[bigOz]

Just as I get ready to grow old gracefully, I start thinking what on earth is the answer to the frequently asked question "What is the Meaning of Life?"

If you have solved the worlds greatest mystery and have an answer for it please share the secret with me.

Irrespective of how ridicilous they may sound, all replies will be added to my current collection of recent suggestions as possible answers. Currently every suggestion I had has been different...

[Dasilva]

42, silly.

[Jazhara7]

Originally Posted by Dasilva

42, silly.

That's the answer to the question of Life, the Universe and Everything. But we don't know what the question is.


But funny that you ask, because we had a topic like this in another forum too.

Here's what I answered:

Originally Posted by Jazhara7

I found my meaning of life, I think. It's much more simple than you'd think. I don't know if I can really put it to words, because it's more of a feeling you go by.

Live. Live life as it comes, always look on the bright side, don't let things get you down too much. Never forget who you are, and never abandon yourself. Respect the beliefs of others, and try to see things from their perspective. Appreciate the small things, and don't take anything for granted. Help others the way you can, and smile. The simplest tasks can be amazing, and the most hated tasks can be fun if you see beyond your dislike for them - They'll pass faster too. No one likes to be depressed, but if you don't try to cheer up yourself, depression won't go away. Sing for the sake of singing, even if you can't hit a correct note, and it will cheer you up - If you feel like singing, just do it. So always smile, think of the good things, that tomorrow will be another day, and that your fate could have been a lot worse. There'll always be another day, and if the world ends tomorrow, you won't be there much longer either, will you? So the meaning of life is simple: LIVE.

I am nineteen, and it has worked for me so far. I can only remember two times in my life that I was really depressed, and I got over them quickly too (I remember the reason for only one of those times. I couldn't go to the special event for the premiere of the new Narnia movie in my town, because I had to study. I cried a lot, but then I realised how trivial that is, and laughed about it.).

There probably is no single meaning of life. Everyone has a different one. I believe I have found mine, and I'm happy with it. What's your meaning of life?

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[RLacey]

Is there a "Meaning of Life"? Surely it's about finding your own meaning to your own life that's important.

That said, there's a lot of truth in Jaz's answer.

[pinkgothic]

(1) The Meaning of Life is in Noko's bottleneck slide. Though I hate him for it. Yes I do. No I don't - I have a fucking misplaced crush on the bastard.

(2) The meaning of life is that the universe wishes to be perceived.

(3) There is no meaning of life.

I sway between (2) and (3) philosophically. (3) is incredibly liberating once you get over depressing yourself over it (a phase I've never suffered, thank god). But only (1), of course, is the ultimate truth, my misguided fake religion demands it true.

[bigOz]

Originally Posted by RLacey

Is there a "Meaning of Life"? Surely it's about finding your own meaning to your own life that's important.

That said, there's a lot of truth in Jaz's answer.

Sure! There may be a lot of truth in Jaz's answer, but there is another set of truths as follows:

• Most people are not happy with who or what they are
• Majority of people take things for granted
• More often than not people hate their jobs
• Most people are self centered and have no time to for others' perspective
• Depression tablets are the highest selling and most profitable products

Hence, in a democratic voting the reply would definitely fail as the correct answer!

[RLacey]

Well, maybe the Meaning of Life is unhappiness, misery and suffering. Just because some people disagree with it, doesn't prevent it from being true.

Or, alternatively, what I'm asking is why a democratic vote is important? Why should the Meaning of Life be democratic? Surely the Meaning of Life (if it exists) simply is, and our perceptions of it are totally besides the point.

[MoriartyL]

I think if you learn the answer to that question from someone else telling you, then it doesn't answer your question at all.

[Karmillo]

Originally Posted by Jazhara7

That's the answer to the question of Life, the Universe and Everything. But we don't know what the question is.
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Yes we do, its "Whats 12 times 2?"

[RLacey]

But 12*2=24...

[Jazhara7]

Originally Posted by Karmillo

Yes we do, its "Whats 12 times 2?"

Or 6*9 in Base 13, I know.

But let me quote.

Originally Posted by Douglas Adams

The answer to this is very simple. It was a joke. It had to be a number, an ordinary, smallish number, and I chose that one. Binary representations, base thirteen, Tibetan monks are all complete nonsense. I sat at my desk, stared into the garden and thought '42 will do' I typed it out. End of story.

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[Karmillo]

Originally Posted by RLacey

But 12*2=24...

oh so it is, It must have been times 4

Wondering why that didnt sound right in my head.

