3rd reply (4th item in the thread) from the man himself: https://groups.google.com/g/alt.fan.douglas-adams/c/595nPukE-Jo/m/koaAJ3tPBtEJ?pli=1 https://groups.go

3rd reply (4th item in the thread) from the man himself: https://groups.google.com/g/alt.fan.douglas-adams/c/595nPukE-Jo/m/koaAJ3tPBtEJ?pli=1 https://groups.google.com/g/alt.fan.douglas-adams/c/595nPukE... > 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.