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It's been 42 years since 'The Hitchhiker's Guide' answered the ultimate question

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Re: It's been 42 years since 'The Hitchhiker's Guide' answered the ultimate question

#101

Post by rusk »

Traster wrote: post #97
rusk wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More specifically, Marvin claimed to have a brain the size of a planet . Adams alluded elsewhere to how the march of technology had brought about galactic scale advances in miniaturisation and exponential growth in the capability of technology. When deep mind designed the earth she probably used the state of the art for that time however many billions of years ago, but Marvin being a more modern device is far more po…

A tangential question that has always bothered me is "How do you get to Alpha Centauri". Or to put it another way, I can probably set off to Alpha Centauri using today's technology. My corpse would arrive there probably in 130,000 years. Give or take an order of magnitude (I've not run the numbers properly). Now I'm extremely confident that the human race in the next 100 years could design a craft that would be able…

> My corpse would arrive there probably in 130,000 years

It is infinitely improbable that you would arrive instantly and alive.

Or could just turn to the ol janx spirit ;-)

Re: It's been 42 years since 'The Hitchhiker's Guide' answered the ultimate question

#102

Post by JadeNB »

CobaltFire wrote: post #74
FourthProtocol wrote: post #73

I was 9 when he published Hitchhiker's guide. I'd just started reading and would go on to spend my teens reading ANYTHING I managed to lay my hands on. And throughout my teens everyone went on and on about Hitchhiker's Guide, and it just didn't... push me to read it. I eventually read it after being consrcipted. And it left me feeling as ambivalent as I felt before reading it. As the comments here evidence, people re…

You statement that "in that depth and meaning are what I value" is an explicit argument that there is no depth or meaning in what other people here value. Your question can't be taken in good faith when that's the ground you plant your feet on. My opinion is that much of what Adams was getting across is that meaning is where and when you find it. Something that means nothing to others can mean the world to you, and v…

> You statement that "in that depth and meaning are what I value" is an explicit argument that there is no depth or meaning in what other people here value.

I think, to the extent that it is an argument for that, it is offset by the question "(probably more likely) have I missed something?". That seems to be a clear indication that, since other people here do value it, FourthProtocol thinks it likely that the depth and meaning are there, just that they haven't found them.

(I also think that many of us here, me included, have such an emotional attachment to HHGttG that it's easy to be offended by such statements, whereas clearly subjective statements like "Lisp is ugly and hard to read" and "Haskell is obscure and too obsessed with theory for a practical programmer to use" would, while surely provoking argument, probably not garner such an emotional response even from Lisp and Haskell fans.)

Re: It's been 42 years since 'The Hitchhiker's Guide' answered the ultimate question

#103

Post by JadeNB »

westcort wrote: post #66

Schopenhauer used an equation with the answer of 42 to make a metaphysical point in “The World as Will and Idea.” I suspect this is the meaning Adams had in mind: As time has only one dimension, counting is the only arithmetical operation, to which all others may be reduced; and yet counting is just intuition or perception a priori, to which there is no hesitation in appealing here, and through which alone everything…

> Schopenhauer used an equation with the answer of 42 to make a metaphysical point in “The World as Will and Idea.” I suspect this is the meaning Adams had in mind:

I think that DNA was satirising the idea of one number, or phrase, or any singular thing being "the" meaning of life—the meaning of life, I like to think he'd think, is life itself, not any minuscule segment of it.

The many interpretations that people can hang on even the most transparently ridiculous of answers is, I believe, part of his point. ("How many roads must a man walk down?" and "what do you get when you multiply six by nine?" as questions I think indicate how seriously he took the answer.)

Re: It's been 42 years since 'The Hitchhiker's Guide' answered the ultimate question

#104

Post by pcrh »

camexp wrote: post #88

"The book follows Englishman Arthur Dent as he wakes up to find that Earth is about to be demolished to make way for a space highway." It was a hyperspace bypass. As far as I am aware that is neither "space" nor a "highway". I guess it is a "kind of space" but I just feel that this is a terrible way to describe it by the authors of the article. However, I could be wrong, I have been multiple times in the past.

Bypass in context refers to the development of the motorway system in the UK. It was sometimes deemed necessary to demolish existing villages, or similar, so that a new motorway would follow a shorter path.

Specifically, the bypass would be a section of roadway that "bypassed" pre-existing routes.

Re: It's been 42 years since 'The Hitchhiker's Guide' answered the ultimate question

#105

Post by wizardforhire »

hibbelig wrote: post #52
geoduck14 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You sought for meaning where there was none, and you found it. Then you lost it when you realized it was never there to begin with. I'm sure there is a lesson to be had here.

This wouldn’t have happened with the towel!

That towel advice is a total pro tip.

