The true meaning of 42

submitted by [deleted] from i.imgur.com

all 29 comments
sorted by:
top
newinsightfulfun

[–]superjesus 10 insightful - 2 fun10 insightful - 1 fun11 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

This isn't true. Douglas Adams stated numerous times that he picked a number at random and it has no significance whatsoever other than to be anticlimactic.

[–][deleted] 4 insightful - 5 fun4 insightful - 4 fun5 insightful - 5 fun -  (0 children)

Wait a minute!

4+2=6

The number between 4 and 2 is 3.

So, we have to write number 6 down three times.

666 - that's the number of the beast.

Oh, Douglas, you wicked little man!

:)

[–]Sixto 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

But in the very same article:

He ruled out non-integers, then he remembered having worked as a "prop-borrower" for John Cleese on his Video Arts training videos. Cleese needed a funny number for the punchline to a sketch involving a bank teller (himself) and a customer (Tim Brooke-Taylor). Adams believed that the number that Cleese came up with was 42 and he decided to use it.

So is it random or is is because Cleese thought it was a funny number?

The plot thickens!

[–]Chipit 7 insightful - 2 fun7 insightful - 1 fun8 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

HERP DERP ANYTHING YOU WANT IT TO BE DERP

Actually "anything you want it to be" is bullshit. That's hedonism. You'll wallow in low-class pleasures and watch your life pass by. As it turns out, the meaning in our lives is found in achievements, which are accomplished by work. Or, more appropriately, conscientiousness. Plan the life you'd like to have.

You get to have what you want and what would be good for you. What would that be?

You need direction. It is direction that produces primary positive emotion.

If you need positive emotion to get through life (which you do, because you can't even move without positive emotion, positive emotion is a good bulwark against terror and pain) if you need those things you need direction, you need a goal, you need a value structure.

If you take the men who are like that and say, "What do you want? You can have what you want, but you have to figure out what it is." So they write down what they want and they think, "Oh, hey, that might be worth having, so maybe I'll put some effort into it."

Responsibility. That's what gives life meaning.

Lift a load. Then you can tolerate yourself. People will carry a heavy load if they get to pick the goddamned load. And so they think, I won't carry any load. Well, OK, fine, but then you're like the sled dog that doesn't have a sled to pull. You're going to tear pieces out of your own legs because you're bored.

People are pack animals. They need to pull against a weight.

"Responsibility, man... that's where the meaning of life is."

-- Dr. Jordan Peterson

[–]JasonCarswell 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Good advice.

[–][deleted] 4 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 2 fun -  (16 children)

Well, no, they'd have been using hex. In decimal it's 42, but in hex 42 is "B". Nobody would've been using simple binary by the time the book was published in the 70s, and IBM introduced modern hexadecimal systems in the 60s. If it really did have to do with programming then why would he refer to the decimal designation?

[–]Hel 6 insightful - 11 fun6 insightful - 10 fun7 insightful - 11 fun -  (3 children)

Don’t assume other people’s bases. That’s a hate crime in Canada!

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Pff

[–]dac 1 insightful - 3 fun1 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

based

[–]Sixto 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

That's illegally funny! Reported to the Canadian mounted cyber police!

[–]johnnybravo 5 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

Probably to make it sound a little bit more natural; "0x2A is the answer to everything" doesn't quite have the same ring to it.

[–][deleted] 7 insightful - 2 fun7 insightful - 1 fun8 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

I'm just skeptical of this kind of post-fact digging when you can, and trust me the fans have, come up with anything and everything to explain it already. And the author himself said it was meaningless.

[–]johnnybravo 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

You are correct, I did notice the post somehow didn't feel very trustworthy... Seems like the kind of thing that grandma would share. I mean, ASCII language? Seriously? Just thought I'd address your argument when I saw it

[–]SheSellsSeaShells 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (8 children)

0xB is 12 in decimal. 0x2A is 42.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (7 children)

Okay? What about what I wrote did you not understand? We're talking about which hexadecimal values correspond to ASCII characters. Not base conversions.

[–]SheSellsSeaShells 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (6 children)

“In hex, 42 is ‘B’” is incorrect. That’s what you said.

Edit: Oh, I just realized you meant that the hex value 0x42 corresponds to the letter B in the ASCII table.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

Edit: Oh, I just realized you meant that the hex value 0x42 corresponds to the letter B in the ASCII table.

Yes.

[–]SheSellsSeaShells 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (4 children)

Would be less confusing if you used the standard 0x denotation. My bad.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (3 children)

Or you could've read "In hex", like I wrote. Both denote the same thing. Perhaps, in future, you will read more cautiously to make sure you do not misunderstand people.

[–]SheSellsSeaShells 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

And perhaps in the future you will use common conventions to reduce ambiguity in your writing. There’s a reason why the two are parsed differently by interpreters and compilers. The same is true for humans.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

It's almost as though I explicitly did so by specifying "in hex". You know, with words. That you could've read. And are now desperately scrabbling to salvage your ego from instead of acknowledging you skimmed the comment improperly.

[–]SheSellsSeaShells 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Obstinate.

[–]eze 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

In programming, an asterisk is commonly used to translate as "whatever you want it to be".

What? It's commonly used to denote multiplication. But that doesn't sound as cool I guess.

[–]johnnybravo 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

They didn't know or didn't want to use the word Wildcard. I'm no computer wizard/programmer/whatever but if I'm right, wildcards would be used much more frequently in scripting, not that they aren't used in programming at all.

[–]Sixto 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

We still use it in computers as an "everything" denomination;

*.saidit.net

would cover all sites with a sub-domain such as

mobile.saidit.net
m.saidit.net
preview.saidit.net
ieatass.saidit.net
i.saidit.net
nab.saidit.net

[–]GaiusHelenMohiam 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

ASCII will live to the end of humanity. One million years from now, a hominid spaceship will fly into a star system and discover hominids living there. Those two groups will send each other signals in ASCII to establish communication protocols.

[–]bidentweet 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

[–]at_finn 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

ASCII is not the most basic computer software. ASCII is a standard that specifies which numeric code corresponds with which character. It is the predecessor of Unicode.

Everything about this post smells like bullshit.