It might be interesting speculate how the Restaurant at the End of the Universe segment might have been different if Douglas Adams had written it after having read Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History Of Time".

In the book, Hawking explains that, when quantum effects are taken into account, there is no neccesity for a singularity at either the beginning or the end of the universe. The reasons why seem more than a little complicated, but they break down something like this:

The universe we live in has at least four dimensions (string theory predicts more, but thankfully we don't have to touch that at this time.) Three of these are spatial dimensions, and are pretty much interchangeable; that is, you can arbitrarily draw three lines at right angles to each other, and you will get a set of axes that are no more or less valid than any other set of axes in describing three-dimensional space. The fourth dimension that we directly perceive is time, and it works very differently. For one thing, we only know how to go in one direction, and that we do automatically. Just recently we have found ways to slow down or speed up, but we can't as of yet stand still or go backwards. However, there is a mathematical way of looking at time so that one direction is no different from the other. Since it involves use of the imaginary number i (the square root of -1,) the result produces what physicists call imaginary time.

If we look at a three-dimensional model of the universe with one dimension representing imaginary time and the other two representing the expansion of the universe, we see a model that is not dissimilar to our own globe; the universe has finite boundaries in time, but it does not come to a singularity. Just as you can reach a point on the Earth that is as far north as possible, but that still follows the same laws as everywhere else on earth (with the possible exception of those that apply to magnetics,) it is also possible to arrive at points that represent the farthest point in time in one direction or the other, but that follow all the normal laws of physics.

Of course, "The Restaurant At An Arbitrarily-Determined Point In The Universe" doesn't have quite the same ring to it...

The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe, or Milliways, is the only restaurant where, during your meal you can witness the very end of the universe. Practically anybody can go to the restaurant, provided they can travel time (unless you are Marvin, in which case just wait patiently and chat with the coffee machine.) Reservations are easily obtained, since they can be booked once the patron returns to his or her original time after their meal, and the restaurant's bill can be paid by depositing a penny in any bank account of the present time: by the end of the universe, Compound interest will be enough to pay the extremely high bill. It is the only restaurant that serves the Ameglian Major Cow, which takes away the guilt some might feel about eating an animal that isn't capable of saying it does not with to be eaten. It does this by talking and imploring you to eat it. "Good evening, I am the main dish of the day. Would you care for a part of my body?" Due to the sheer amount of impossibilities surrounding most aspects of the restaurant, their advertising firm penned the following slogan: "If you've done six impossible things this morning, why not round it off with breakfast at Milliways—the Restaurant at the End of the Universe!" Six impossible things before breakfast, being a reference to Lewis Caroll's "Through the looking glass."

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