42 (answer)

42 is the "Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything" in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and The Hitchhiker’s Ultimate Guide to the Galaxy books. It was thought up by Deep Thought, the second greatest computer ever.^[1] The descendants of Deep Thought's creators are upset by the oddness of the answer, not understanding what to do with it or what to tell the people who had asked for the 7.5-million year project.^[2]

When asked to find the meaning of The Ultimate Question to go with the answer "42", Deep Thought admits it is not able to come up with that itself, but that it can help to design an even more powerful computer which can. The new computer would use living beings in order to come up with it and would run for ten million years, the new computer being Earth.^[3]

Notes

↑ Adams, Douglas (1981). The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Pocket. ISBN 978-0-671-46149-2.
↑ Adams, Douglas (1981). The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Pocket. p. 3. ISBN 978-0-671-46149-2.
↑ Adams, Douglas (1980). Life, the Universe and Everything. ISBN 978-0-345-39181-0.

This short article about literature can be made longer. You can help Wikipedia by adding to it.

[1] Adams, Douglas (1981). The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Pocket. ISBN 978-0-671-46149-2.

[2] Adams, Douglas (1981). The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Pocket. p. 3. ISBN 978-0-671-46149-2.

[book2-3] Adams, Douglas (1980). Life, the Universe and Everything. ISBN 978-0-345-39181-0.

[1]

[2]

[3]