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A Reddit user’s ant-infested PC has destroyed my hopes for a real life Discworld computerTurns out a computer full of bugs is not a good thing
Turns out a computer full of bugs is not a good thing
The Discworld series is one of slightly metafictional adult fantasy. Inhabitants of the Disc operate sort of parallel to our own existence, and there is frequent leakage between the two. Some of the earlier books imagine Hollywood, shopping centres or rock and roll (“music with rocks in”) as sort of magical parasites or “wild ideas” in the wrong place and time (and universe). As the series stacked up, the metafictional aspects stopped taking up entire books and became references, some of which slowly accreted meaning and ideas. Some of them, and how the Discworld’s science in particular relates to our own world, are discussed in two volumes ofThe Science Of Discworld.
Hex pops up in successive books and becomes smarter, and accrues more references. It has a sticker on the side saying “AnthillInside”, has secure external memory in the form of a beehive in the room next door, and a mouse builds a nest inside Hex. The doesn’t do anything, but if the mouse is removed then Hex stops working. When Hex is processing a lot of data, an hourglass on a spring drops down in front of the user. Hex becomes self-aware, which worries one of the wizards, who calms himself with the idea that Hex onlythinksHex is self aware, so that’s okay. In one of Hex’s earlier appearances, the Discworld’s version of Father Christmas gives Hex a teddy, and if the FTB (Fluffy Teddy Bear) is removed then Hex refuses to work.
In less depressing Discworld news, Rhianna Pratchett says that new Discworld games arepossible if devs have the right ideas, although nobody is sure who owns the rights to the old 90s adventure games right now.
