It turns out that the answer to The Great Question of Life, the Universe and Everything may very well be 42.- - - - -
I've been thinking a lot on this over the last few weeks. What is it all about? What is the purpose of this thing we call life? What is the point?
It has always been my own personal dogma (oh yes, I very much accept it is dogma, my evidence being flimsy and circumstantial at best) that has provided me with the answer:
1. Human beings are fundamentally and innately 'good' (for want of a better word... empathic perhaps?)
2. The world can be a better place.
I find myself saying over and over... "I have to believe in this because otherwise what would be the point?"
Yet, perhaps the truth is that THERE IS NO POINT. Life, society, intellect, culture, sentience, etc... etc... is perhaps just a happy/unhappy accident. THERE IS NO POINT.
Strangely, rather than wanting to throw myself of the nearest tall building this viewpoint makes me feel... free, empowered, liberated... a kind of optimism in pessimism.
It is perhaps only a subtle shift. I imagine that I will continue to look for the 'good' in the world and I imagine that I will continue to attempt to make my little piece of the universe 'better'... because I choose to and because it makes me happy.
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Douglas Adam's on how he arrived at The Ultimate Answer of 42:
"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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