What On Earth Is 42?

Do You Know The Answer?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7283155.stm
from WinCustomize Forums
It's been 30 years that Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has been broadcast on BBC radio and yet its most famous mystery is still waiting to be resolved. Douglas Adams died in 2001 without revealing the meaning of "42".

Stephen Fry, a close friend, and the voice of the audiobook claims that "Douglas told me in the strictest confidence exactly why 42. The answer is fascinating, extraordinary and, when you think hard about it, completely obvious" and "But sadly I cannot share it with anyone and the secret must go with me to the grave. Pity, because it explains so much beyond the books. It really does explain the secret of life, the universe, and everything."

So what do you think the meaning of "42" is? Have you read any of Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7283155.stm
17,886 views 33 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Never read his any book but I think he must have been joking. :LOL:
Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
well i think 42 means 42 ....  :LOL:  :LOL: 
Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Now i m gonna tell you one thing which is confidential..
I chatted with him once and he told me what 42 is But sadly I cannot share it with anyone and the secret must go with me to the grave.
A few lines from our conversation...
****
HapTork: Hi! :)
Douglas: Hello!
HapTork: I plead you. Please tell me what 42 is? I m not gonna tell it to any one please.
Douglas: Its a secret. When I got 42 yrs old, I understood what this whole universe is. Whats the aim of our life and why we are here. 42 explains this all. The experien
****

So buddies Here I pasted three sentences(1st by me 2nd by douglas and third again by me) and the fourth which I didnt pasted was the answer by douglas and I cant tell you that.
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
yeah I'm read all book, and really like those. :D
Adams have great ( but not really popular) humour.. so 42..
I think this answer right, because 'big brother' Google say that too! :LOL: ;)
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
As I remember it, Prak explained that the explanation for the ultimate answer and the ultimate question can never be contained within the same Universe...

The 2 would cancel each other out - destroying the present Universe and replacing it with something even more bizarre.

Consider this - a Universe in which Zubaz follows Jafo around with a spellchecker...

It's almost worth it
Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Douglas Adams actually said that it was simply meant as a joke and nothing more than that. 42 was simply the first plain boring numbe he could think of.
Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Everybody knows the ultimate answer is 42. But little chosen have information about the ultimate question. That is more important. I've red all of 5 books. I loved it. aaaeee... one more think: DON'T PANIC
Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top
he meant 42 is the awesomest number on earth its 7x6 and six is the devils number...... OMG 7 ate 9 !!!!! ZOMG!!! RUN!
Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Really folks.....42.....thing about it....42....I've read all the books and have found the answer to life, the universe and every thing...it is forty-two. Really. The Answer to THE universe, life and everthing IS 42. So long and thanks for all of the fish......! :LOL: 
Reply #10 from WinCustomize Forums Top
sales must be dropping so why not spark controversy... it makes things sell.. and if it is done right it makes one immortal
Reply #11 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Kinda lame that something like that can't be shared, would be a great legacy to leave the world. Make me think it's all just bollocks, or as The__Goo said, a marketing gimmick to spark sales.
Reply #12 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Like me....."Mostly Harmless" ...;)
Reply #13 from WinCustomize Forums Top
42 is obviously the number of the bus stop where hitch hikers go when they can't otherwise get a ride. ;p
Reply #15 from WinCustomize Forums Top
At the end of the first radio series (and television series, and The Restaurant at the End of the Universe book) Arthur Dent having escaped the Earth's destruction potentially has some of the computational matrix in his brain, attempts to discover The Ultimate Question by extracting it from his brainwave patterns, as abusively[6] suggested by Marvin the Paranoid Android, when a Scrabble-playing caveman spells out FORTY TWO. Arthur pulls random letters from a bag, but only gets the sentence "WHAT DO YOU GET IF YOU MULTIPLY SIX BY NINE?" “ "Six by nine. Forty two." "That's it. That's all there is." "I always thought something was fundamentally wrong with the universe"[5] ”
Reply #16 from WinCustomize Forums Top
It's just a random number to be FUNNY. Which is what he did best. Anyone who tells you otherwise is pulling your leg. :)
Reply #17 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I think this article rather misses the point of the joke, which is that nobody actually knew what was the question to which 42 was the answer. "What is the meaning of life, the universe and everything?" is far too vague a question to have a meaningful answer. After the answer "42" was revealed, a new project had to be started to find the question to which it was the answer - but the question was never discovered. Douglas Adams was pointing out the foolishness of demanding answers to non-questions. Stephen Lowe Watson, Lewes
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this maybe it, but tghe reason to bring it up again is only to further the pocket book, someones kid needs to go college...
Reply #19 from WinCustomize Forums Top
The_Goo said:
this maybe it, but tghe reason to bring it up again is only to further the pocket book, someones kid needs to go college...
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I have a feeling the estate of Douglas Adams is doing quite well. The point was that this is the 30th anniversary of the broadcast of the original radio series on which the novels were based. As for 42, I think it's meant to be a mystery.
Reply #20 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I think I.R.Brainiac has the answer to that question. Thank you to the great and wonderful man and as I bow to one of the greatest minds on earth to this date, Thank You. His books were insiteful and very good. I have my own ideas and could tell you but I too am very secretive about my answers to the universe and how we all got here.  :LOL: They haven't come back to pick me up yet but ofcourse there has been a delay due to weather.
Reply #21 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Arthur pulls random letters from a bag, but only gets the sentence "WHAT DO YOU GET IF YOU MULTIPLY SIX BY NINE?" “ "Six by nine. Forty two." "That's it. That's all there is." "I always thought something was fundamentally wrong with the universe"[5] ”
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ok, im a little confused multiply six by nine? isn't that 54?? where does the 42 fall in ??
Reply #22 from WinCustomize Forums Top
ok, im a little confused multiply six by nine? isn't that 54?? where does the 42 fall in ??
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EXACTLY!
Reply #24 from WinCustomize Forums Top
DON'T PANIC
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And don't forget your towel!
Reply #25 from WinCustomize Forums Top
...And don't forget your towel!
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hehe... way to be a sassy frood :HOT: