The Pangalactic Constitution is the living charter of the Hitchhiker Society. It defines how travellers, citizens, and other sentient entities participate in the grand experiment of the cosmos. The Constitution is stored in the distributed intergalactic ledger, replicated across planets, moons, and a few reliable comets. Every article may be proposed, revised, or replaced through collective authorship — a process known as consensual improbability.
Its first clause affirms that all beings, biological or otherwise, have the right to measure their own existence and share that data freely. The second clause insists that every traveller must know where their towel is at all times, for the towel represents not only personal identity but sovereign integrity. The third clause recognises the right to refuse Vogon poetry, except when legally required for interdepartmental communications.
The Constitution also governs the operation of the Intergalactic Timebank and the accounting of the Hitchhiker’s Footprint. Each contribution of time, creativity, or energy is recorded as both a scientific observation and a cultural gesture. Disputes are resolved through the Bureau of Mild Inconvenience, a Vogon-managed arbitration system famous for its endless paperwork and surprisingly fair outcomes.
Every year, the Society gathers to amend and extend the Constitution through a grand festival of co-authorship. New clauses are proposed in verse, song, or simulated reality. The goal is not to reach perfection but to celebrate the act of collective creation — a democratic ritual that keeps the universe slightly more improbable and infinitely more interesting.
# See