[HN Gopher] It's been 42 years since 'The Hitchhiker's Guide' an...
___________________________________________________________________
It's been 42 years since 'The Hitchhiker's Guide' answered the
ultimate question
Author : geox
Score : 349 points
Date : 2021-10-17 13:56 UTC (9 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.npr.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.npr.org)
| blocked_again wrote:
| I think the point is that it's just a random number.
|
| And here we are trying to associate meaning to a random number
| like we do to all the other random events/things that happen in
| life.
|
| Like writing an article after 42 years as if it means something.
| anon_cow1111 wrote:
| I only heard that he picked it because it was the "funniest"
| 2-digit number. No idea if that's true but it seems in line
| with most other things in the books.
| hutzlibu wrote:
| "Like writing an article after 42 years as if it means
| something."
|
| It does mean something: it gives most of us, who read the book,
| a nice memory and a smile.
| FourthProtocol wrote:
| I was 9 when he published Hitchhiker's guide. I'd just started
| reading and would go on to spend my teens reading ANYTHING I
| managed to lay my hands on. And throughout my teens everyone went
| on and on about Hitchhiker's Guide, and it just didn't... push me
| to read it. I eventually read it after being consrcipted. And it
| left me feeling as ambivalent as I felt before reading it.
|
| As the comments here evidence, people read much into it, and the
| number 42. This is great. I felt books like The Ugly American
| [0], Honey Badger (Robert Ruark) and King Rat [1] had more to
| offer. My opinion hasn't much changed - but I feel the problem
| lies with me, in that depth and meaning are what I value.
|
| Is humour the entirety of the draw for Hitchhiker's Guide, or
| (probably more likely) have I missed something?
|
| [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ugly_American
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Rat_(Clavell_novel)
| CobaltFire wrote:
| You statement that "in that depth and meaning are what I value"
| is an explicit argument that there is no depth or meaning in
| what other people here value.
|
| Your question can't be taken in good faith when that's the
| ground you plant your feet on.
|
| My opinion is that much of what Adams was getting across is
| that meaning is where and when you find it. Something that
| means nothing to others can mean the world to you, and vice
| versa. Other's in this conversation have said much the same
| thing.
| FourthProtocol wrote:
| Maybe you're right. Maybe our understanding of "depth and
| meaning" is not quite the same. Some of us like apples,
| others oranges. Diversitry makes humanity awesome.
| reginold wrote:
| Human life could be defined as a search for depth and
| meaning which truncates at some point.
| JadeNB wrote:
| > You statement that "in that depth and meaning are what I
| value" is an explicit argument that there is no depth or
| meaning in what other people here value.
|
| I think, to the extent that it is an argument for that, it is
| offset by the question "(probably more likely) have I missed
| something?". That seems to be a clear indication that, since
| other people here _do_ value it, FourthProtocol thinks it
| likely that the depth and meaning are there, just that they
| haven 't found them.
|
| (I also think that many of us here, me included, have such an
| emotional attachment to HHGttG that it's easy to be offended
| by such statements, whereas clearly subjective statements
| like "Lisp is ugly and hard to read" and "Haskell is obscure
| and too obsessed with theory for a practical programmer to
| use" would, while surely provoking argument, probably not
| garner such an emotional response even from Lisp and Haskell
| fans.)
| mymythisisthis wrote:
| I read Voltaire's Candide a few years before reading The
| Hitchhikers Guide. I'm glad I did. The characters, style,
| themes, were all taken from Voltaire's master work. I still
| enjoyed reading Douglas Adams. Comparing the two gave me an
| understanding of what English Lit is. Enjoying each, in a
| different way, taught me to appreciate works as stand alone
| objects, and in a larger canon of literature. Though I'm still
| glad I read Voltaire first.
| Drdrdrq wrote:
| Humour is what drew me to it the first time I read it. A friend
| pointed out that there are some hidden jokes that only make
| sense when you already know how it will end, so I read it
| again, and again... And kept discovering new layers. With years
| (I take it in my hands from time to time) these discoveries
| became a rare occurance, but I'm quite sure I still missed some
| of the gems. And it took some growing up to understand some of
| the messages.
