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The Nir Simionovich Blog In The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, advanced alien beings create a supercomputer, called Deep Thought, to figure out the answer to the so-called Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything. After calculating for 7.5-million years, Deep Thought determined the answer was the number 42. Deep Thought, however, doesn’t know the exact question it was asked to answer, rendering 42 a completely meaningless response. Deep Thought does know, though, that another supercomputer, known as Earth, was to be designed (by Deep Thought himself) to come up with the question in 10-million years. Adams’s joke suggests the quest for any once-and-for-all explanation for existence is absurd and arbitrary.
Why Adams chose 42 has been the subject of much speculation, but in 2007, on a fan-based Usenet newsgroup, Adams put the many conjectures to rest: “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 13, 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.” Still, many fans of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy hunt high and low for coincidental occurrences of the number 42. Adams’s mysterious number even inspired a 2011 book, 42: Douglas Adams’ Amazingly Accurate Answer to Life, the Universe and Everything, by Peter Gill. As noted in a review of the book on The Independent, there are 42 lines per page in the Gutenberg Bible, the first book printed with movable type. Buzz Lightyear’s spaceship in Toy Story is named 42. The element molybdenum, atomic number 42, is the 42nd most common element in the universe. The game of cricket features 42 laws.
42! One of the drawings found in an atomic fallout shelter on Jikthroom Beta, as seen in the opening of Episode 5 of the TV series. 42 (or forty-two) is the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything. This Answer was first calculated by the supercomputer Deep Thought after seven and a half million years of thought. This shocking answer resulted in the construction of an even larger supercomputer, named Earth, which was tasked with determining what the question was in the first place. The Ultimate QuestionThe Earth was destroyed by the Vogons five minutes before its ten-million year program to find the Ultimate Question was due to be completed. One of the only two humans who had survived the destruction of Earth, namely Arthur Dent, pulls random Scrabble tiles from a bag, so as to reveal information in his subconscious (Marvin announced that Arthur had the Question imprinted in his brainwaves). When his friend, Ford Prefect, lines up the tiles, they spell, 'What do you get when you multiply six by nine?' AppearancesThe discovery of forty-two (the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything) appears in every version of the Hitchhiker's story, as does Deep Thought, though with some minor changes. The radio series and bookIn both the radio series and the novel, it is stated that two programmers named Lunkwill and Fook were the ones to turn on Deep Thought and were the first to address it. Then, seven and a half million years later (seventy-five generations later), it was their descendants Loonquawl and Phouchg who were the ones to hear the Answer of forty-two. Loonquawl and Phouchg hearing the Answer forty-two in Episode 4 of the TV series. Deep Thought had warned them that they wouldn't like the answer, and they didn't respond enthusiastically, though Deep Thought pointed out that they had never specified or even known exactly what the Ultimate Question was. This was when Deep Thought decided to design the computer named Earth to figure out this Ultimate Question. The TV seriesIn the television series, the programmers are merely described as 'two men' and neither they nor their ancestors are addressed by name. Some parts of the story leading up to the reveal of the Ultimate Answer are also cut out, but the plot remains the same regarding the reveal by Deep Thought of the answer being forty-two. In the filmDeep Thought revealing the Answer of forty-two in the 2005 film. In the 2005 film, events are quite different. In all of the previous versions of the story, the creation of Deep Thought and the discovery of the Ultimate Answer were shown to Arthur by Slartibartfast via Sens-O-Tape (which allows the beholder to experience the events with all senses), but in the film it was Zaphod Beeblebrox who played a recording of the events instead. In the film, only two of the 'brightest and best' created Deep Thought, and those same two, who are never named, were both the ones to address Deep Thought and, seven and a half million years later, to hear the Ultimate Answer. The sequence is cut down quite a bit, and in the film adaptation the two who created Deep Thought and heard the Answer are implied to be young girls, whereas in all previous versions they were implied to be two men. Behind the scenesThere have been many theories from fans in an attempt to explain why the number 42 was chosen, and what secret meaning it may hold.
Inspiration for the number 42Douglas Adams revealed the reason why he chose forty-two in this message . "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'". He further explained in January 2000, in response to a panelist's "Where does the number 42 come from?" on the radio show "Book Club". Adams explained that he was "on his way to work one morning, whilst still writing the scene, and was thinking about what the actual answer should be". He eventually decided that it "should be something that made no sense whatsoever – a number, and a mundane one at that". He arrived at the number 42, completely at random. Despite Adams stating that he chose the number 42 at random, and that it has no hidden meaning, and his collaborator on 'The Meaning of Liff' and two Hitchhiker's fits, John Lloyd, saying that Adams has called 42 "the funniest of the two-digit numbers"[1], fans still speculate about the 'true' meaning of the number. Cultural references
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What is the answer to everything Hitchhiker's Guide?The number 42 is especially significant to fans of science fiction novelist Douglas Adams' “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy,” because that number is the answer given by a supercomputer to “the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.” Booker also wanted to know the answer to 42.
Why is 42 the answer to all things?Forty-two is the ASCII code for the symbol * also known as the asterisk. This symbol is often thought to translate to anything or everything. In this instance, 42 = everything, the meaning of life.
What is the answer to the everything?If, for example, you ask your search engine variations of the question “What is the answer to everything?” it will most likely answer “42.” Try it in French or German.
What is the answer to the great question of Life, the Universe, and Everything?In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams, the number 42 was revealed to be the “Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything”.
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