brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton) (02/01/84)
All these supposed questions to the ultimate answer of 42 are of course, false. Everybody knows that if anybody ever figures out exactly what the universe is for and what it all really means, the universe will be instantly replaced with something even more bizarre and inexplicable. Thus anybody typing in the question would cause the destruction of the universe, or, if the universe has a self defense mechanism, the process will be killed beforehand. My favourite question that is not right is: "How many times has the universe been figured out before?" (what universe are we on, in zero origin) But the real question to the ultimate answer is .... rp(2,191) seek error panic: I/O error in swap! -- Brad Templeton - Waterloo, Ontario (519) 886-7304
kcarroll@utzoo.UUCP (Kieran A. Carroll) (02/08/84)
* Brad, just because, once both the ultimate question and answer to Life, the Universe etc. are known, the universe will be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable, it doesn't necessarily follow that once the question is stated, the universe will be destroyed, or that anybody about to state it must perforce die before finishing it. First, >somebody< must first realize that the question goes with the answer (just because a grade 3 kid has heard the question "what's 6*9", and has seen the number "42", that doesn't mean that he >knows< that "6*9=42"). Secondly, the even more bizarre and inexplicable universe may be one exactly like ours, with all of us in it, not realizing that anything has changed, except that the answer to the ultimate question is something even more bizarre and inexplicable (or more common and mundane!) than 42. -Kieran A. Carroll ...decvax!utzoo!kcarroll