What is the "42" conspiracy?

little grey rabbit

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7283155.stm

Ever since, speculation has been rife as to what Adams meant. There is the "paperback line theory" - 42 apparently being the average number of lines on the page of a paperback book. Was Adams paying homage to the medium of his success?

Then there is the "Lewis Carroll theory" - Adams celebrating Carroll's use of the number in Alice in Wonderland.

In the book, there is Rule 42 which says that anyone taller than a mile must leave the court immediately. That becomes a problem for Alice when she eats some mushrooms.

There is another theory that rests on a complex allusion to 42 in numerical base 13. It sparked Adams' retort: "I don't write jokes in base 13."
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Here is what Stephen Fry (who took over Adams's show "Last Chance to See")
"Of course, it would be unfair for me to comment. Douglas told me in the strictest confidence exactly why 42. The answer is fascinating, extraordinary and, when you think hard about it, completely obvious. Nonetheless amazing for that.

"Remarkable really. But sadly I cannot share it with anyone and the secret must go with me to the grave. Pity, because it explains so much beyond the books. It really does explain the secret of life, the universe, and everything."
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I have been told that Douglas Adam provided a voice for one of the characters on a radio adaption after his death, so surely there must be some way we can commune with the oracle in the after-life?
 
Douglas Adams was asked many times during his career why he chose the number 42. Many theories were proposed but he rejected them all. On 3 November 1993 he gave an answer on alt.fan.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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From the comments.
 
Q: How many roads must a man walk down, before you can call him a man?

A: 42
 
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"42" is the new "34".
naughty.gif
 
Lets examine the evidence:

Douglas Adams write a book about Earth being destroyed by Vogons to make way for intergalactic highway, and a human Arthur Dent escapes by hitching a ride on the Vogon's ship????

At this point I begin to channel my inner Mouth of Sauron

'Dwarf-coat, elf-cloak, blade of the downfallen West, and spy from the little rat-land of the Shire - nay; do not start! We know it well - here are the marks of a conspiracy. Now, maybe he that bore these things was a creature that you would not grieve to lose, and maybe otherwise: one dear to you, perhaps? If so, take swift counsel with what little wit is left to you. For Sauron does not love spies, and what his fate shall be depends now on your choice.'

No one answered him; but he saw their faces grey with fear and the horror in their eyes, and he laughed again, for it seemed to him that his sport went well. 'Good, good!' he said. 'He was dear to you, I see. Or else his errand was one that you did not wish to fail? It has. And now he shall endure the slow torment of years, as long and slow as our arts in the Great Tower can contrive, and never be released, unless maybe when he is changed and broken, so that he may come to you, and you shall see what you have done. This shall surely be - unless you accept my Lord's terms.'
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:mad:

Come on its obvious;
Douglas Adams >>Arthur Dent
42>>24

24 is 2 followed by 4
4 is 2 to the power of 2
Thus 222
222's are a very high dose aspirin with codeine
codeine is a drug that adversly affects many individuals, even Vogons.
Therefore the meaning of life the universe and everything is take drugs unless they are bad for you.

Geeez,,,, D'uh
 
he laughed again, for it seemed to him that his sport went well. 'Good, good!' he said. 'He was dear to you, I see. Or else his errand was one that you did not wish to fail? It has. And now he shall endure the slow torment of years, as long and slow as our arts in the Great Tower can contrive, and never be released, unless maybe when he is changed and broken, so that he may come to you, and you shall see what you have done. This shall surely be - unless you accept my Lord's terms.'
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9/11 Conspiracists speaking about how they will deal with debunkers after the Revolution?
 
Apparently if you drill a hole through the earth 42 minutes is the time it takes to fall from surface to surface (if you excluded drag).

I think 42 is 33 in base 13 and hence some masonic reference - although as Adams said, he doesn't make jokes in base 13.
 
little grey rabbit said:
Apparently if you drill a hole through the earth 42 minutes is the time it takes to fall from surface to surface (if you excluded drag).

I think 42 is 33 in base 13 and hence some masonic reference - although as Adams said, he doesn't make jokes in base 13.
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I think you've got masons on the brain.

However, being a Mason and age 42 I can tell you that I do know the answer but I can't share it with you because you do not know the secret handshake.:D
 
bikerdruid said:
his laughter is often heard by his neighbours.
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As I said, it wouldn't surprise me.

I should clarify to some of the dimmer Illuminati lights here (and lets face it - an Illuminati light is never very bright) that I think people who use symbols and secrets are without exception fools and knaves. Or to put it another way - they are our misfortune.

I am simply interested in what they are thinking rather than believing what they are thinking is of any great significance. Sometimes when you ask a question you do get a response in a backwards plausible deniable kind of way. I didn't pick it up this time however.
 
The problem here is that the original conspiracy only gave you the answer. You'll need to create an even larger conspiracy to determine the question.
 
It isn't 42, it's "for two". As in tea for two... Therefore I conclude that the Universe was a British conspiracy and Douglas Adams as a Godless Atheistic Pommy Bastard was in it up to his eyeballs. That's why they bumped him off. Heart attack my arse!
 
Brainache said:
It isn't 42, it's "for two". As in tea for two... Therefore I conclude that the Universe was a British conspiracy and Douglas Adams as a Godless Atheistic Pommy Bastard was in it up to his eyeballs. That's why they bumped him off. Heart attack my arse!
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Douglas Adams somewhere in his trilogy made a fairly insightful remark about the Adam/Eve/Apple story. Something along the lines that if God puts trees in a garden and then says don't eat the fruit, then he is probably some kind of trickster who will catch you out eventually.

Phillip Pullman seemed to make the same point in his Golden Compass - and although it is only a children's book, Pullman did himself say he was setting himself up against the somewhat cloying and boring harmonious utopias that CS Lewis described - so I am inclined to take this passage seriously.

At the end of the Golden Compass Pullman alters a bible verse
And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and your daemons shall asume their true forms, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil......
And the yes of them both were opened, and they saw the true form of their daemons, and spoke with them.
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etc etc
The rest of the book is about a cute little girl who can read symbols and how the worlds are going to be bridged by a "phenomenal burst of energy". Poor Mr Pullman is in for a very big disappointment...... Suffice to say I think the Catholic Church would be the least of Lyra's concerns.

But the point remains, if you have apples why not eat them? Normally I would agree, but one problem is people who eat these apples seem to act like deranged obnoxious morons and - however historically justified this may have been - they keep their apple eating a secret.

Which sort of begs the question as to why the apples are there to be eaten. And that is where the story of Frankenstein comes in, there is no denying the pathos of Frankenstein's monster, that fate seemed to have dealt him a very hard hand. Any reader feels sympathy - in fact, towards the end the Monster threatens to steal the show.

But in the end he is still a monster.
 
little grey rabbit said:
Apparently if you drill a hole through the earth 42 minutes is the time it takes to fall from surface to surface (if you excluded drag).

I think 42 is 33 in base 13 and hence some masonic reference - although as Adams said, he doesn't make jokes in base 13.
Click to expand...

WOOOOOOAH!! :crowded:
 
little grey rabbit said:
Douglas Adams somewhere in his trilogy made a fairly insightful remark about the Adam/Eve/Apple story. Something along the lines that if God puts trees in a garden and then says don't eat the fruit, then he is probably some kind of trickster who will catch you out eventually.

...
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He also says that the Earth is being run as a computer simulation by pan-dimensional beings disguised as mice.

What would Jaques DeMolay think?
 
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