Why 42 is a good answer, and perhaps why 84 is a better one.
Created | Updated Feb 17, 2002
Have you ever heard that life is a crap shoot? A toss of the dice? That's why the number 42 is a good answer, and 84 is a better one.
We all know that the answer is supposed to be 42. We know this because in the ancient pre-history of this world, the question was found to be "What is the product of 6 times 7?"
That's not a bad question, and the answer is fine. But 84 is a much better answer because it answers a better question, namely "What is the product of 2 times 6 times 7?"
6 and 7 are really only good numbers for the question as long as you include 2. And it really doesn't matter that their multiplied. What's important is that with an answer like "42" or "84," we can find the question, and so multiplication or division or what have you helps us find the question. And really, "42" or "84" are just easier to remember than, "What is the product of 6 times 7?" or "What is the product of 2 times 6 times 7?"
Really, though, they're nice numbers. They've helped lots of people create better lives for themselves, most notably people like Jack Benion, who owns a big piece of a casino outfit from Las Vegas.
The problem is that the answer works best in casinos, where 2 is the number dice you play with, 6 is the number of sides on each die, and 7 is a good number to throw because the house pays. But the underlying principles can be extrapolated to explain the much bigger questions of Life, the Universe and Everything.
When you play craps at the casino, there are 2 dice, each with 6 sides. Each side of each die is numbered, 1 through 6, and when 2 dice are thrown, you add the number on the top face of a die to the number on the top face of the other die to come up with a number between 1 and 12, and it's all completely random. Chaotic. Unpredictable.
Well, mostly unpredictable. There are 36 possible random combinations, but the most common sum is 7. Throw the dice 600 times, and 7 will have been the result for roughly 100 of the throws, on average.
The underlying principle is that, while each outcome is random, there is an overall pattern. It becomes predictable. Because it's predictable, it's not really random on a large scale. And that has implications for the answers to Life, the Universe and Everything. Each instance is chaotic, but it never deviates from the order that underlies it.
And because it's predictable, the house will win more money from you than you can win from the house. And isn't that what really happens with respect to Life, the Universe and Everything? The house wins?
We all know that the answer is supposed to be 42. We know this because in the ancient pre-history of this world, the question was found to be "What is the product of 6 times 7?"
That's not a bad question, and the answer is fine. But 84 is a much better answer because it answers a better question, namely "What is the product of 2 times 6 times 7?"
6 and 7 are really only good numbers for the question as long as you include 2. And it really doesn't matter that their multiplied. What's important is that with an answer like "42" or "84," we can find the question, and so multiplication or division or what have you helps us find the question. And really, "42" or "84" are just easier to remember than, "What is the product of 6 times 7?" or "What is the product of 2 times 6 times 7?"
Really, though, they're nice numbers. They've helped lots of people create better lives for themselves, most notably people like Jack Benion, who owns a big piece of a casino outfit from Las Vegas.
The problem is that the answer works best in casinos, where 2 is the number dice you play with, 6 is the number of sides on each die, and 7 is a good number to throw because the house pays. But the underlying principles can be extrapolated to explain the much bigger questions of Life, the Universe and Everything.
When you play craps at the casino, there are 2 dice, each with 6 sides. Each side of each die is numbered, 1 through 6, and when 2 dice are thrown, you add the number on the top face of a die to the number on the top face of the other die to come up with a number between 1 and 12, and it's all completely random. Chaotic. Unpredictable.
Well, mostly unpredictable. There are 36 possible random combinations, but the most common sum is 7. Throw the dice 600 times, and 7 will have been the result for roughly 100 of the throws, on average.
The underlying principle is that, while each outcome is random, there is an overall pattern. It becomes predictable. Because it's predictable, it's not really random on a large scale. And that has implications for the answers to Life, the Universe and Everything. Each instance is chaotic, but it never deviates from the order that underlies it.
And because it's predictable, the house will win more money from you than you can win from the house. And isn't that what really happens with respect to Life, the Universe and Everything? The house wins?
