I don't mean this to sound like I am ignoring the main focus of your post, which was both interesting and informative, but I have to correct you on Zaphod Beeblebrox's experience with the TPV (Total Perspective Vortex): In the novel, it was actually a simulacrum of the real TPV. Zaphod was informed that had he experienced the real TPV, his brain would have been quickly turned to mush, or words to that effect.

BTW, was anyone else as disappointed with the film version as I was? Was it just because I knew most of the jokes since HHGTTG first came out in the late 1970s? Or was the humor just too deadpan? Or was it funnier to hear and read about them instead? And why is it that one of my favorite characters, Marvin the Paranoid Android, came across as just annoying in the film? I want you to know that I found that very depressing.

If you would like a real cosmic perspective on the size of things in the Universe, look at this amazing image of the center of the Milky Way galaxy. For me at least it really gives you an idea of just how many stars there are in our galaxy, and probably the best reason of all why we haven't been contacted by ETI yet.

http://www.starryscapes.com/nebula/mw_center.html