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

how many roads must a man walk down before you can call him a man?

that, compadres is the real question. sheesh! don't you know where this site came from?? if not, http://www.douglasadams.com ought to clear things up a bit. the same reason a towel bears more importance than any other item to the interplanetary hitchiker. and don't say it's his way of being all secretive and complicated by putting in a hidden number with a special meaning. it's a tribute to the futility that is petty mortal beings such as ourselves trying to figure out and explain something we cannot understand. in the quite misnamed hitchikers' trilogy (a total of 5 books), these people decided they'd build a computer that would compute what the meaning of life was. so it took the thing aeons and when it finally gave them the answer to life, the universe, and everything generations upon generations later, the answer was 42. according to the computer, they needed a new, bigger and fancier computer to compute the question. it was going to take even more mind-boggling amounts of time to figure this riddle out. however, there was quite the crowd outside waiting for the answer from the descendents of the scientists responsible for creating the computer, who were chosen to be the first to know the answer, to share their knowledge. angry crowds are never good when you happen to be the object of their anger. so they made up a question to go with the answer that sounded good enough to please the people: how many roads must a man walk down before you can call him a man? and if you don't know where that came from, you need to go and listen to some old records by a man known as bob dylan. but basically, this whole ordeal is a tribute to the ridiculousness of people like us trying to figure out what the meaning of life is. give up and work on doing something you can do, like raising funds for a charity, donate your time and effort to the development of a child, help out someone in need, or creating something new to leave the world with when you're gone. don't bother trying to figure out what you can't comprehend. that's what 42 is all about.

You foolish people. It was said that due to Arthur Dent not being from earth from the beginning he had a perversion of the Great Question. Thus his version was "What do you get if you multiply six by nine?" (scrabble letters). That is an obvious perversion of the correct question: "What do you get if you multiply six by seven?"

Question found

Yes, but there isn't a way we can seem to convince ourselves that that is correct the same way we can't seeem to convince ourselves that all those planes that got lost in the burmuda triangle were beamed up by space aliens. It's the only logical explanation, but we just cannot accept it. Because DNA died, we will now never know.
Nerd42

It seems to me that the only real question ever asked was "what is the answer to life the universe and ever"

It seems to me that the only real question ever asked was "what is the answer to life the universe and everything"

Ooh, good one. That may just be it!

Yes this may work but how do you get 42 out of a word question? What were the numbers behind it?

Because we dont really know what the question is! Sheesh dont you lot read good literature

Mind you, the question and the answer cant both be known in any one universe anyway. I guess we'll just have to wait till the universe collapses into the big crunch and then big bangs again before we can find out what the question is

Thta's right! I remeber that now! If some one finds out the universe turns into something even more bizarre and confusing.

We should stop trying. Evidently 42 is our species best interpretation of the answer, but maybe the question is beyond us. Maybe forty two is the closed thing to it that can be typed on a keyboard without special buttons. Maybe we have it n the wrong number system. What's so special about 10? It could be 101010 (base 2), 1120 (base 3), 222 (base 4), 132 (base 5, etc.), 110, 60, 52, 46, 42! I wonder if there's a pattern in there somewhere?...

Maybe the question is completely different from our language and can't even be concieved.

(OK, OK, I'll do base 1: 000000000000000000000000000000000000000000)...(Happy?)

Or maybe 42 simply isn't the answer.

How dare you...!

Key word "maybe".

Base ten was used because humans have ten fingers and ten toes right?

right, and its extremely inefficient, we'd all be much better off an perhaps on average smarter if we used base twelve, eight, or six. but never an odd number, and probably not six.

I assure you that in this world, the real world, there are answers, there is truth. Life is not about meaning, it's about potential, it's about evolution. We exist because it was possible for us to exist, as everything that exists. We learn, we evolve, and that gives us infinite potential. We came from absolute simplicity and we are destined for absolute greatness. Perhaps you would be interested in giving some input into my site at http://www.angelfire.com/psy/truth/ It's just being born and could use the input. Thanx

you know that thing about accelerating the human evolution? Have you ever heard of the Darwin Awards? Rather thinking down the other side of the sam line that you are, I believe.
Once I considered why do humans trouble themselves with all these little things on Earth like war and stuff, when if we could all work together, we could achieve the ultimate [goal]. But we don't know what the ultimate goal is, and humanity doesn't seemthat eager to reach it, which is our problem, and if only we could we as a species could "ascend" to higher greatness and similiarly cryptic stuff.
You're absolutely right, the only reason for life to exist is for evolution. Maybe life exists because evolution is trying to go somewhere. We really have no way of knowing.
One problem with evolutino is that with such a high survival rate, its nearly going backwards. The peopel with better qualities are more likely to become wealthy, but then the rich and wealthy is statistically less likely to have children that will evolve better qualites. Not a good thing for evolution as a whole.

Don't worry, I was jsut trying to reply with something equally as philosophical as what you said, and I got carried away...

It is important that we do not give sentient qualities to something that is not. The universe may be vastly complicated and confusing now but long ago that was not so. It has no master plan, we have evolved into the possibility of greatness. "Think not of the meaning of life, but rather of it's potential." It is man's ability to believe in things that are not true that is causing the practically de-evolution of society. The physical evolution of the atoms of matter in the universe, in it's simplest and most complex forms, in their chemical reactions, exist separately from the intellectual evolution of the human race, as all things dependant and absolutely similar, independent and absolutely different. I am excited by your optimism, because I have been trying for some time now to assure people that my life's work has proven that man's evolution is at his own fingertips, that our potential is infinite and there is reason for hope and happiness for us all.

Wow.

Unfortunately, there are too many people who would disagree, that evolution is not important and that that is not what we were created for. They are most likely wrong, for the only reason that life exists is to make more life, and evolution is the process of improving the chances of survival. There are too many people who do not understand this. Also, you could say that evolution is not needed anymore, for we already survive almost all the time, but I do not believe that is is the case. Another powerful problem is that the idea of evolution is opposed by religion. Religion started originally started as a way to understand things that were not understood, in my belief, and yet now it has diverged into believing in the supernatural even when there are explanations. It is now simply part of society, that society carries along with it. The explanation is there but too many do not see it and do not want to believe it. The true religion is explanation and explanation is the true religion that is worth following.

(That was fun)

I love it, more pessimism from my fellow humans. lol. Anyway, to allay your doubts some, the facts are, most people have no interest in studying all the aspects of the universe, and taking the time to work out the solutions to life's problems. They are perfectly happy to accept the findings of the people that do. To effect change in the evolution of the human race, the cooperation of the people that effect change in the current belief and lifestyle of the human race, is needed. People like teachers, parents, entertainers, politicians, lawyers, judges, police, etc... It is not important that we convince everyone, and we have an unrefutable ally in the truth, as well as people like me intent on devoting there lives to the future of the evolution of the human race. When you speak the truth there generally is no argument.