Wilfredthedog
131794
2375
300
True meaning of 42
#hitch_hikers_guide FP edit: yay! I'm bored out of town! Send me snapchats of things you guys are doing! Username is as follows: bicbo
Dec 3, 2017 3:51 PM
Wilfredthedog
131794
2375
300
#hitch_hikers_guide FP edit: yay! I'm bored out of town! Send me snapchats of things you guys are doing! Username is as follows: bicbo
ThePizzaGuyOfJustice
I thought asterisk meant basically "all". So Java.* Means everything under Java. Not whatever you want it to be...
davefishguy42
"I may be a pretty sad case, but I don't make jokes in base 13." Different theory, but I feel the man would've had a similar retort.
SomeAustralianGuyThatLovesCatsAndBeer
I read the last, and unfinished Dirk Gently book. It just ends part way thru, when Adams died. It gave me a very strange feeling.
MrEpimetheus
Never has the phrase "not sure if repost" smelled more strongly of bullshit...+1
RetirementNoirATaleOfPruneJuiceAndMurder
He picked a random number he liked the sound of and knew that people would theorize about his deep reasoning.
vanella
#42 was Jackie Robinsons number, baseball is life <3
Skyhighatrist2
Yeah, I call bullshit.
StarSumiaki
At least this one's better than the other one where "42" split as "4 2" reads in Japanese as "Shi ni" which is also how you say "death" (死に)
ZeRootOfAllEvil
Douglas had a different answer every time he was asked that question.
tardis63
Anybody harping on "What did Adams mean by 42?" is COMPLETELY missing the point
oddone30
If a=1, b=2 and so on. MATH m=13 a=1 t=20 h=8 13+1+20+8=42. So the answer to everything is math
ArandomDane
"Today we will analyse what the author really meant", "but miss he told us in this article.", "GO TO THE PRINCIPLES OFFICE"
ThatDeadGuyFromGameOfThrones
yeah no, he just picked a number, he said himself
derppatrol
But we already know it's the answer to the ultimate question: "What is Six Times Nine?"
HelpMeImFEELINGandImLeaking
54
derppatrol
No, it's 42.
SorDavos
Remember the quote about the fairies in the garden? That's you.
Blackrain39
It was the ULTIMATE QUESTION of life the universe and everything. That part is extremely important and people always leave it out.
humanproof8
Thank you
randomguy186
For Tea, Two.
Bazzatron666
I've heard he confided the true meaning in Stephen Fry, a secret to take to the grave.
ParadigmShiftingWithoutAClutch
42 also translates phonetically to “Death” in Japanese.
Ranger1992
I was looking for this reply.
ScryForSciFi
I think I am finally relevant!
TheyDontKnowAndYouCantTellEm
Except when Adams wrote the book computers would have been using EBCDIC, not ASCII.
lonelylinguist
He used a DEC Rainbow 100, Apricot, & BBC Micro, which I believe were all ASCII-based systems, tho EBCDIC was still in use on IBM machines.
TheyDontKnowAndYouCantTellEm
Ha! I was trolling for the one guy who would know! Thanks for the correction!
lonelylinguist
Cunningham’s Law at work. “The best way to get the right answer on the internet is not to ask a question; it’s to post the wrong answer.” :)
TheyDontKnowAndYouCantTellEm
Excellent. I knew about Rule 34, Poe's law and Godwin's theorem but not Cunningham's. My IIQ just went up 20%.
thedeltabrainwave
This was the dumbist book series I've ever read
Snooj
He also had his first kid at 42 so my wife's interpretation is that was when his life suddenly had meaning.
Snooj
Although that was after he wrote the book. Still, he could have been more orderly than we suspect.
myusernamebringsalltheboystotheyardandtheyrelikeitstoodamnlong
He was 26 when the original radio show came out in which he wrote that the answer was 42 so aside from some wacky time travel shit probs not
Snooj
Hence my reply to my comment.
DespiseEveryone
Congrats on the pretty wife... he wrote the books quite a bit earlier.
Jomaander
"ASCII" "the most basic computer software"...