|
| Adams really was a master of observation. Especially if you
| consider that many things we take for granted today either
| didn't exist or were in very early stages (like Internet).
| Predicting basically "wikipedia on a phone" that far back is
| mindblowing. And of course, the exaggerared (but still
| believable) characters are a work of genius.
|
| Maybe give it a second chance if you have spare time?
|
| That said, I only read the last book twice because it makes me
| depressed. Ymmv of course.
| prepend wrote:
| Well, I suppose not everyone can understand everything, so,
| yes, it seems you've missed something. Both the humor and the
| depth.
|
| But that's ok as I'm sure you like books that others don't. And
| you understand things that others don't.
| ErrantX wrote:
| I am a huge HGTG fan, but just driving by to say...
|
| King Rat is a massively underrated masterpiece. Read it in my
| teens and regularly re-read. Astonishing book.
| sideshowb wrote:
| I think there is a lot of depth in HHGG. I read the whole 42
| saga as a parable on society's tendency to trust computer
| outputs without understanding what they really mean. There's a
| lot of great social commentary in there, one example that
| springs to mind is a planet run by middle managers declaring
| leaves as fiat currency as that way money really does grow on
| trees. Eventually this leads to mass deforestation in an
| attempt to halt inflation. A good critique of the economic
| status quo about 20 years before such things were widespread.
| [deleted]
| zw123456 wrote:
| But of course we now know it's actually 137 :)
| QuercusMax wrote:
| My dad, a nuclear physicist, always had his briefcase locked
| with the combination 137-731. As a kid I just knew it was "some
| important physics number".
|
| (He never kept anything super secret in there as far as I know;
| the lock was just to stop it from opening by accident)
| zw123456 wrote:
| That's funny, back when I worked at Bell Labs many years ago,
| back when we carried briefcases, mine was 314. I remember
| getting into an argument (friendly) with this guy when he
| noticed it and told me I should be using 137. We had a big
| long discussion about which number is more important or more
| meaningful, Pi, Fine Structure, Golden Ratio, Euler's, etc.
| It would be funny if it turned out there is some mathematical
| combination of those that is 42 !
| eevilspock wrote:
| 42 is probably used in so many passwords, in so many lottery
| number choices, etc.
| rusk wrote:
| I have a pet theory that though Adams believed he picked the
| number at random, that it probably had some significance to a
| person of his social background at that particular point in time.
| That is, in the spirit of the books themselves he drew it
| unknowingly from his environment.
|
| I think that 42 rang for him due it's association with WW2. The
| type of (particularly British) humour he deploys in his writing
| is the sort that makes fun of unspoken awkward thoughts and
| experiences. I reckon it might have been a subtly taboo number
| due its association with the horrors of WW2 and Adams being of
| the first adult generation to not experienced the horrors the
| time might have been right to "make light of" this number.
|
| TL;DR The number 42 maybe did have a significance beyond what he
| was himself consciously aware of; he describes the process of
| such exigesis in his books, perhaps also subconsciously!
| rsynnott wrote:
| > I think that 42 rang for him due it's association with WW2.
|
| Huh, what association is that? WWII started in 1939 (or 37 if
| you consider the second Sino-Japanese war to be part of it) and
| ended in 45.
| rusk wrote:
| I don't want to get too into the details cause this is just
| idle speculation but I came across a less wholesome
| association with 42 in another numerological discussion ...
| sysadm1n wrote:
| Seen a few Ask HNs where people asked that question: `What is the
| meaning of life?`.
|
| Well one thing I believe is: `The meaning of life is to find
| _meaning in life_ `
|
| Another quote I live by is, by Bukowski:
|
| "Find what you love and let it kill you" - Charles Bukowski
|
| I mean it makes sense right? Many people just haven't found their
| passion and go round like headless chickens!
| eevilspock wrote:
| I recommend reading Viktor Frankl's take on life and meaning. A
| good intro is Maria Popova's "Viktor Frankl on the Human Search
| for Meaning", which I just added to HN:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28899325
| Koshkin wrote:
| By the way, this question has been the simplest one to answer
| since ages ago. Love gives the meaning to life. That is, if you
| love something or someone, your life has a meaning, if not, it
| does not (yet). You know it when you acutely feel the desire to
| live, and, in fact, the very question only arises when you
| don't.
