A discussion about why 42 is the answer to everything at the BBC:
...The answer can be interpreted in two ways. One is that it is a bad joke, implying that there simply is no answer, no meaning, no sense in the universe, and you would be no worse off if you jumped into the nearest black hole.But the other interpretation is that the joke was wise. It shows that seeking numerical answers to questions of meaning is itself the problem. Digits, like a four and a two, can no more do it than a string of digits could represent the poetry of Shakespeare.
Shakespeare's work was the product of a life, and a life lived to the full. Meaning too might only emerge from such fulsome engagement.
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Selva, here was my take on the topic at my old blog that includes a quote directly from Douglas Adams himself.
Thanks! Indeed, 42 will do. I do wonder sometimes, why the meaning had to be a number. Why not, say, a pizza.
Belated birthday wishes. :-)
Interesting post - Having never read the series, I had no idea that "42" was a Magic Number.
However, when my daughter joined a new softball team, and my son a new baseball team, they turned there uniform numbers "24" around to be 42, ala Hall of Fame Carlton Fisk, former Red Sox catcher as #27, who went to the White Sox as # 72.
"42" was also Jackie Robinson's uniform number, and to honor of his career, the number 42 has been officially retired by Major League Baseball - no new players may have 42 as their assigned uniform number.
Your story sheds a whole new light on 42!
They seem to be missing an obvious point. The answer to life, the universe, and everything is 42. It's just a matter of finding the correct units to make it come out right.
His friend Stephen Fry hinted at the relevance of the number in the BBC article, and the comments there give the usual range of suggestions. We all know that 42 was the (incorrect) answer, but we still don't know the question. My blog thinks that DNA explains everything anyway.