NotTheSharpestSpoonInTheDrawer
Yeah, everyone knows that BASIC is the most basic computer software
Courier87
Sorry, but no. Adams just found it a funny number, and purposely made 'the answer' nonsensical
IconicM
Even if it's a coincidence, 42 is the Decimal value for * so that's pretty cool.
boskonetwo
And it also depends on what format you use for ASCII. It's * in dec, B in hex, and " in oct.
RepostFromLastWeek
Yeah, but those would be 042, 0x42 or 42h or \x42 and 42. No ambiguity around them.
eroso
Got source?
Courier87
https://www.inverse.com/article/16169-towel-day-douglas-adams the original Google group it was in has gone, but the interview is quoted here
DorMin2
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrases_from_The_Hitchhiker%27s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy#The_number_42
usernametaken42
Wasn't it cause 42 in Japanese sounds like death. So everything dies eventually so it's the answer to everything
ElynaerDeiros
Yet another, fan theory.
usernametaken42
Either works for me, still a fan
phdinhorribleness
honestly it doesn't matter whether the post is right. 42 means whatever you want it to mean
Diabolic7e8
Nah not really...rather important to the main themes of the story.
phdinhorribleness
that the universe is a nonsensical mess and the meaning behind all of it is whatever you want it to be?
boskonetwo
That the universe is a nonsensical mess with no meaning behind it.
phdinhorribleness
Saying it's whatever you want it to be is essentially saying objectively there is no meaning, so I'm not sure how our answers differ
imakerandomcatnoises
A language itself is not software, and ASCII is neither. It is a method of encoding.
DefunkMyJunk
Not really a method, but just a standard
leoszliard
An American Standard for Information Interchange, even
HesGotTwoFirstNames
and the C stands for code
xdvgx
I've only taken a couple software courses, but Im proud I knew enough to cringe at that
mrCheese7
*
demainlespoulpes
Wow genius!
IsThisAlreadyChosen
* indeed.
ChefHannibal
lol gross
mrCheese7
Shhhhhh
SamanosukeOnimusha
Del c:\*.*
howToLoseTheGame
Filthy dos peasants
augustus91
magicrhombus
In the radio show they actually revealed the question: "What's 6 x 7?"
skalor
Wrong.
nihilistdad
What is 6x8. There was a flaw in the algorithm, if I remember correctly.
InsidiousExperimental
6x9. Done using Scrabble tiles.
Jusmar
And the BBC miniseries that follows the radio show and has some of the best sci-fi graphics I've seen.
SomeAustralianGuyThatLovesCatsAndBeer
Yes, they still seem very good today.
myusernamebringsalltheboystotheyardandtheyrelikeitstoodamnlong
What do you get when you multiply 6 by 9? Which is 54. Earths calculations were fucked up by the arrival of extraterrestrials
ZeRootOfAllEvil
The Dentrassi from the B Ark.
SomeAustralianGuyThatLovesCatsAndBeer
Probably a telephone sanitiser
Beepity
It works in base-13, though...but it's not the question. When asked, he said: "I may be a sorry case, but I don't write jokes in base 13."
maststick
It’s in the books too
ZeRootOfAllEvil
Arthur: What do you get if you multiply six by nine? 42?
ZeRootOfAllEvil
Ford: I always said there was something fundamentally wrong with the universe.
TeddiyBear
I think I remember reading something where he said he picked it literally just because it was a random number...
TheSwedishCryptid
I liked the sound fourtytwo makes when said out loud too
Theauthenticdonaldtrump
This. Absolutely correct.
EbelKenEbel
I read that it was because he heard John Cleese say that the funniest number was 42.
PirateRubberDuck
He has given more than one answer to this question. He is just like that.
TheClockworkBird
The story goes that he got the idea while watching a squirrel outside of his study window.
NoLongerFoamingWolffo
Yeah this post is 100% wrong. In Adam's own words he said he picked it randomly and just wanted a "smallish" number.
chargeling
Well, he's enough of a jokester that there's room to believe. But that will always be our personal fantasy. (Btw, he ruled out primes.)
