why and how is the answer to life a numberr :S:S:S
2007-11-01 08:55:45 · 11 answers · asked by Anonymous in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
Cause 41 is too bossy and 43 gets drunk all the time.
If you are asking seriously...it's from the book "The Hitch-Hikers's Guide to the Galaxy". The world's smartest machine was created to give the answer to the meaning of life. It's answer was 42. What Douglas Adams was trying to say is that the answer is different to everyone. The meaning of life to me is happiness and family. It may be beer and donuts to some of your college buddies and fame and fortune to someone like Paris Hilton.
To a giant computer the meaning of life is 42.
2007-11-01 09:03:16 · answer #1 · answered by Downriver Dave 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Its all in the book "Hitch Hikers Guide To Philosophy" Its about the destruction of earth and the meaning of life after that I would suppose. These 2 guys built a super computer than told them it would have the meaning of life in like 7000000000 years. When they date finally came the computer had said 42. It said you would have to wait 70000000000 more years, on earth, to find out what that meant. Sadly,the earth was destroyed 5 minutes before the answer to the almighty question.
I asked this question not to long ago and after finding out about the book I went and got it at my library. Its a great read and its sitting on my bookshelf right now. I finished it less that 2 weeks ago :]
2007-11-01 17:05:12 · answer #2 · answered by Beka14 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yes, it's from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. However, in computer language, 42 is also the ASCII code for *, the asterisk. And in computers, the asterisk is also the wildcard character--it can mean "anything." (E.g. if you wanted to search for all text files on your computer, the search term would be *.txt) So technically, one could argue that the answer to "life, the universe and everything" is *.
2007-11-01 16:06:06 · answer #3 · answered by R[̲̅ə̲̅٨̲̅٥̲̅٦̲̅]ution 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
ah you poor deprived soul you have not read The Book!
the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything is 42, as calculated by Deep Thought. the next thing asked, of course was, 'what is the question?'; in order to answer this, the biggest computer in the universe, Earth, was built, but destroyed 5mins before the moment of readout. one of two survivors, Arthur Dent, then tried to pick the question out of his subconcious in the sequel, and got:
What do you get if you multiply six by nine?
make of that what you will
and read the books you will not regret it
wow, i think what future posthuman has pointed out is pretty interesting. was douglas adams a computer programmer?
2007-11-01 16:32:42 · answer #4 · answered by kleptomanic sheep 5 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Answer Doug does not need a calculator.
No, it DAdams isn't a computer programer. He tried to think of a number that wasn't too large and wasn't too small. It also couldn't be a multiple of 5, those seemed too contrived to him. He claims 42 sounded about right.
2007-11-01 16:41:33 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
future posthuman got the answer right. The meaninig to life could be anything depending on who you asked. I never got that 42 thing either but i love that movie.
2007-11-01 16:35:12 · answer #6 · answered by Loving the hate. Bring it on. 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Ha 42 is my lucky number!!....funny stuff
I live at number 42.....when I sing off my phone at work....the go home code is 42.....oh geez i could go on forever abot 42....i was born on the 42nd week of the year......i didn't pick 42 as my lucky number...i swear it picked me!!!!
So then I saw the movie something galaxy something?....and i nearly shat my pants that was so weird!!!!
2007-11-01 16:28:15 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's from the book (and movie) the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and its a joke.
2007-11-01 15:59:52 · answer #8 · answered by ARom 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Because 7 is a lucky number, and 42 is 7 squared.
2007-11-01 16:14:24 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 3⤋
Answer Doug needs a calculator...
2007-11-01 16:25:51 · answer #10 · answered by Meg 3 · 3⤊ 0⤋