| codr7 wrote:
| The older I get the more I feel that the point of living is
| experience, not meaning.
|
| The stories we make up inside our fish bowls most likely have
| very little to do with reality.
| finfinfin wrote:
| In a way I see experiences as a distraction, escapism,
| something that helps to postpone the search for meaning.
| aloner wrote:
| You could also make an argument that search for meaning is
| an escapism from experiencing life.
| 101011 wrote:
| It's almost like there's no clear answer here.
| leoxv wrote:
| "The purpose of life is not to be [superficially] happy.
| It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate,
| to have it make some difference that you have lived and
| lived well." - R.W. Emerson
|
| "Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true
| happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification,
| but through fidelity to a worthy purpose." - Helen Keller
|
| "Through love alone can man find the kingdom of heaven
| for which he has sought since his beginnings. Only
| through living love as a principle can he find the
| happiness, peace and prosperity which lie in his heart as
| the greatest of his desires." - Walter Russell
| 123pie123 wrote:
| >The older I get the more I feel that the point of living is
| experience, not meaning.
|
| the older I get the more I see the point of living as
| basically the same as everything in nature - propagate your
| genes as much possible and give them the best chance of them
| propagating their genes. Everything else is try and and fun
| and help humankind
| lm28469 wrote:
| > The older I get the more I feel that the point of living is
| experience
|
| On the flip side I think the very modern take on "life =
| experience" can be badly interpreted. The trend is more about
| consuming experiences and destinations rather the living
| experiences, you could describe them as commercialized
| experiences (Disneyland, holiday resorts in very touristic
| countries, &c.)
| TeMPOraL wrote:
| Yup, exactly. My current take is that "pursue experiences
| instead of things" is primarily a meme that's being spread
| by countless businesses that want recurring revenue.
| Experiences are fleeting, so you have to keep buying them
| all over again - where a well-chosen thing is something you
| buy once, and it keeps yielding value (including, possibly,
| experiences) for a long time.
| codr7 wrote:
| The money machine will embrace and corrupt whatever
| works.
|
| Not looking for meaning doesn't mean spending the rest of
| your life at Disney Land.
|
| Life is fleeting, love is fleeting, everything that means
| something is fleeting; framing and clinging destroys its
| essence.
| alexashka wrote:
| You've just moved the goalpost, now instead of people not
| knowing what the meaning is, you've asked them to find it.
|
| Ok, how do you find it? Oh, we don't know again :)
|
| The right answer to 'what is the meaning of life?' is to ask
| for definitions of terms. What do you mean by 'meaning'? How do
| you know life has or _ought_ to have such a property, that you
| 'd go looking for it?
|
| In other words, the only right answer to 'when did you stop
| beating your wife?' is to point out that it is a loaded
| question aka invalid question, instead of scurrying to try and
| answer it :)
|
| Meaning of life is a variation of when did you stop beating
| your wife. One presupposes you _did_ beat your wife, the other
| presupposes there exist meaning and it is important to find.
|
| Those are unjustified presuppositions.
| leoxv wrote:
| knowledge - https://wikischool.org/human_life
| das_keyboard wrote:
| Pretty off topic, but this quote is most certainly not from old
| Buck: https://bukowskiforum.com/threads/find-what-you-love-and-
| let...
| k42 wrote:
| "42" being the "Answer to the ultimate question of life, the
| universe, the universe, and everything" was the basis for
| selecting it as the racing number for this car in Ferrari's XX
| Racing Programme:
|
| https://www.instagram.com/p/CTpvlbMvhMm/
| camexp wrote:
| "The book follows Englishman Arthur Dent as he wakes up to find
| that Earth is about to be demolished to make way for a space
| highway."
|
| It was a hyperspace bypass. As far as I am aware that is neither
| "space" nor a "highway". I guess it is a "kind of space" but I
| just feel that this is a terrible way to describe it by the
| authors of the article.
|
| However, I could be wrong, I have been multiple times in the
| past.
| pcrh wrote:
| Bypass in context refers to the development of the motorway
| system in the UK. It was sometimes deemed necessary to demolish
| existing villages, or similar, so that a new motorway would
| follow a shorter path.