Re: It's been 42 years since 'The Hitchhiker's Guide' answered the ultimate question

#106

Post by niccl »

westcort wrote: post #66

Schopenhauer used an equation with the answer of 42 to make a metaphysical point in “The World as Will and Idea.” I suspect this is the meaning Adams had in mind: As time has only one dimension, counting is the only arithmetical operation, to which all others may be reduced; and yet counting is just intuition or perception a priori, to which there is no hesitation in appealing here, and through which alone everything…

I'm really sorry, but this is distressing me no end: It should be (((7 + 9) x 8) -2) / 3 = 42. As written, it equals 25.6666...

Re: It's been 42 years since 'The Hitchhiker's Guide' answered the ultimate question

#107

Post by mymythisisthis »

FourthProtocol wrote: post #73

I was 9 when he published Hitchhiker's guide. I'd just started reading and would go on to spend my teens reading ANYTHING I managed to lay my hands on. And throughout my teens everyone went on and on about Hitchhiker's Guide, and it just didn't... push me to read it. I eventually read it after being consrcipted. And it left me feeling as ambivalent as I felt before reading it. As the comments here evidence, people re…

I read Voltaire's Candide a few years before reading The Hitchhikers Guide. I'm glad I did. The characters, style, themes, were all taken from Voltaire's master work. I still enjoyed reading Douglas Adams. Comparing the two gave me an understanding of what English Lit is. Enjoying each, in a different way, taught me to appreciate works as stand alone objects, and in a larger canon of literature. Though I'm still glad I read Voltaire first.

Re: It's been 42 years since 'The Hitchhiker's Guide' answered the ultimate question

#108

Post by markdown »

toyg wrote: post #36

After hitting my 42nd birthday this year, I thought for a while that Douglas Adams had layered the joke with a bit of truth: at 42, a man is more or less confident in his skin, having lived through enough to feel somewhat unflappable; he's probably raised kids, bought a home, got a decent job, and can pretty much choose what he wants to do for the rest of his life. Hence "the answer" - the answer is to be 42. ... Ala…

> bought a home

Maybe in Adams' time. These days it takes an entire lifetime to buy a home.

Re: It's been 42 years since 'The Hitchhiker's Guide' answered the ultimate question

#109

Post by xhedley »

But why did Douglas Adams think of 42? My theory is that it is from "times table" memorisation questions.

Back in the day in the UK we learned "times tables" at school as a verbal by rote memorisation technique. For each "times table" you memorised up to "times twelve". And then the teacher might ask you in class the answer for a table you were supposed to have learned.

First one to learn was "two twos are four, three twos are six... twelve twos are twenty four". (I'm writing out the numbers rather than using numerals because this was specifically a spoken recitation).

Then you learned the three times table "two threes are six, three threes are nine, ... twelve threes are thirty six".

The four times table is a selection of the two times table up to "six fours are twenty four" and then the next member "seven fours" is an easy addition from 24 to 28.

The five times table is obvious.

The six times table is a selection of the three times table up till "six sixes are thirty six".

Say that (emboldened by the obviousness of the five times table) you didn't do your homework and verbally memorise the six times table.

And then the teacher asks you what are "seven sixes". You are acutely aware that this isn't in your verbal memory (as it would have been if you had done your homework as instructed). You add 6 to "six sixes" which I calculate as "use 4 to get up to 40 then the other 2 are the units so 42".

You say "seven sixes are forty two". There was a one second panic while you worked this out instead of just reciting the rote memorised fact.

But it's the right answer.

Tension then resolution - that is why 42 is the answer to the ultimate question.

Re: It's been 42 years since 'The Hitchhiker's Guide' answered the ultimate question

#110

Post by kazinator »

CobaltFire wrote: post #74
FourthProtocol wrote: post #73

I was 9 when he published Hitchhiker's guide. I'd just started reading and would go on to spend my teens reading ANYTHING I managed to lay my hands on. And throughout my teens everyone went on and on about Hitchhiker's Guide, and it just didn't... push me to read it. I eventually read it after being consrcipted. And it left me feeling as ambivalent as I felt before reading it. As the comments here evidence, people re…

You statement that "in that depth and meaning are what I value" is an explicit argument that there is no depth or meaning in what other people here value. Your question can't be taken in good faith when that's the ground you plant your feet on. My opinion is that much of what Adams was getting across is that meaning is where and when you find it. Something that means nothing to others can mean the world to you, and v…

> You statement that "in that depth and meaning are what I value" is an explicit argument that there is no depth or meaning in what other people here value.

Rather, it seems that the statement is saying that HHTTG lacks depth and meaning for him. (In the context that people like it anyway, but that doesn't imply they don't value depth and meaning; maybe they just like the humor, too, which he doesn't get that much.)

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