The Meaning of Life Is 42
Douglas Adam’s two digit answer is the essence of all philosophies
When we stop asking the meaning of life question, we feel shorn of our ability to ponder deeply.
Is there an answer to this question, or is this question invalid?
Invalid because it’s essentially a human question — even if you find an answer, you would not settle for it. Neither will it improve the condition of human life, individual or collective.
Douglas Adams, in his 1979 science-fiction novel The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, puts up this question. Toward the end of the book, the supercomputer Deep Thought reveals that the answer to the “great question” of “life, the universe, and everything” is “forty-two.”
Deep Thought takes 7.5 million years to calculate the answer to the ultimate question. Because it is not particularly helpful, the characters assigned to finding that answer are disappointed. The computer points out that the question itself was vaguely formulated.
The author’s choice of the number 42 has become a fixture of geek culture. For instance, if you put up this question in any search engine, such as Google, Bing, or anywhere else: “What is the answer to everything?” it will throw up the result as “42”.