|
| Specifically, the bypass would be a section of roadway that
| "bypassed" pre-existing routes.
| ErrantX wrote:
| I feel like the bypass reference is a very English joke, and
| therefore doesn't fully translate.
| beardyw wrote:
| It seems a year out to me. The original radio series was
| broadcast in 1978, so 42 is now 43.
|
| --Spoiler alert-- And the answer 42 turned out to be "What do you
| get if you multiply six by nine" in The Restaurant at the End of
| the Universe.
| throwaway8689 wrote:
| It's not by nine
| odd_perfect_num wrote:
| The ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything
| is indeed asking what is 6 multiplied by 9. (42 of course, as
| any well-read high school student could tell us.)
| moomin wrote:
| It's unclear. It's proceeded by a discussion that the
| question may have been garbled. So we're left with two
| possibilities:
|
| 1) The ultimate question was 6 * 9 = ? and the universe
| makes no sense at all.
|
| 2) The ultimate question was 6 * 7 = ? and the universe has
| no deeper meaning.
|
| Both are possible, and the ambiguity suggests he wanted to
| say both.
| LocalH wrote:
| Have you ever read the source material? If not, you should,
| and if you have, you still should, since that was a quote
| freedomben wrote:
| wouldn't six by nine be 54? Is this one just soaring over my
| head?
| mattowen_uk wrote:
| That's the joke within the joke. Without giving away the plot
| of the book in question, it's incorrect for a reason.
| geoduck14 wrote:
| That's the joke. Everyone in the book thought it was THE
| ANSWER - but it wasn't. It was wrong.
| Traster wrote:
| I think it's a bit more subtle than that, it's not clear if
| the answer is wrong, the question is wrong, or both are
| correct and the universe is wrong (although the story does
| hint towards one in particular being wrong).
| cobbaut wrote:
| Spoiler alert: Try 6 by 9 in base13.
| LeoPanthera wrote:
| Yeah but that was because the program running on Earth was
| corrupted by the presence of the Golgafrinchans arriving in
| prehistoric times, thus corrupting the output.
| toyg wrote:
| That was a bit of retcon though - I remember Adams saying it
| was just a random number he saw on a fridge, or something
| equally inconsequential.
| filoeleven wrote:
| Some comment I read ages ago convinced me that the real
| Ultimate Question is "pick a number, any number." The two bits
| of evidence for this are paraphrased below.
|
| Marvin talking to the mattress: "I'm roughly a billion times
| smarter than you. For example, pick a number. Any number."
| Mattress: "Ummmm...seven?" Marvin: "Wrong. You see?"
|
| Arthur, while aboard the Heart of Gold, says, "I'm disappointed
| we never figured out that Ultimate Question business." Eddie
| the ship's computer immediately after says, "Pick a number, any
| number!"
|
| Given the abilities of each of those characters, it's a
| plausible theory. It's also how the author chose the Answer, so
| at least at a meta level it is true.
| u10242 wrote:
| Except that "pick a number, any number" is not a question.
| Koshkin wrote:
| But it does require an answer.
| rusk wrote:
| More specifically, Marvin claimed to have a brain the size of
| _a planet_.
|
| Adams alluded elsewhere to how the march of technology had
| brought about galactic scale advances in miniaturisation and
| exponential growth in the capability of technology.
|
| When deep mind designed the earth she probably used the state
| of the art for that time however many billions of years ago,
| but Marvin being a more modern device is far more powerful
| and can do the same calculations trivially.
|
| Furthermore he always claims to be depressed because despite
| his eminence nobody will listen to what he says, which is
| indeed _"pick a number any number"_ which is probably what
| DNA said to himself when he selected it.
| Traster wrote:
| A tangential question that has always bothered me is "How
| do you get to Alpha Centauri". Or to put it another way, I
| can _probably_ set off to Alpha Centauri using today 's
| technology. My corpse would arrive there probably in
| 130,000 years. Give or take an order of magnitude (I've not
| run the numbers properly). Now I'm _extremely_ confident
| that the human race in the next 100 years could design a
| craft that would be able to travel to Alpha Centauri in
| less than 129,900 years. So. How do I get to alpha
| centauri? Just a vaguely interesting question that bothers
| me.
|
| Or to put it another way, how pissed off would you be when
| you set off to alpha centuri and you arrive to find your
| bloody grandson _vaping_ and listening to Lil Nas x.
| rusk wrote:
| > My corpse would arrive there probably in 130,000 years
|
| It is _infinitely improbable_ that you would arrive
| instantly and alive.
|
| Or could just turn to the ol janx spirit ;-)
| zw123456 wrote:
| 42 ~= 137 / ((pi * e)/phi^2)
|
| (phi = golden ratio)
| f00zz wrote:
| Hey, that's true:
|
| https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=137+%2F+%28%28pi+*+e%2...
| mattowen_uk wrote:
| Right now there's 42 comments on this post about 42.
|
| This is comment 43. I broke it.
| zorr wrote:
| I made a screenshot because I noticed the same
|
| https://ibb.co/nPx4kFc
| nabla9 wrote:
| HHGTTG series is a perfect book to read if you are learning
| English as a second language. It's instantly funny, you can go
| back a few pages and read again.
|
| My book starts with underlined words every few lines. I
| underlined words I did not know at the time I read it the first
| time.
| xhedley wrote:
| But why did Douglas Adams think of 42? My theory is that it is
| from "times table" memorisation questions.
|
| Back in the day in the UK we learned "times tables" at school as
| a verbal by rote memorisation technique. For each "times table"
| you memorised up to "times twelve". And then the teacher might
| ask you in class the answer for a table you were supposed to have
| learned.
|
| First one to learn was "two twos are four, three twos are six...
| twelve twos are twenty four". (I'm writing out the numbers rather
| than using numerals because this was specifically a spoken
| recitation).
|
| Then you learned the three times table "two threes are six, three
| threes are nine, ... twelve threes are thirty six".
|
| The four times table is a selection of the two times table up to
| "six fours are twenty four" and then the next member "seven
| fours" is an easy addition from 24 to 28.
|
| The five times table is obvious.
|
| The six times table is a selection of the three times table up
| till "six sixes are thirty six".
|
| Say that (emboldened by the obviousness of the five times table)
| you didn't do your homework and verbally memorise the six times
| table.
|
| And then the teacher asks you what are "seven sixes". You are
| acutely aware that this isn't in your verbal memory (as it would
| have been if you had done your homework as instructed). You add 6
| to "six sixes" which I calculate as "use 4 to get up to 40 then
| the other 2 are the units so 42".
|
| You say "seven sixes are forty two". There was a one second panic
| while you worked this out instead of just reciting the rote
| memorised fact.
|
| But it's the right answer.
|
| Tension then resolution - that is why 42 is the answer to the
| ultimate question.
| ErrantX wrote:
| Incidental and subjective opinion; but I do think that The
| Restaurant at the End of The Universe is the best book in the
| series.
|
| The commentary is deeper, the jokes are funnier and the story arc
| feels a lot less random whilst still being surreal. The scenes at
| the end of the book with the Golfrinchans is a masterclass in
| humourous writing with a truly nasty vein of bleakness.
|
| It also features the ultimate question, of course.
| papito wrote:
| The ASCII code 42 is for the asterisk symbol, and we all know the
| /*/ regex matches EVERYTHING.
|
| I am sorry I ruined it for you.
| Extigy wrote:
| I like the theory that 42 was chosen because ASCII 42 is *, as in
| the wildcard character. It matches everything!
| capableweb wrote:
| > On 3 November 1993, he (Douglas Adams) gave this answer on
| alt.fan.douglas-adams:
|
| > > The answer to this is very simple. It was a joke. It had to
| be a number, an ordinary, smallish number, and I chose that
| one. Binary representations, base thirteen, Tibetan monks are
| all complete nonsense. I sat at my desk, stared into the garden
| and thought '42 will do' I typed it out. End of story.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrases_from_The_Hitchhiker's_...
| ?
| mhh__ wrote:
| So the "Cow Tools" school of narrative-building? Great minds
| think alike.
|
| TVTROPES WARNING!
