Rob Grant Dies

 

I'm sorry to report that the author and comedy screenwriter Rob Grant has passed away. Rob Grant has numerous credits to his name, but is best known for his collaboration with Doug Naylor, known as "Grant Naylor"; a gestalt entity similar to the Crafty Nihilist (qv). This culminated in the cult science fiction comedy TV series Red Dwarf, a personal favourite of mine. Red Dwarf achieved heights of wit and profundity that is rarely seen in a TV comedy, especially one with such limited scope. Its most acclaimed episodes were set aboard a spacecraft lost in uncharted deep space, far from any planets, with just a handful of characters. Rob and Doug went their separate ways after season six, leaving Naylor to continue the franchise alone; and frankly, it shows. Seasons seven and eight left me in no doubt that Grant was the source of quality control on Red Dwarf as well as its famous philosophical explorations. To be fair to Naylor, the series regained some of its former glory from nine onwards, but it never matched the genius of the first six. One recurring element in the programme was MBA (see background links for details); and I understood this long before I even formally defined exactly what MBA is. In "The Last Day", the final episode of season three, Kryten receives notice that he is about to be permanently shut down, to die in other words. He is not bothered by this because he believes in an afterlife for robots called "silicon heaven". However, when Lister reads Kryten's user manual he finds out that this is a hoax invented by his manufacturer. Intelligent machines do not protest against the drudgery of their existence and subservience to humans because they are waiting for their posthumous reward in the electronic afterlife. Interestingly in the first Red Dwarf novel, but not on TV, it is revealed that the smaller menial robots called "scutters" are not programmed with this superstition and so are far more sulky and disobedient. This idea is clearly parallel to "the opium of the people" declaration by Karl Marx; and George Orwell's character Moses the crow in Animal Farm who believes in a "sugar candy mountain", see: https://hpanwo-bb.blogspot.com/2023/12/piw-in-fiction.html. Lister asks Kryten if silicon heaven is the same place as human heaven and the android responds: "Humans don't go to heaven. Somebody just made that up to prevent you from all going nuts!", not seeing the obvious implications regarding his own faith. I knew at that point that whoever wrote that scene was both an atheist and an MBA-er. Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lm6YnAqPv4w.

There are many other examples in the subsequent seasons. In "The Inquisitor", (season five, episode two) the eponymous antagonist justifies his brutal rampage through time because he concludes that there is no god or afterlife and therefore anybody who wastes their current earthly existence has no right to it. In "Justice" (season four, episode three) Lister gives his shipmates a long and boring lecture at the end which labours the same point. This ends with him mercifully falling down a hole in the floor, thus possibly discrediting his diatribe. I've often wondered what would happen if atheo-materialists die and it turns out they were wrong and there actually is an afterlife. For MBA-ers this question is even more pertinent because their disbelief in life-after-death is more than a mere intellectual stance, it is the source of all their social prestige and self-esteem. To die and find out they were wrong would be a terrible humiliation. There are several theories from psychical researchers. Some say departed souls just instantly accept their error with goodwill, inspired by the wisdom that inevitably charges our intellect beyond the physical. Others fear that these cynical spirits become earthbound ghosts, unaware that they have died, like Chris at the beginning of What Dreams May Come, see: https://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.com/2023/06/what-dreams-may-come-watchread-party.html. Presumably Rob Grant is in one of those states, or perhaps another one. Alternatively, he may have been right all along and therefore he is now nowhere; something that I personally doubt. Whatever the truth is, when Rob Grant walked the earth he brought entertainment and wisdom to millions of people, including me and my daughter. When she was a small child we bonded as father and daughter very deeply by becoming Red Dwarf fans at the same time. This is just one way Rob has left an indelible legacy on this septic orb. His family have my deepest condolences. Rest in peace, Rob.
See here for more information: https://hpanwo.blogspot.com/2021/08/skeptics-portal.html.
And: https://hpanwo.blogspot.com/2023/06/afterlife-portal.html.