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Basically I was reading Douglas Adam's Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy for about the 100th time. I wondered what all of you thought about this crazy endless question.

Is it true?

I haven't read it but haven't yet. I've been caught up in some other books and things.

I don't believe any one number would be the answer to everything in existence. Humans came up with the numbering system, and I don't see how the universe would even begin to abide by something we came up with.

Maybe I should read the book before making judgment though.

Ya... It probably would be better if you read the book. It's basically a joke made up by the author.

the entire universe is a vast ocean of mystery there is no way in hell I could even begin to fathem that a human could know the answers to life and the universe with a randome number what exactly was it about the number 42? I mean everything in the bible revolved arround the numbers 7, 6, 40, 400, and a few thousand years as well... but it's a simple idea that expaned w/ the mind of man and an entire world was created arround this idea inside a novel.

I doubt that a number could hold the answers to life and the universe. What exactly was the significance of the number 42? I haven't read the book yet, and I understand that it's just fiction, still numbers were invented by mankind and I doubt they could hold the answers to the universe.

Not an entire world, an entire universe, but that defeats the purpose. Maybe this will explain a bit more 42

White mice built the Earth to answer the eternal question. Apparently the Earth is one big computer and processes questions with math. The answer to the eternal question popped out as 42.

Did I get that right? It's been about 15 years since I read the book.

The computer known as deep thought produced the answer 42, but it could not tell them what the question was. So the computer designed a better computer (the earth) to help compute the question, and the builders then took the forum of mice. Or at least that's what I have gathered from what I have read from that link so far.

Well I find it amusing myself ... the author does have a sense of humor as it were.

I just do not feel that the Whole Universe can be summed up in one number, one answer, one anything in my opinion.

The universe is so Vast that even if we had the capabilities of traveling all over the universe we may not know the answer as to its true vastness or much less be able to explore it all.

Just to be able to go past our own realms would be a conquest in itself.

then again who is to say it is something so simple that we do not understand it or get it because of the simpleness there in..

Very good Thread and question maybe one day we could have an answer LOL ..

Pretty much, but 5 minutes before discovering the answer, earth was destroyed and every human a long with it, except for I think it was 2 humans, Arthur, and Trillian.

LOL tis' true everyone was killed except them. yet there ya go.... LOL just cannot solve the mysteries of the Universe.. :) it will keep you guessing and wondering ...

I think the answer to this question is: we must all just wait and see.

LOL that is true ... yet I feel I will not be around whenever it does get found out LOL ... would be nice to know the answer yet then again the mysteries of the universe is what keeps us going I feel.. always trying to learn and educate ourselves..

Wow.. it's been ages since I read that.

I thought it was cool that I got a Canadian version of "Thanks for all the Fish" that still had all the naughty words in it...

I don't think there is any one answer to Life, the Universe and Everything... let alone that answer being 42.

We have to find the answers that suit us best... if 42 works for you, go with it.

Well then what is the question that has the answer 42, that the earth is supposed to compute? Since all you have similar ideas on this funny novel: It is your own choice.

surely alll we know of the universe is numbers. we beleive we know the size of the universe, and we know it's mass, and we know it's age. maybe there is some computation involving statistics relating to the universe which equals 42. maybe, if the universe was a human being, it would be 42 years old..

The point of 42 is that the ultimate question wasn't defined.

You can't get an answer to a question if you don't set out the paramaters of what you're asking about.

Hence, the answer to the ultimate question was as vague and ambivalent as the actual question.

Personally I always liked the question being "how many roads must a man walk down" myself. Lol.

I loved the Scrabble Tiles scene, "6 by 9. 42." Hehe.

And I'm sure the dolphins sing thank you for the fish as well.

*denied*

I thought the whole point of that section of the story was not what answer they got, but the question they chose to ask. Are you seriously telling me people haven't picked up on this?

a very good ? but im more curious as to why the pot of petunias only thought"oh no not again" when it fell to the eath

Because the pot of flowers was a "reincarnated" spirit that kept getting killed by Arthur Dent one way or another.

Na, don't think one number is the meaning of all life..yadda yadda. There too many variables in the universe that can change in a instant.

Perhaps it is, perhaps it isn't.
How am I to know?

I don't even know how to answer the simple question of "what shall I wear today", let alone what the answer to life, the universe and everything is!
However, if it can be summed up by one two-digit number, that would be pretty awesome.
(One less thing to worry about, right?)

AS much as I really love this series I really think it was just a random number. It could have easily been any other number, unless of course the author had some deeper reason for picking 42. I havent bothered to research it though.

