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The Somebody Else's Problem field (SEP field) is a fictional technology from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy "trilogy" by Douglas Adams. It is a cheaper and more practical alternative to an invisibility field. A similar concept has been used in other British science fiction. Fictional technology is proposed or described in many different contexts for many different reasons: Exploratory engineering seeks to identify if a prospective technology can be designed in detail, and simulated, even if it cannot be built yet - this is often a prerequisite to venture capital funding, or investigation in weapons...
The cover of the first novel in the Hitchhikers series, from a late 1990s printing. ...
Douglas Noël Adams (11 March 1952 – 11 May 2001) was an English author, comic radio dramatist, and musician. ...
An example of how an object could appear to be invisible through the use of mirrors Invisibility is the state of an object which cannot be seen. ...
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy An SEP field is a generated energy field which affects perception. Entities within the field will be perceived by an outside observer as "Somebody Else's Problem", and will therefore be effectively invisible unless the observer is specifically looking for the entity. This effect is greatly heightened if the entity within the field is already unexpected or out of place. The primary example of this was given in the third book Life, the Universe and Everything, when a spaceship built to look like an upside down bistro utilizes a SEP field to land unobserved in the middle of Lord's Cricket Ground. Another example occurs when the aforementioned ship's field is extended so that the characters fail to notice the fact that they cannot breathe or the fact that the asteroid that they are standing on does not have enough gravitational force to hold them down, and thus are able to breathe and stay grounded. It should be noted that a SEP field won't render an object invisible if it is expected to be there, and an SEP-cloaked object may be noticed out of the corner of the eye. Life, the Universe and Everything (1982, ISBN 0-345-39182-9) is the third book in the five-volume Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy science fiction series by Douglas Adams. ...
A bistro is a familiar name for a type of small restaurant serving moderately priced simple meals in an unpretentious setting, especially in Paris, France. ...
The Pavilion The Grand Stand Match in progress The Media Centre at Lords Cricket Ground This memorial stone to Lord Harris is in the Harris Garden at Lords Lords Cricket Ground is a cricket ground in St Johns Wood in London, at grid reference TQ268827. ...
The SEP field requires much less energy than a normal invisibility field (a single torch battery can run it for over a hundred years) due to the natural propensity of people to see things as Somebody Else's Problem. This is very close to the idea suggested by Terry Pratchett (who has often been compared to Douglas Adams): People do not see whatever they are sure cannot be there. For the Soviet military jet with the NATO designation Flashlight, see Yakovlev Yak-25. ...
A Pair of AA Energizer Alkaline Cells Symbols representing a single Cell (top) and Battery (bottom), used in circuit diagrams. ...
Terence David John Pratchett OBE (born April 28, 1948, in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, England[1]) is an English fantasy author, best known for his Discworld series. ...
In the novel, there is a character mentioned to try and create an invisibility field, and given a year, (With a bet on his life) he could render an entire mountain invisible. It is said he slacked off so much, that at the very last possible second, he did the most drastic last-minute work ever seen by the known Universe, and by the deadline, the mountain was gone from vision. Although, he lost the bet shortly afterwards after there was a curious new moon discovered around the same time. Had he instead painted the mountain pink and erected an SEP field around it, he would probably have won, as most people do not expect to see a pink mountain, especially when someone claims it invisible (or absent).
Other British science fiction The Ninth Doctor also referenced something similar to this in the Doctor Who episode "Boom Town". Mickey ask if the Doctor is bothered about leaving the TARDIS in the middle of Cardiff, to which he replies: "You set up a large blue box in the middle of Cardiff, what will people do? Walk right on by." All he does to deter passers-by is put an 'Out of Order' sign on the door to the TARDIS. The Ninth Doctor refers to the ninth official incarnation of the fictional character known as the Doctor, in the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. ...
Doctor Who is a long-running award-winning British science fiction television programme (and a 1996 television film) produced by the BBC. The series shows the adventures of a mysterious time-traveller known as the Doctor, who explores time and space in his TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimension(s) In...
Boom Town is an episode in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast on June 4, 2005. ...
The current TARDIS prop as seen at the BBC Wales reception in 2005. ...
The Tenth Doctor, in "The Sound of Drums", rigged three TARDIS key necklaces with a field that makes people not notice the wearer as long as they remain inconspicuous. The Tenth Doctor is the name given to the tenth incarnation of the Doctor seen on screen in the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. ...
The Sound of Drums is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. ...
A similar concept is shown on the BBC programme Torchwood (a spin-off of Doctor Who) when Captain Jack Harkness and Gwen Cooper rise out of the pavement in the middle of Roald Dahl Plass in Cardiff on Torchwood Three's "invisible lift" and are completely ignored by the people around them due to what he describes as a 'perception filter'. The British Broadcasting Corporation, which is usually known as the BBC, is the largest broadcasting corporation in the world in terms of audience numbers, employing 26,000 staff in the United Kingdom alone and with a budget of more than GB£4 billion. ...
For the eponymous fictional institute, see Torchwood Institute. ...
For other persons and meanings, see Jack Harkness (disambiguation). ...
Gwen Cooper is a fictional character in the BBC television series Torchwood, a spin-off from the long-running series Doctor Who. ...
The Wales Millennium Centre in the Plass. ...
Cardiff (English: , Welsh: ) is the capital, largest and core city of Wales. ...
The Torchwood Institute is a fictional organisation from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who and its spin-off series, Torchwood. ...
Doctor Who, see List of Doctor Who items. ...
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