In the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the supercomputer "Deep Thought" is built by a race of hyper-intelligent alien beings to determine the answer to "life, the universe, and everything." Deep Thought determines that the answer is, somewhat anticlimatically, "42".
This sounds like a joke, but is there more to this answer?
Douglas Adams was an unabashed computer nerd and knew a heck of a lot about programming language and coding. In programming, an asterisk is commonly used to translate as "whatever you want to be". In ASCII language, the most basic computer software, "42" is the designation for an asterisk. A computer, Deep Thought, was asked what the true meaning of life was. It answered as a computer would: 42 = "anything you want to be."
Genius.
(Source: http://www.viralthread.com/15-fan-theories-that-will-change-the-way-you-see-these-movies/3/)
(edited: fixed typo)
This sounds like a joke, but is there more to this answer?
Douglas Adams was an unabashed computer nerd and knew a heck of a lot about programming language and coding. In programming, an asterisk is commonly used to translate as "whatever you want to be". In ASCII language, the most basic computer software, "42" is the designation for an asterisk. A computer, Deep Thought, was asked what the true meaning of life was. It answered as a computer would: 42 = "anything you want to be."
Genius.
(Source: http://www.viralthread.com/15-fan-theories-that-will-change-the-way-you-see-these-movies/3/)
(edited: fixed typo)
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