THE ANSWER TO LIFE, THE UNIVERSE, AND EVERYTHING

Typing “the answer to life, the universe, and everything” into Google’s search engine produces this result at the top of the list: “The answer to life, the universe, and everything = 42.”

Yet this does not necessarily mean that the programmers are aware consciously of the ancient immortal wisdom, which employed forty-two layers to explain the ultimate purpose and meaning of life, the universe, and everything.

The two pandimensional beings responsible for overseeing the computer’s work were named Loonquawl and Phouchg. Upon hearing the answer, Loonquawl exclaimed: “Forty-two! Is that all you have to show for seven and a half million years’ work?” Deep Thought replied: “I checked it very thoroughly, and that quite definitely is the answer. I think the problem, to be quite honest with you, is that you’ve never actually known what the question is.... So once you do know what the question actually is, you’ll know what the answer means.”¹⁰

One of the computer operators then asked Deep Thought if it could tell them the question. It replied, “No. But I’ll tell you who can.” Deep Thought then described the greatest computer of all space and time, which was to be its successor: “a computer of such infinite and subtle complexity that organic life shall form part of its operational matrix.” That ultimate computer, designed to provide the ultimate question for the ultimate answer, was called Earth.

The answer to life, the universe, and everything presented in Adams’s humorous story has been woven into our popular, computer-based culture and has been embraced by many programmers—including the programmers of the Google calculator. Although it is all a matter of good fun and should not be taken seriously, for some reason the answer provided by Deep Thought has found a deep resonance in the human psyche. It has also spawned a wealth of speculation as to how Adams came up with the number. On one of his discussion forums is a posted Adams reply: “It was a joke. It had to be a number, an ordinary, smallish number, and I chose that one.... I sat at my desk, stared into the garden and thought, ‘Forty-two will do.’ I typed it out. End of story.”

According to Adams, the whole thing was intended as a joke, a parody on humankind’s endless quest to find the answer to the meaning of life, the universe, and everything. Sometimes, however, our spontaneous whims, drawn even in jest, provide the best possible answer to a given question. Deep Thought’s answer appears to resonate with the human psyche—but why?

Perhaps this resonance is based upon the fact that, after thousands of years of thought, this was the same answer provided by deep thinkers of the ancient past. Yet the answer is more than just the number 42. To understand what it means, 42 must be viewed as a quantity, rather than as a pure number. According to the ancients, the number corresponds to the first forty-two layers above the half measure—that is, the path of immortality. Since the ancients viewed the ultimate purpose of life, the universe, and everything as involving the pursuit of immortality, the forty-two layers represent the answer to the ultimate question concerning the meaning of it all.

While Adams may not have had any direct knowledge of the immortal Vedic, Egyptian, and Hebrew wisdom when he composed his book, his wisdom was nevertheless brewing in his awareness and became encapsulated by his spontaneous and whimsical answer. This answer was then embraced by pop culture, because that same wisdom is brewing currently in the awareness of everyone, whether or not we are conscious of it. The implication is that human awareness is ripe for the spontaneous rediscovery of the ancient immortal wisdom. It means simply remembering what has been forgotten, and bringing to conscious awareness what has been submerged in our collective subconscious for thousands of years.