42: Does he really know, or is he just pulling our collective leg?

[Biofungus]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7283155.stm

It's 30 years since Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy made its debut on BBC radio, but its most famous mystery is still waiting to be resolved.

The radio series - which subsequently became both bestselling book, television series and film - traces the travels around the galaxy of Arthur Dent, after the earth is destroyed to make way for a "hyperspatial express route".

Possibly the most famous line in the whole book is the "answer to life, the universe, and everything" given by the supercomputer, Deep Thought.

[Mungkay]

The man is a filthy liar!

This was in one of the comments:

Douglas Adams was asked many times during his career why he chose the number 42. Many theories were proposed but he rejected them all. On 3 November 1993 he gave an answer on alt.fan.douglas-adams:

"The answer to this is very simple. It was a joke. It had to be a number, an ordinary, smallish number, and I chose that one. Binary representations, base thirteen, Tibetan monks are all complete nonsense. I sat at my desk, stared into the garden and thought '42 will do'. I typed it out. End of story."

[bluelinesmoke]

I remember reading that he thought that it was the funniest sounding number. I think he was right.

[Mr.Musgrave]

It's still a better answer to life, the universe, and everything than anyone else has come up with. At least it makes sense.

[Comix Obsession]

It's still a better answer to life, the universe, and everything than anyone else has come up with. At least it makes sense.

Quote of the day.