|
| https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CowTools
| cyberpunk wrote:
| Damn, took me a moment; I'm so used to seeing 0x41414141 (AAAA)
| that I didn't notice you were talking in base 10 ;)
| Extigy wrote:
| Yes, I had to remind myself not to add the 0x prefix!
| Ajay-p wrote:
| 42
| nwatson wrote:
| Why is the answer to "the Ultimate Question of Life, the
| Universe, and Everything" the number 42? An interesting Christian
| twist might be ... * GIVEN ... *
| the number of (hu)mankind, 3x for emphasis in some contexts where
| humans want to stand completely alone, is "666" *
| the atom for human is "6" * the number most often
| associated with divinity in the bible is "7" * THEN
| ... * the product of interaction of the divine with
| humanity is 7 * 6 = 42 (of course this firmly puts
| humanity at the apex of earthly, and perhaps universal,
| entities, and many would object)
|
| EDIT: clarification on first GIVEN
| nickthemagicman wrote:
| How come there were seven horsemen of the Apocalypse in the
| Bible?
|
| and 12 disciples of Jesus?
|
| and ten commandments?
|
| It's real confusing.
|
| maybe what it means since there's seven horsemen of the
| Apocalypse and six is the number for the human...7*6=42.
|
| Maybe it means the horseman of the apocalypse and the human
| beings are going to be friends and the humans can get a ride on
| the back of the cool apocalypse horses.
| webreac wrote:
| 4 horsemen: sword, famine, wild beasts, and plague
| linkdd wrote:
| 4 horsemen, 12 apostles, 10 commandments, 7 deadly sins, 7
| holy virtues, 3 aspects of the trinity (the father, the son
| and the holy spirits), 36 Lamed-Vav Tsadikim, ...
|
| Numerology has been heavily used by the Torah and the Bible.
|
| According to the Talmud, there are meanings behind numbers: h
| ttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Significance_of_numbers_in_Jud..
| .
|
| So, 6 (days of creation) * 7 (completion) = 42 (one of the
| letter in one of the name of God)
|
| Or any other combinations you want, because numerology has no
| true meaning. It's just playing with numbers.
| dekken_ wrote:
| Rainbows.
|
| > Indeed, it is impossible for an observer to see a rainbow
| from water droplets at any angle other than the customary one
| of 42 degrees from the direction opposite the light source.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow
| Causality1 wrote:
| I don't get it. Is this a joke? It reads like Time Cube.
| dane-pgp wrote:
| Rather than working backwards from "666", isn't it more direct
| to observe that Man was created on the 6th day of Creation?
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_6th_Day
| drawqrtz wrote:
| I thought it's that you have to cross 42 bridges in your life.
| dudul wrote:
| Wasn't it how many roads a man must travel instead?
| hutzlibu wrote:
| You would have fallen to a scam then ...
| anon321321323 wrote:
| I've got a bridge for sale...
| nickthemagicman wrote:
| Not trying to brag but I've crossed hundreds of bridges.
| dylan604 wrote:
| But which ones and in which order? And in whose shoes?
| nickthemagicman wrote:
| Some guy who told me to try walking a mile in his shoes.
| So I beat him up and took his shoes.
| dylan604 wrote:
| If he was suggesting to walk in his shoes, did you really
| need to use the violence? It sounds like he was offering
| them? Are you a really just the troll from under the
| bridge?
| hutzlibu wrote:
| Ah, but how many metaphorical bridges?
|
| (but btw. the parent comment was a reference to the book,
| where someone tried to come up with a fake question,
| matching the answer)
| nickthemagicman wrote:
| I don't think metaphorically I think meta42ically. It's
| topical.
| comrh wrote:
| Humans rank 3rd on even their own planet, behind mice and
| dolphins. So long and thanks for all the fish!
| mrunkel wrote:
| They aren't even supposed to be here.
| acheron wrote:
| What's yellow and dangerous?
| giantg2 wrote:
| I would have hoped to see the tech take on "42". It's ascii for
| the widely used wildcard, the asterisk.
| WarOnPrivacy wrote:
| Yesterday I noticed 42 is shorthand for 420. Today I'm annoyed.
| vletal wrote:
| You mean the Czech Republics dial up prefix?
