|
*How many roads must a man walk down?: The mice chose this Question as the one they would claim to be the correct one.
Having return to the supercomputer Earth, albeit in a prehistoric stage, [[Ford Prefect]] got [[Arthur Dent]] to randomly pull Scrabble tiles out of a bag. This resulted in the Question: "What do you get if you multiply six by nine?"<ref>From the [[Douglas Adams]] book [[The Restaurant at the End of the Universe]].</ref>
==And the Results Are In!==
<span style="font-family:TwCenMTCondensedExtraBold;color:rgb(0,0,0);line-height:normal;orphans:2;widows:2;font-size:16pt;">What is</span><span style="font-family:TwCenMTCondensedExtraBold;font-size:large;color:rgb(0,0,0);line-height:normal;orphans:2;widows:2;"> </span><span style="font-family:TwCenMTCondensedExtraBold;color:rgb(0,0,0);line-height:normal;orphans:2;widows:2;font-size:16pt;">''The Answer for The Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything?''</span> <span style="font-size:16pt;">'''42.'''</span><span style="font-size:16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size:16pt;">That’s it.</span><span style="font-size:16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size:16pt;">That’s</span> <span style="font-size:16pt;">'''The Answer'''</span> <span style="font-size:16pt;">.</span><span style="font-size:16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size:16pt;">But you never really understood what</span> <span style="font-size:16pt;">'''The Ultimate Question '''was</span><span style="font-size:16pt;">, did you?</span><span style="font-size:16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size:16pt;"> So</span> <span style="font-size:16pt;">'''The Answer'''</span> <span style="font-size:16pt;">doesn’t make sense without it. If you knew what the</span> <span style="font-size:16pt;">'''The Ultimate Question'''</span> <span style="font-size:16pt;">was, yo bass5table u might understand why</span> <span style="font-size:16pt;">'''The Answer is 42'''</span><span style="font-size:16pt;">, and if that makes sense to you, you are one enlightened dude, dude.</span><span style="font-size:16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size:16pt;">Do you wanna know</span> <span style="font-size:16pt;">'''The Ultimate Question?'''</span><span style="font-size:16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size:16pt;">Are you ready? Ok,</span> <span style="font-size:16pt;">'''DON’T PANIC'''</span><span style="font-size:16pt;">:</span><span style="font-size:16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size:16pt;">''What do you get if you multiply six by nine?''</span><span style="font-size:16pt;">'''Forty-Two.'''</span><span style="font-size:16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size:16pt;">It works in base-13.</span><span style="font-size:16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size:16pt;">Who would write a mathematical joke in base 13?</span><span style="font-size:16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size:16pt;">A mathematical God.</span><span style="font-size:16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size:16pt;">Need more of an explanation?</span><span style="font-size:16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size:16pt;">It's a joke. It's '''The Joke'''. The single greatest joke that there ever could be, sort of like a '''Zen Koan'''. That's the answer to '''The Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything'''. It came to me in a vision, divine revelation maybe, or it might’ve been a vegetable induced hallucination, either way, it makes completely perfect sense to me, if it does to you, great! If not, then I hope I’ve helped you on your path to enlightenment, '''Dude.'''</span><span style="font-size:16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size:16pt;">If you want to know the purpose of '''The Universe''', ''why are we all here, what should we all be doing, how shall we lead our lives,''</span><span style="font-size:16pt;"> this is the message that '''the Universe''' gave me:</span><span style="font-size:16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size:16pt;">In one marathon briefing, everything was laid before me; the entire history of the '''Cosmos''', from the '''Big Bang''', to the '''Gnab Gib'''. And then there were the multifarious threads from every single disconnected plotline that comes together in the final act, and it all converges into one hilarious singularity of '''Cosmic Consciousness'''.</span><span style="font-size:16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size:16pt;">In the '''Beginning''', there was '''One''', '''One Unitive Consciousness''', that was, and is, its own reason for being, '''Cogito Ergo Sum''', ''I think, therefore I am''. '''I Am Who I Am'''. And then for some reason, most likely a bit of fun, it got bored one day, this unity divided, and fractured, and compartmentalized itself, a being of pure thought energy and consciousness blew itself apart at the '''Big Bang,''' so it could be the storyteller and the audience, without giving any of the twists away to itself.</span><span style="font-size:16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size:16pt;">All of us are these shards of consciousness, pieces of a bigger whole that will come back together in the end, every detail matters to the whole, every throwaway line is vital, all of the tragedies and tribulations get redeemed in the end when this massive, ornate, impossibly intricate universe ties everything together for the big reveal.</span>
<span style="font-size:16pt;">So relax, and ''enjoy the '''ride!'''''</span>
==Behind the scenes==
It has been noted that in base 13, 6 multiplied by 9 will equal 42. [[Douglas Adams]] later joked, "I don't make jokes in base 13".<ref>Number 42 Explained by Douglas Adams - Also Base 13 Explained, h2g2; link [http://h2g2.com/entry/A4288584 here].</ref>
|