Originally Posted by Jazhara7

Or 6*9 in Base 13, I know.

But let me quote.






-

Base 13? I was talking about when

Spoiler:

Arthur and Ford got stranded on a planet with these cavemen wich turned out to be earth, and since he already knew earth was the computer he thought that if he randomly picked letter out from his hand made scrabble game then the question would appear. And then "Whats 12 times 4" appeared.

Unless that what base 13 is, I havent read that series in a while but I think that happened in the third or last book

[pinkgothic]

Originally Posted by Karmillo

oh so it is, It must have been times 4

Because 12*4 is 48 and not 42, I reckon. You probably mean 21*2 (not 12 * 2). And it all boils down to a simple, reckless typo. Tsk.

Originally Posted by Karmillo

Base 13?

A base is the 'universe' of a number. Normal numbers we deal with are base 10 - because they are made up of the digits 0 through to 9.

But there are other bases, too, such as, very common, base 2 (binary), in which "10" suddenly means "2", because there are only two digits: 0 and 1. So, in Base 2, you would count as follows: 0, 1, 10 (2), 11 (3), 100 (4), 101 (5), 110 (6), 111 (7), 1000 (8)... and so on. (Sidenote: Notice how 10, 100 and 1000 are all powers of 2)

Or base 16 (hexadecimal): 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, a (10), b (11), c (12), d (13), e (14), f (15), 10 (16), 11 (17), et cetera.

It may look awkward, but for some things, it's incredibly useful. Binary makes for *great* ease in designing computer hardware - your CPU constantly calculates in binary - and has other useful properties I won't go into here.

Hexadecimal, in turn, is nice for compact means of displaying otherwise very, um, horizontal binary numbers. ff = 11111111 = 255. So instead of having to say that a pixel on your screen reads 255,255,255 for red,green,blue, or saying it reads 11111111,11111111,11111111 (GOOD GOD!), you say it's ff,ff,ff.

Compact. Colour, on the internet, is described in hexadecimal numbers like that. Red is ff0000, green is 00ff00, blue is 0000ff, white is ffffff and black is 000000... just to give you a rough idea.

(And there are mathematical reasons to want other bases, too, but I think I've gotten far, far too technical already... )

Edit:

And just to complete this:

Base 13 digits: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, a, b, c.
6*9 in Base 10 (normal maths): 54
54 / 13 = 4 R 2 --> 42 in Base 13.

[UPtimist]

Originally Posted by Jazhara7

But let me quote.

But that's what he wants you to think!

[MoriartyL]

Karmillo, the question was (as Jazhara7 rightfully pointed out) "What is six times nine?". And it was at the end of the second book.

[Lee in Limbo]

Go the extra mile to find meaning within your life, and strive to do only things that enhance this meaning. We must all make sacrifices and compromises in our lives, but your soul will shine broghtest the closer you get to realizing yourself as the most meaningful person you can be.

And of course, your meaning is never the same as anybody else's. There are no grades for this, either. Figure out what matters to you the most, what drives you to succeed in the face of great uncertainty, and decide for yourself whether that is meaningful enough to be part of your spiritual core.

Well, that's what the Chinese fortune cookie told me, anyway.

[Jazhara7]

Originally Posted by Karmillo

Base 13? I was talking about when

Spoiler:

Arthur and Ford got stranded on a planet with these cavemen wich turned out to be earth, and since he already knew earth was the computer he thought that if he randomly picked letter out from his hand made scrabble game then the question would appear. And then "Whats 12 times 4" appeared.

Unless that what base 13 is, I havent read that series in a while but I think that happened in the third or last book

You mean this? That was 6 by 9. See for yourself:




However, that 6*9 is actually 42 in Base 13 is just a coincidence. Douglas Adams is said to have said (I don't know if he actually said it), that he's not such a sad person to make jokes in Base 13. (Excuse me for paraphrasing, by the way.)


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[RLacey]

Originally Posted by MoriartyL

Karmillo, the question was (as Jazhara7 rightfully pointed out) "What is six times nine?". And it was at the end of the second book.

Or, alternatively, the mice suggest "What is six times seven?" during the first one.

[Jazhara7]

Originally Posted by RLacey

Or, alternatively, the mice suggest "What is six times seven?" during the first one.

Yeah, but the mice are evil spoilsports.

Rats are much nicer.



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[Squinky]

Back in high school, a friend and I decided that the meaning of life was sixty-nine: to love and be loved.