| toyg wrote:
| After hitting my 42nd birthday this year, I thought for a while
| that Douglas Adams had layered the joke with a bit of truth: at
| 42, a man is more or less confident in his skin, having lived
| through enough to feel somewhat unflappable; he's probably raised
| kids, bought a home, got a decent job, and can pretty much choose
| what he wants to do for the rest of his life. Hence "the answer"
| - the answer is to be 42.
|
| ... Alas, it was just a random number he came up with, without
| any deeper meaning. I was a bit disappointed, although I'm sure
| he would have found my serious speculation about it extremely
| funny.
| rsynnott wrote:
| I mean, he wrote the radio play aged 25, so that would have
| been an odd basis for it.
|
| Though, funnily enough, Adams' child was born when both he and
| his wife were 42! So you might be on to something.
| markdown wrote:
| > bought a home
|
| Maybe in Adams' time. These days it takes an entire lifetime to
| buy a home.
| geoduck14 wrote:
| You sought for meaning where there was none, and you found it.
| Then you lost it when you realized it was never there to begin
| with. I'm sure there is a lesson to be had here.
| hibbelig wrote:
| This wouldn't have happened with the towel!
| wizardforhire wrote:
| That towel advice is a total pro tip.
| amelius wrote:
| Sounds like:
|
| https://gizmodo.com/the-cow-that-proves-you-cant-be-right-
| ac...
| headmelted wrote:
| Always trust your gut even when you have irrefutable proof
| it's wrong
| ithkuil wrote:
| Always trust your gut when you have abdominal pain
| throwanem wrote:
| Never trust your kidneys, though.
| westcort wrote:
| Schopenhauer used an equation with the answer of 42 to make a
| metaphysical point in "The World as Will and Idea." I suspect
| this is the meaning Adams had in mind:
|
| As time has only one dimension, counting is the only arithmetical
| operation, to which all others may be reduced; and yet counting
| is just intuition or perception a priori, to which there is no
| hesitation in appealing here, and through which alone everything
| else, every sum and every equation, is ultimately proved. We
| prove, for example, not that (7 + 9 x 8 - 2)/3 = 42; but we refer
| to the pure perception in time, counting thus makes each
| individual problem an axiom. Instead of the demonstrations that
| fill geometry, the whole content of arithmetic and algebra is
| thus simply a method of abbreviating counting. We mentioned above
| that our immediate perception of numbers in time extends only to
| about ten. Beyond this an abstract concept of the numbers, fixed
| by a word, must take the place of the perception; which does not
| therefore actually occur any longer, but is only indicated in a
| thoroughly definite manner. Yet even so, by the important
| assistance of the system of figures which enables us to represent
| all larger numbers by the same small ones, intuitive or
| perceptive evidence of every sum is made possible, even where we
| make such use of abstraction that not only the numbers, but
| indefinite quantities and whole operations are thought only in
| the abstract and indicated as so thought, as [sqrt](r^b) so that
| we do not perform them, but merely symbolise them.
|
| I tried to add this on Wikipedia a while ago, but was overruled
| by an editor.
|
| Source:
| https://gutenberg.org/cache/epub/38427/pg38427-images.html
|
| More on Schopenhauer:
| https://www.locserendipity.com/TitleSearch.html?q=Schopen
| JadeNB wrote:
| > Schopenhauer used an equation with the answer of 42 to make a
| metaphysical point in "The World as Will and Idea." I suspect
| this is the meaning Adams had in mind:
|
| I think that DNA was satirising the idea of one number, or
| phrase, or _any_ singular thing being "the" meaning of life--
| the meaning of life, I like to think he'd think, is life
| itself, not any minuscule segment of it.
|
| The many interpretations that people can hang on even the most
| transparently ridiculous of answers is, I believe, part of his
| point. ("How many roads must a man walk down?" and "what do you
| get when you multiply six by nine?" as questions I think
| indicate how seriously he took the answer.)
| niccl wrote:
| I'm really sorry, but this is distressing me no end: It should
| be (((7 + 9) x 8) -2) / 3 = 42. As written, it equals
| 25.6666...
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2021-10-17 23:00 UTC)