Google did a little tribute to the series. type 42 into google and see what pops up ;)

well, the reference to 42 as the meaning of life is also written in the bible. (i am not religious, but a christian friend of mine pointed this out to me) so therefore i believe there are many people out there who believe that to be true.

if i remember right i thought that the comuter couldn't answer the "mice" because they did ask a real question so it just gave 42 as a random answer

but i just saw the movie so i might be wrong

The movie wasn't the complete story and it was god awful in my opinion.

how can a number be the answer to ALL the Questions in the Universe.. impossible in my opinion. the universe is so vast and well we have to explore it first before we could even get any answers.. doubt I will be around by then ....

You might want to look into the golden ratio then. Its a ratio that can be seen everywhere in the universe. Everything from the bones in your body to the formation of galaxies is related to the golden ratio. Just some food for thought.

Douglas Adams has said he chose the number completely at random...

I haven't read this book, but I'm going to after I asked a friend a question & he replied "the answer is 42". I was totally baffled & asked him what he meant & he said it's the answer the life, the universe & everything. I thought he was joking & so I read up a little on it. Interesting stuff!

how many scenarios go through your mind before deciding on?

how many universes has there be before this one? ("There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened. ")

Best line in there IMO:

"I mean, yes idealism, yes the dignity of pure research, yes the pursuit of truth in all its forms, but there comes a point I'm afraid where you begin to suspect that if there's any real truth it's that the entire multi-dimensional infinity of the Universe is almost certainly being run by a bunch of maniacs; and if it comes to a choice between spending another ten million years finding that out or on the other hand just taking the money and running, then I for one could do with the exercise"

42 then is it? I am of the school of this quote, who cares, do your thang and roll wit it mang!

I can hear the dry, British intonation of the computer even now, "42."

It's a joke, guys, a dry and subtle jab at looking for easy answers to big questions, maybe even in asking the question in the first place. In the second place, it's an appropriate tickle in the direction of forums like this one. Don't know if that was your intention, Rosho, but I like it. Very serious people here.

As humans we look for difficulty in all things, it is hard to grasp that a simple number could hold such mystery to it. Physics, Geometry, all the mathematics and sciences have complex equations to explain so many things, and in it is often as simple as ABC to someone else. Humans need everything to be too complex, maybe the moral to his book is to look more at the simplicity of life, the simplicity of the universe and understand, not everything has to be complex.

Interesting question, and then: What about the number 23?Or the number 6.28? There are many of these references, and they all make a bit of sense, and are interesting to research! Good topic.

No it is not 42, the real answer to the universe is 4 and I can PROVE it :)

Take the word Vampire, it has 7 letters, 7 has 5 letters, 5 has 4 letters and 4 has 4 letters.

Take Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) that has 20 letters, 20 has 6 letters, 6 has 3, 3 has 5 letters, 5 has 4 and 4 has 4 :)

No matter the word, phrase etc it all comes back to 4.

Just an interesting thought.

Didn't know that any Human ever had a pan-galactic gargle blaster, but at least I know where my towel is. As for the ultimate question, I'll favor 42 over love - much safer. ;)

you can go order a pan-glactic gargle blaster in the Black Spot Cafe/Bar in Hyannis Massachusetts

The question was something like what is six times 9.

Some nerds worked out that the joke actually works in base 13.

Maybe the hidden truth is that the decimal system is wrong!


Whenever i didn't know an answer in school, and couldn't make up a smart ass answer, I would just write 42. Didn't score me very high marks for my English essay :P

haha excellent post.

"what is a simile?" "you mean other than 42? is this a trick question?"

Nope and I like the base thirteen part. The Universe does work in the energy of thirteen, we're not ready for it so we still use twelve. Point for the nerds!

I have been on line with Dirk Gentel, the Holistic Detective .. he will get right on the case..

A holictic detective? Why, is "42" hurt or missing? O.o

Another one of Adams Books.. I wish they did Hitchhikers in a western formate.. I have no idea why..

i thought, like much of the book, it was a great concept. the answer to life, the universe, and everything being 42 but the question being unkonwn. i like best that the machine created to figure out the question gets blown up! so awesome.

regardless of ratios or numbers in general I still feel that just 1 thing cannot hold the answer to the univer LOL

It's a joke. Please laugh.

Just don't forget your towel and always have a Babel fish on you at all times.

Great stories for that series and for now 42 is as good as answer as any scientists have for one now as it is.