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I like the theory that 42 was chosen because ASCII 42 is *, as in the wildcard character. It matches everything!
by Extigy 5y ago
I like the theory that 42 was chosen because ASCII 42 is *, as in the wildcard character. It matches everything!
- capableweb 5y ago> On 3 November 1993, he (Douglas Adams) gave this 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. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrases_from_The_Hitchhiker's_Guide_to_the_Galaxy#Why_the_number_42 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrases_from_The_Hitchhiker's_...?
- mhh__ 5y agoSo the "Cow Tools" school of narrative-building? Great minds think alike. TVTROPES WARNING! https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CowTools https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CowTools
- cyberpunk 5y agoDamn, took me a moment; I'm so used to seeing 0x41414141 (AAAA) that I didn't notice you were talking in base 10 ;)
- Extigy 5y agoYes, I had to remind myself not to add the 0x prefix!