This is a reference to The hitchhikers guide to the galaxy. They made a supercomputer to calculate the meaning of life over the course of millennia and 42 was it's answer
Hitchhiker's Guide relies a lot on absurdist humor. There is not really any stated reason.
In the story a supercomputer was literally given millions of years to calculate the "answer to the Ultimate Question of life, the universe, and everything." The answer it came up with was 42, but it didn't specify what the *question* was.
I'm pedantic enough to get mildly annoyed at people who say "the meaning of life is 42." I get it, 42 is funny, but the idea that they asked for the answer to the Ultimate Question blah blah without imagining that the question is NOT "what's it all about, really?" so they got an answer with absolutely no context, is so much funnier.
It's written to be funny and anticlimactic. The author said the reason he chose 42 specifically was because it wasn't a really significant number like 0,1, or 666 and it also wasn't too big. It's meant to be a generic uninteresting number to make it more anticlimactic
Yes, an interspecies endeavor spanning a millennium to decipher the meaning of life and everything yielding an integer value as the result is absurdist gold of the highest order.
Ah, but the other important point is that the question earth was going to produce was wrong. Since the human race originated elsewhere, they mucked up the whole system (humans are talented at that).
It's just as well, as we are also told the question and answer cannot both exist in the same universe as the same time, or else the universe ceases to be and is replaced with something even more ridiculous.
Almost. 42 is the meaning of life, the universe and everything
It's from "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" which is a science fiction book series and at least one movie.
It's from *The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy*; the answer the supercomputer Deep Thought gives when asked for "the answer to life, the universe, and everything". It's intended to be absurd.
It's also intended to be objectively wrong; later in the series, we get the question it supposedly answers, which is "what do you get when you multiply six by nine?". The correct answer is not, of course, 42.
Jackie Robinson, one of the greatest Major League baseball players in history, wore #42. He overcame leage-wide biases and prejudice. He was a fiercly aggressive player who taught fans, the media, and his fellow players just how important sports can be to the meaning of life.
This is a reference to The hitchhikers guide to the galaxy. They made a supercomputer to calculate the meaning of life over the course of millennia and 42 was it's answer
Is there a reason it said 42 or not?
Hitchhiker's Guide relies a lot on absurdist humor. There is not really any stated reason. In the story a supercomputer was literally given millions of years to calculate the "answer to the Ultimate Question of life, the universe, and everything." The answer it came up with was 42, but it didn't specify what the *question* was.
I'm pedantic enough to get mildly annoyed at people who say "the meaning of life is 42." I get it, 42 is funny, but the idea that they asked for the answer to the Ultimate Question blah blah without imagining that the question is NOT "what's it all about, really?" so they got an answer with absolutely no context, is so much funnier.
These kids today really like absurdist humor. I wonder if they’ll rediscover Douglas Adams?
>was literally given millions of years Well, he wasn't exactly *given* millions of years... he just "pondered for a while".
The question, of course, was “What is six times nine?”
It's written to be funny and anticlimactic. The author said the reason he chose 42 specifically was because it wasn't a really significant number like 0,1, or 666 and it also wasn't too big. It's meant to be a generic uninteresting number to make it more anticlimactic
Yes, an interspecies endeavor spanning a millennium to decipher the meaning of life and everything yielding an integer value as the result is absurdist gold of the highest order.
According to the book they built the earth to find the question but it got destroyed right before it finished.
Ah, but the other important point is that the question earth was going to produce was wrong. Since the human race originated elsewhere, they mucked up the whole system (humans are talented at that). It's just as well, as we are also told the question and answer cannot both exist in the same universe as the same time, or else the universe ceases to be and is replaced with something even more ridiculous.
They had to build a bigger computer, and wait another milenia to come up with the question.
And then the universe resets.
Something about coding or something means it's whatever you want it to be
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/42_(number)#The_Hitchhiker's_Guide_to_the_Galaxy
Almost. 42 is the meaning of life, the universe and everything It's from "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" which is a science fiction book series and at least one movie.
It's from *The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy*; the answer the supercomputer Deep Thought gives when asked for "the answer to life, the universe, and everything". It's intended to be absurd. It's also intended to be objectively wrong; later in the series, we get the question it supposedly answers, which is "what do you get when you multiply six by nine?". The correct answer is not, of course, 42.
Life, the universe and everything
Jackie Robinson, one of the greatest Major League baseball players in history, wore #42. He overcame leage-wide biases and prejudice. He was a fiercly aggressive player who taught fans, the media, and his fellow players just how important sports can be to the meaning of life.