Search Puzzle

[Griffin NoName]

Self-replicating machines where somone forgot to put in the task to run when there were enough of us.

Keep on replicating, something might turn up.

  what task ?          <brain boggling>

[beagle]

The idea is that if you have a huge task to perform but insufficient resources you design machines that can reproduce copies of themselves AND do the end task.   For a period of time the machines just produce copies of themselves, but when a sufficient number exist they switch to the real task.

Well, there's 6 billion of us now, but we're still pretty clueless as to why. It's almost as if we weren't designed properly.

[Griffin NoName]

So you don't actually know what the end task is? 

Oh dear. We were relying on you.

[beagle]

At a wild guess it might involve putting a Tesco in every galaxy. And a DFS sofa.

[pieces o nine]

At a wild guess it might involve putting a Walmart with in-store MacDonald's in every galaxy. And a DFS sofa.

Fixed it for you, dear sib...   

[Griffin NoName]

OM!  They are arguing over the end task. Heaven forfend.

[Sibling Chatty]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Not the WalsyMardz wif McBarfles. I can't stand it!!

[Griffin NoName]

Tiz OK Chatty, just pop over to http://toadfishmonastery.com/forum/index.php?topic=1508.new#new and you will feel better 'cos the end of days seems to be taken care of already. Possibly.

[beagle]

OM!  They are arguing over the end task. Heaven forfend.

Perhaps fighting and replicating* IS the end task, in which case we're quite good at it.

Tiz OK Chatty, just pop over to http://toadfishmonastery.com/forum/index.php?topic=1508.new#new and you will feel better 'cos the end of days seems to be taken care of already. Possibly.

I was just idly wondering, is there any year that's not been predicted as the end of the World?   Like charity days there seem to be more causes than available diary slots.

----

*
Apparently DFS are aware of this possibility. From Wikipedia:

"In 1998 DFS announced its first drop in profits in 28 years to the London Stock Exchange. The company found a third of customers admitted to a leather fetish, and so repitched its advertising from a middle aged couple to lithesome blondes and brunette models draped over sofas, and a billboard of a model covering up her breasts with flowers on a DFS armchair. In 2000 DFS announced a 79 per cent profit increase".

[Griffin NoName]

Where are the stats on progeny conceived on DFS sofas?

Would this be a positive or negative selling point?

[beagle]

Don't know of any reliable statistics. DFS probably have the edge on Tesco in this area  though.

I have an intuitive feeling that selling sofas via babies may encounter some degree of consumer resistance from about half the target market.

[pieces o nine]

I have an intuitive feeling that selling sofas via babies may encounter some degree of consumer resistance from about half the target market.

A co-worker back in the 80's announced the purchase of a luxe velvet sofa because the clerk actually told her it was snot-resistant!
(She had toddlers whose noses were corded-edge-height to the sofa cushions at the time of its purchase.)

[Black Bart]

Don't talk to me about sofas (or Everest Double Glazing)...our smells of gone off milk at the moment!

[Griffin NoName]

Don't talk to me about sofas (or Everest Double Glazing)...our smells of gone off milk at the moment!

I think Bart's post must have got mislaid from the two word story thread. 

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Don't talk to me about wiring being everlasting.

[beagle]

That's why it's called coaxial; You have to coax it into working.

Now you've got a laptop again you can watch it all on iPlayer anyway...