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

With regards to 42, when DNA gave the answer to the meaning of life he did actually mean just pure and simple 42. Not that that would be the age at which one would find out (in which case the secret would have been leaked by now ), but that the answer is 42.

That doesn't make sense? Nope, it doesn't. It was Douglas' way of saying: the question doesn't make sense either.

hey all i'm back after a loss of internet due to not paying bills.
any ways it seems like u have gotten into a real good discussion and i'm sorry if anything i say is back tracking.

First of all i do not like the idea of life being only there for some one to survive through it and be the fittest at it too. If that were the case then that would mean that doctors, medicine, and all related sciences that are dedicated to saving people are in fact interupting and/or impedeing that meaning. They take some people that have done nothing other then sit at home and collect welfare, and return them to health.

On the other hand i do like the idea that the meaning to living is to make an impact on those around you, even if it is not in a great gigantic way. it could just be consoleing ones friend after the loss of a loved one. it might end up that they were going to commit suicdidel, or some other foolish act, and thanks to your counsel they were swayed from doing so. For all you know this could be the person that goes on to impact the world in a tremendous way, like space colonization/travel or what not, and even if they are not you affected them. also in saving them there is no doubt that they will affect some one else (possibly even you) in return.

On the note of flawlessness, in my short years of life that i have experienced i have found nothing to be perfect, especially people. To quote a phrase from Frank Herbert's Dune "real boats rock, those that don't are hiding their flaws" (or something to that effect, i don't have the book here to referance from). I have found that those who display their flaws openly are those that are most worthy of my time. Any one that attempts to seem perfect to those around them will hide anything that they have done wrong without thought of the consequences.
No matter how close to perfection a person is they will have some unique characteristic that may seem to others to be strange or flawed behavior. In short what i am trying to say on this subject is "befriend the openly Quirky people, distrust the apparent perfect ones" (ooo thats a good quote)

well i think that covers every thing major that i missed.
Happy philosiphiseing.

wow after posting that i realized how much that was. i usually don't wind on like that. oh well.
happy philosiphising

If the meaning of life is to make an impression on people, then surely if you're born in a cave on some island, you're fairly screwed? I like your version, but it's still morally biased.

Well, for a person living in a cave on an otherwise unpolulated island, there are still ways of affecting others. Indirectly, most likely, but still...
If you believe in the intellectual experiment of the Chinese Weather Butterfly, even such a person can affect other people, simply by eating a certain fish, that won't spawn other fish, that makes it impossible for a few other people to eat fish on a certain Friday. That makes them cranky, and let them do foolish things.
Far fetched? Yes, undoubtably. But that is the sort of thing you get to deal with if you are trying to find out something as ethereal as the Meaning of Life. It is impossible for us to see the whole picture. Not only because reality is so mindbogglingly complex, but also because we can't observe everything, due to technical problems. We cannot witness everything because we can't measure them. Therefore, we can only, in the best case, stumble upon the answer, and even then, we have to realise that it is in fact the answer.
Best we can hope to achieve, is giving it a good go...

But then you're using the Butterfly effect asymmetrically. If any action could have a random positive effect on the lifes of others, making your life more meaningful, then any action might also have a negative effect, or none at all.

I think it is not that any action could have a random positive effect on anyone, merely that there is an effect created whether positive, negative or neutral -- and so one makes an impression.

Just playing 's advocate.

If any action creates an effect (dropping a pebble in a pool) and the butterfly effect (the ripples from the point of impact) could be seen by an outside observer, one would find that the ripples touch the end of the pond and begin to interfere with each other. If this cause and effect metod was looked upon at a planetery scale the mass of interference from the ripples created by everything else and the ripples created by your own previous can in some way explain the workings of karma

The meaning of life is to live it.

It's can be...
My opinion:There is no one appsolutley meaning of life.Every pearson make their own meaninig.
(i still do not know my meaninig of life)

can't tell you if your not 42!

(9-3)x(9-5+4-1)= My age

Apparently I know/am the answer...what was the question again? oh yes 6x6=

It doesn't actually mean when you get to 42 you'll know...

Surely even if your born in a cave on an island from the moment of conception (or probably before that, at the thought of the act of ensuring conception) you've already had an effect on someone. Unless you spotaneously came into existence without outside influence. There, see, a two way effect.

The meaning of life... surely it is personal to each individual life? but there are some generic tenets.

"...do unto others as you would have them do unto you..." seems like a good catch all.

I'm not bound by ties to any dogma but there are some basic "truths" in every theology that relate to our lives and interactions with others.

In my opinion, this says it... Live your life the way you want but be prepared to get back exactly what you put out with interest (be it good or bad).

We could get into a whole discussion on the definition of good and bad...

Either way you will have had an effect on someone it may not be a direct effect but it will be an effect, they may not know who affected them or that there's even been an influence...it doesn't matter. The scale is unimportant.

to go back to the ripples in the pond analogy... the ripples and their effects are present long after the pebble has disappeared.

It strikes me that the pre-occupation with 'why am I here?' and ' what's the meaning of life?' is really " will I be remembered well when I'm gone?"

Be content that you have a life, live it fully (use whatever definition of fully you want)

Content? Why be content? I'm happy in my discontent.
I'd rather be a fool dissatisfied than a fool satisfied.

You're content with your discontent?

I'm comfortable with it...

either way still a fool why not be happy as well?

Because discontent is the seed of progress and understanding.
It sounds like I read that off a beer mat, doesn't it?

Yep

So are you then happy in the knowledge that you don't have all the answers and your equally not content to stand still and wait for them to come to you?

Good for you! "Sapere aude" (Dare to be wise)

"vivitur ingeio,caetera mortus erunt" (Genius lives on, all else is mortal).

Let's all strive for immortality!

I got these from another web site!!

I like 'em.
"I'll live forever, or die trying."
Now that's my kinda mentality, baby.