h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I found the ultimate quesion in the Bible. Look at Matthew 1:17! I leave it for you to do the rest! You can do this online at www.bible.com

indeed 3 seperate 14 generations of israelites does equate to 42 (the answer) but as it is written in the scripture does not pose the question. It just leads again to the answer. I do not discredit your findings however we still have no question to the answer. Just a method by which to get the answer. Until such time, keep up the good work.

The ultimate question concerning life, the universe, and everything is:

"What is the product of three prime numbers of theological significance?"

To understand this factor 42 into its primes: 2x3x7. Consider the three catagories: life, universe, everthing. Correlate each of these with one of the primes.

7: This is an easy one. See Genesis. God created the universe in 6 days and rested on the 7th. Hence 7 corresponds to the universe.

3: This corresponds to the Trinity: Father, Son, Holy Spirit. See the gospels and the Nicene Creed. Trinity is a name for God. God creates everything. Hence 3 corresponds to everything.

2: This is a hard one. I have discovered several possibilities. Such as the 2 sexes, ying and yang, etc. However, I think that the best answer, and consistent with the above is the two natures of Jesus Christ (God and man) as in the Nicene Creed. Furthermore, the opening of St. John's Gospel reads,"In the begining was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God...In him was life and the life was the light of men...". Hence 2 corresponds to life.

QED

I'm afraid the Ultimate question of Life the Universe and Everything is unknowable, because if by some incredibly unlikely chance you did ever find out what it was. The Universe would cease to exist and a new and even more complex one would exist. changing the Ultimate question of life the universe and everything.

I have two theories on the question.

1) To be or not to be, that is the question.
In hexadecimal, 42 is 2A, which isn't 2B. The significance of not being I'll leave to you to decide.

2) Some finds out the question, and the universe in indeed destroyed, at least in respect to the story, and it is replaced by our being introduced to WSOGMM, or Whole Sort of General Mish-Mash (see mostly harmless) which is obviously more complex.

The second theory is only correct if 42 applies only to the books and not the real world, but we "know" this is wrong.

The question is, how many billion billion billionths of a second after the big bang did light energy come into existence. Trust me, I'm a door.

has anyone stopped to think that maybe, just maybe, deep thought was wrong?

saying he checked it thoroughly doesn't mean anything, because if there's a flaw in the working-out-the-answer section, there's probably a flaw in the checking-the-answer section.

perhaps one of the many people who don't want the answer known (eg philosopher) reprogrammed deep thought to give the wrong answer, and to deny that it was doing it, and to deny that it was denying it, and to deny that there was anything to deny?

Actually technically, truthfully and utterly honestly, the question is:

"When Douglas Adams skipped out of BBC Broadcasting Centre to the Nearest pub with a mate to start writing h2g2, what number did he decide was the funniest number there is?"

This is true because I saw it on the BBC's tribute night to Adams.

(As for the Deep Thought theory, well, it's a cowardly way out)

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This is far too late to do this conversation any good, and - for all I know - all of these researchers may have left the Hitchhikers building on their next assignments, but I'll leave a note here anyway.

Deep thought was charged with the task of finding the ultimate answer to the ultimate question of 'life, the universe, everything'. The 'Book' reported that this was meant to settle, once and for all, every one of the theological debates and, incidentally, decide the question of whether it really mattered if one got up for work the next morning.

Given this, the 'Answer' and the 'Question' have not only a requirement to agree with one another, but must meet the other conditions. If your question is earth-centric, human-centric, or even galaxy-centric, it is far too small in scope to be of any use. It must be at the same time broad enough to cover every philosophical, religious, and scientific question - and answer all the mundane, day-to-day, personal angst questions that regularly come up when dealing with 'life, the universe, and everything'.

Obviously then, the key is relating the 'Question' and 'Answer' to the particular question at hand. Regardless of which question is being tested, the Ultimate Question/Answer combination must be relatable and adaptable enough for its application to be easily inferred.

There is, in my opinion, only one 'Ultimate Question' which meets all of these requirements, and for which the answer could be fortytwo (1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1) regardless of the base of the numbering system.

We can righfully assume this precise result because the words 'forty' and 'two' were pronounced distinctly and clearly enough for Deep Thought to have corrected the receivers of 'The Answer' if the answer was 'For Tea, Too' or some variation thereof, and because the Babel Fish is presumed infallible in its translations for a human accustomed to counting in Base 10.

With all those restrictions in place, and not hearing anybody coming up with the one workable and worthwhile answer, I am now ready to reveal the "Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything" to which the answer 42 is the correct response.

The questions is broad enough not to be earth, solar system, or even galaxy centric; not human or human civilization restricted, but still answers that burning question "Does it really, in the cosmic scheme of things, matter if I get up and go to work tomorrow?"

The question is: "How many gods were involved in designing this whole existence thing anyway?"

There is not a question that you can throw up against this question, and the answer, "42" [base ten], that can survive its simplicity and accurateness.

It explains any and all amounts of randomness, greyness between philosophies or good and bad, all of the "Should I..." or "Does it really matter if..., questions, and settles any confusing arguments that can be posited.

Universe, You're Welcome!