AI is impressive. It can crank out essays, spin up art, write code, and even attempt jokes (whether you laugh is another matter). But no matter how powerful AI gets, it’s missing the one thing that makes humans endlessly fascinating: the spark of surprise.
And oddly enough, Douglas Adams called it decades ago.
The Probability Machine Problem
At its core, AI is just a probability engine. It doesn’t “think,” it predicts. Word by word, line by line, it calculates the most likely next piece of output.
That’s why it’s so good at mimicking us—it’s designed to stay inside the lines. But that’s also why it will never be us. Because life isn’t lived inside the lines.
Humans aren’t probability machines. We’re chaos machines.
Douglas Adams and the Engine of Chaos
In The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Adams introduced the Heart of Gold spaceship, powered by the Infinite Improbability Drive.
Instead of using boring fuel, the ship ran on raw unlikelihood. Fire it up, and you might end up with nuclear missiles turning into a sperm whale and a bowl of petunias midair. Totally absurd, but brilliantly human in its unpredictability.
Sometimes I wonder if Adams was a time traveler who had already lived through the AI age. Maybe the improbability drive wasn’t just a gag—it was a warning: probability alone is boring. The spark comes from impossibility.
Why Humans Are the True Improbability Drive
Think about the best moments in your life:
- The friend who blurts out something so dumb it’s genius.
- The stranger who dances barefoot in the rain.
- The kid who asks the question that derails your whole worldview.
None of that is “probable.” That’s improbability in action. That’s the chaos that fuels art, comedy, invention, and relationships.
AI can only remix what already is. Humans invent what shouldn’t be possible.
The Spark AI Can’t Steal
AI will keep getting smoother, sharper, and more convincing. It’ll sound natural, maybe even clever. But it won’t wake up one day and reinvent the punchline. It won’t decide, for no reason at all, to break the pattern.
That’s the human edge. That’s our improbability drive.
Adams was right: the universe runs on chaos. And if AI is the probability machine, we’re the glitch in the code—the surprise no algorithm can fully capture.
And honestly? That’s why we’re fun.