OstrichBecky
"I sat on my desk, stared in to the garden and thought 42 will do. I typed it out. End of story." Yep
Freemage69
Hell, the first one I heard was that it was the number of pips on a pair of dice--ie, "pair-o-dice" => paradise. Yeah, it's just as made 1/x
Freemage69
made-up bullshit as this is, of course, but hey, that's the fun of a nonsense answer. 2/2
AllTheGoodOnesWereGone
The joke is that there's NO MEANING in the "42" because you don't know the question it's the answer too. Sometimes that you think you're..
Jewcymf
This.
AllTheGoodOnesWereGone
...looking for is not what you actually need to find. It's already philosophically deep, stop trying to "explain" it so it doesn't bother u.
SuperHir0
Perhaps it's an example of the human brain needing to tie up loose ends and so finds a pattern or some shit.
Bsdemigod
You are right. He is on record expressing his frustration with everyone asking what it means when he was just using it as a placeholder.
nihilistdad
That's not too different in meaning from the "wild card" idea of the OP, without the unnecessary assumptions.
NotTheSharpestSpoonInTheDrawer
There are literally no similarities between a placeholder and a globbing operator
tardis63
OP's picture says it has some deeper meaning. Adams' made it intentionally meaningless
goddamnitletmepickaname
he picked it because it had a lot of "O"s
NairouTryyshokk
Even in the book it is discovered to be something like 6 x 7. The idea behind it is that life has no meaning.
BurgerAndCries
In the book the question is "what is 6 times 9." Ford mentions to Arthur "I knew something was a bit off"
NairouTryyshokk
Yes, that. I remember it being really odd. It's funny because it does not equal 42.
BritishBatman
Wat
NairouTryyshokk
Life has no meaning. It's just a series of random events that just happened to end with humans. We are not really special.
BritishBatman
Yeah, I get that. I meant in the book, is it really just 6 X 7?
reallynotmikepence
Yeah, but I just read that it was something specific.
Mobileuserwholikestoberandom
Well actually if it truly means “whatever you want it to be” then that counts as being both specific and generic. It’s how you interpret it.
Jepalaudsadsin
Just like life
Fuckyouidontcaregofuckyourself
Whoa
Jusmar
It's also straight bullshit because he wrote it before 1978, and unicode's predecessor didn't exist until 1980.
Jusmar
He said it was just a joke. http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/history/42-the-answer-to-life-the-universe-and-everything-2205734.html
NotTheSharpestSpoonInTheDrawer
Wildcard expansion was part of the 1st edition of Unix in 1969. Unicode is wholly unrelated
Jusmar
Plus he stated it it was a joke, verbatim. "It was a joke. It had to be a number, an ordinary, smallish number, and I chose that one. "
NotTheSharpestSpoonInTheDrawer
I'm not defending the post, it's probably fake.
Jusmar
Right ASCII. But do you really think a writer knew the ins and outs of a language known by a few nerds?
NotTheSharpestSpoonInTheDrawer
Douglas Adams was one of those few nerds. Stephen Fry has a great anecdote of Adams helping him recover a script from a corrupted filesystem
Jusmar
In the mid-70s? Didn't they just meet in the middle/late 80s?
pugofstardock
Nerds are everywhere
stormegedendarklordofall
MrA007
What's this a part of? It's number 13 on a list
Moguntia
https://i.imgur.com/aytCs
stormegedendarklordofall
TheVakarian
stormegedendarklordofall
APinkDragon
stormegedendarklordofall
suboptima1
http://www.theasciicode.com.ar/ascii-printable-characters/asterisk-ascii-code-42.html
TallDude
That is just proving that 42=* but not a citation for that this is true for Adams' intent.
suboptima1
Then i guess it's a pretty weird coincidence that the computer in the book came up with a computer answer that supports what OP said
NairouTryyshokk
If you read the explanation in the book it is because it is something like 6x7. The whole idea is that life does not have a meaning.
TallDude
Yes. And there are a ton of coincidences in the world that if you don't dig past give really off information.
HotPocketMemes
So dont get angry. Provide a counterpoint