,” he informed it, “is in the nature of a gratuity; I don’t have to pay you.”

“I think otherwise,” the door said. “Look in the purchase contract you signed when you bought this conapt.”

…he found the contract. Sure enough; payment to his door for opening and shutting constituted a mandatory fee. Not a tip.

“You discover I’m right,” the door said. It sounded smug.

The color of a robot with GPP may or may not relate to its personality, depending on how it was designed or manufactured. For example, Marvin the Paranoid Android is a robot with GPP who is afflicted with severe depression and boredom, because he has the most boring tiny tasks compared to what his brain COULD do, and so he’s pessimistic and sarcastic about everything. Marvin’s color was gray on TV, which we older humans might associate with rainy overcast days when we as kids couldn’t go outside, and we had so little entertainment these were considered “downer” days, like his dull and gloomy mood, invoking empathy in us.

However, there may be other robots with GPP who have different colors and personalities that do not match or contrast with their appearance. For example, there could be a robot with GPP who is bright yellow and cheerful, but also very clumsy and accident-prone. Or there could be a robot with GPP who is dark green and sinister, but also very polite and helpful. The color of a robot with GPP may not have any significance at all, except for aesthetic or practical reasons.

Color is very important in relation to Universal Design both in the real world and websites.  McDonald’s for example uses red and yellow, which is bold and easy to distinguish, but also so bright and primary it appeals to kids.  If you make a sensory book for your child, you want to start with primary colors since kids see those first when they start to develop.  If they changed the color of the “M” or made the red purple, it just wouldn’t have the same “familiarity” from our memories that invoke family memories.  That is why branding colors don’t usually change, and need to be chosen carefully from the start.

I picked the colors of red, orange and yellow because to me they were cheery, perhaps because my room as a child had red carpet with a gold velvet chair and curtains. However, many sites on the web also indicate that powerful colors can “overwhelm” and drive people to seek out muted “peaceful” colors after that assault on their eyes. Most webpages and branding, in order to be considered “professional” don’t mix a lot of colors and I’ve noticed a lot of meditation sites use blues, purples, earth tones, and pastels. They use just enough contrast and easy to read fonts to appeal to the user.

These are Universal Design elements. Check out my STEAM heading up top for some awesome examples, and to learn more.  Be sure to bookmark my site first, because there is so much to explore like more of my Hitchhiker’s Guide content as well!

Awesome sources: Marvin the Paranoid Android – Wikipedia, Toll Door by Philip K. Dick from Ubik (technovelgy.com)

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The “Hitchhiker’s Guide To the Galaxy” can be found in various forms to intake from the book to stage, TV and movie screens. This is an incredible work of art by Douglas Adams that inspires quite a bit of the entertainment and technology we have today, from Rick and Morty to “Grok” the new sarcastic AI on the way courtesy of Elon Musk. Adam’s sense of humor can be found in many favorites he contributed to, such as Monty Python’s Flying Circus to Dr. Who. This was definitely one of the most influential and inspiring works on today’s society. Examples can be found everywhere and the Wikipedia collection about the number 42 seems neverending when you start to examine the mathematics as well.

Grok is an AI modeled after the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, so intended to answer almost anything and, far harder, even suggest what questions to ask!

Grok is designed to answer questions with a bit of wit and has a rebellious streak, so please don’t use it if you hate humor!

On Nov. 4, xAI published a blog post about the new chatbot.

In some Tesla vehicles, there is a hidden feature that changes the name of the car to “Life, the Universe, and Everything” when the user taps the Tesla logo 42 times

A Complete List of All Tesla Easter Eggs And Hidden Features (notateslaapp.com)

According to 10 things that were inspired by The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy in| Metro News even NASA intends to “hitchhike rides for their equipment on asteroids ” plans to tether satellites and probes to passing comets and asteroids, and then detach them when they’re closer to their destination, having effectively hitched a ride in much the same way that Arthur and Ford escape danger in the books.”

The name was shortened to the catchy “H2G2” by Adams as the “Earth Edition” something every human should carry with them and refer to often.

The story is a pleasant read beginning with a Univeral Freeway planned to go through the house of Arther Dent after which Ford Prefect (best friend and alien) shows up with the guide that answers every question and points out how small we are compared to the Universe and that things aren’t always the same or that we need or even understand everything going in in our search for the meaning of life.

Professor Stephen Hawking took part in the new series of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, as The Guide Mark II.

“Others knew me in different forms,” the Guide says. “I have been quite popular in my time. Some even read my books.”

Found under Appendices on the link below containing the BBC site of the GAME

There is a video game as well that can be found, which is very challenging for those who like a D&D style story progression approach. So whether you read, watch or play this work of art, it’s a great way to spend some free time. Here’s the game link: ENJOY!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/1g84m0sXpnNCv84GpN2PLZG/the-game-30th-anniversary-edition

DON’T PANIC! If you do get stuck there are game chapter hints to help you out!

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Both the documentary “Hyperland” and the “Hitchhiker’s Guide” by Douglas Adams are two amazing examples of digital media that I definitely recommend researching hand in hand.  “Hyperland” from the 1990’s was clearly ahead of it’s time by predicting amazing things from cell phone commonality and 3D television/VR to hypertext and smart fridges!

INSERT IMAGE FROM SECOND LIFE VR “my avatar from Second Life sitting at a PenCol PC in World.”

  What makes it so enjoyable is that it breaks the fourth wall quite a bit and there’s plenty of narrative interaction, and fun characters and visuals to entertain the viewer.  There is even a customizable AI butler and plenty of computer error humor to keep everyone who has used a computer enthralled. It contains and explains other technology like the “mouse” for example to find information with our fingertips.  My favorite interview was when Robert Winter was discussing waves and shapes (and since listening flows along with life and takes time) he compared the way Beethoven seems like the 20-year growth of a mighty oak tree compressed into sound.   Could this have been yet another prediction?  I believe it could be, because recently a device was created to attach and listen to plants and mushrooms electricity levels. I know I would truly love to experiment with and create a chorus with it from https://plantwave.com/.

This story begins with a house that is about to be destroyed in order to add a superhighway which is a ludicrous idea to it’s owner and main character Arthur Dent.   This quickly progresses to him leaving with his “alien” friend Ford Prefect on a mission to stop Earth from being destroyed by the Vorgons and a gigantic quest to find answers about the meaning of life and the universe.   Like the other documentary this was also way ahead of it’s time, because he was given a Babel fish which translates any language into your ear, much like current apps and translators do now, but this story was just getting published around 42 years ago.  The book also has a lot of humor, bad poetry (which could “supposedly” kill) and advice, such as keep a towel with you in case it is needed for almost any emergency, such as a spontaneous Kung Fu fight.  Don’t panic when reading this book as your mind expands…just let it hitchhike to different galaxies and afterwards go have your own adventures!

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