42 in hitchhikers guide to the galaxy
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There is a problem with your logic though. Bucket is clearly your ANSWER to the question; However, as we have established, 42 is in fact the answer to the question, and what we want to know is the QUESTION.Lyiat said:
And, no, I don't think "Bucket? 42!" will suffice.
42 buckets? A little less likely, as one bucket is all you really need.Lyiat said:
But you have a point, Deep Thought may be wrong. Then again, it was designed by group of hyperintelligent pan-dimensional beings. Working in our dimensional plane is as to us finding the area of a square - A simple matter. Not to mention finding the Answer took 7 and a half million years to compute (including checking) so one can assume it to be right.
Let's just say, for peace's sake, that we live in an alternate/parallel/perpendicular universe to that of the Hitchhikers Guide and that 42 applies only to it, and bucket to us.
Way I figure it, the problem is that 42 is more of a "hakuna matata" answer. Since it's designed to be the answer to "life, Universe and everything" it's the answer that can answer EVERY question, if not faxctualyl correct, then in a sort of philosophical way.
When DeepThought said the reason it didn't make sense was because they didn't know the question, what he emant was that they werenøt actually asking him anything. Think. What is the base of human existence? Numerous question that we spent time finding an asnwer for. Usually so much time, that it is pointless if we find it anyway, because we could have been enjoying life instead, like the dolphins.
I don't know if I actually think this. I just hammered it out just now.
When DeepThought said the reason it didn't make sense was because they didn't know the question, what he emant was that they werenøt actually asking him anything. Think. What is the base of human existence? Numerous question that we spent time finding an asnwer for. Usually so much time, that it is pointless if we find it anyway, because we could have been enjoying life instead, like the dolphins.
I don't know if I actually think this. I just hammered it out just now.
Hmmm...
If you drop a bucket to the ground at random, what word will the sound it makes when bouncing be?
42!
If you drop a bucket to the ground at random, what word will the sound it makes when bouncing be?
42!
How many laps around the Pyramids can a hoopy frood do after a Galactic Gargle Blaster without forgetting where his towel is?
Douglas Adams was an absurdist, as best I can tell. He ultimately viewed that there *is* no purpose and the fact that humans have been flailing in the abyss searching for one is little more than hilarious. HHGttG is a wonderful illustration of this; the fact that we don't even know the question, let alone the answer. Even in the event that there could be a question or an answer, even if we somehow *found* a finite answer, it'd likely be something as mundane as a two-digit number. A moment of glorious bathos in complete antithesis to all the supreme narratives of religion that promise a shimmering eschatology or some unfolding of a wonderful divine drama.
On a deeper level, I also think he criticises the idea that even if there were an answer, it's not the kind of answer that can be uncovered by finite reason or logic: That a supercomputer could solve the darkest questions of existence like an equation. Existence is a matter of subjectivity, inwardness and experience; meaning is imparted through simply living . The fact that philosophers and humans in general have such a desire for a finite, objective answer to an infinite, subjective question* is just cause for more amusement.
*I know I'm making assumptions about the nature of 'the question' - what I mean to say is that it's something which isn't actually a 'question' at all, but that existence itself is a quandry to which there is no 'answer' in the sense that a normal 'question' would demand.
On a deeper level, I also think he criticises the idea that even if there were an answer, it's not the kind of answer that can be uncovered by finite reason or logic: That a supercomputer could solve the darkest questions of existence like an equation. Existence is a matter of subjectivity, inwardness and experience; meaning is imparted through simply living . The fact that philosophers and humans in general have such a desire for a finite, objective answer to an infinite, subjective question* is just cause for more amusement.
*I know I'm making assumptions about the nature of 'the question' - what I mean to say is that it's something which isn't actually a 'question' at all, but that existence itself is a quandry to which there is no 'answer' in the sense that a normal 'question' would demand.
In retrospect, yes. That was quite untrue for philosophers in general. I was thinking of the Rationalist theologians of the 18th century (Locke, Paley and their ilk) who were desparate to prove God's existence through reason and reason alone. Experience was thrown out of the equation. From their came Naturalistic theology and Deism - the Design argument and the rest of it. All things that effectively sought a simple answer to a far more complex question.Longshot said:
I was just thinking of a rather specific group of thinkers and wrote philosophers for some reason.
EDIT: It also took me 10 seconds to double check that 6 x 9 = 54. My brain is made of fail this morning.
What do you get when you multiply sock by tuna, and then divide it by Winchestertonfieldville? Then for the question, simply add free will in liberal doses (stirring occasionally) while reciting the opening to Star Trek. Bake for 45 mins at 210.3859 degrees Kelvin, let stand for 2 millenia and eat watching your favorite episode of Clarrisa Explains it All. Does that answer your question?
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