The Ultimate Question
on...@guvax.acc.georgetown.edu
Life, the Universe, and Everything. They are discussing going to see
Prak (the truth teller), because Arthur thinks that "he would know
what the Question to the Ultimate Answer is. It's always bothered me
that we never found out." To which the computer responds, "Think of a
number, any number."
Hardly conclusive, but interesting to note.
-Tom
R Clement
Something about the ultimate question, so I'll put in a:
>Prak (the truth teller), because Arthur thinks that "he would know
>what the Question to the Ultimate Answer is. It's always bothered me
>that we never found out." To which the computer responds, "Think of a
>number, any number."
>Hardly conclusive, but interesting to note.
Somebody posted this as the ultimate question before, using Marvin's
conversation with the mattress as the evidence.
However, there is one major problem which prevents this being the ultimate
question.....
(drum roll)
It isn't a question.
"Think of a number, any number" is a directive. ("direction"? don't want to get
flamed by the grammarphiles here).
Cheers,
Ross-c
Michael Burstein
>
>Something about the ultimate question, so I'll put in a:
>
>
>conversation with the mattress as the evidence.
>
>However, there is one major problem which prevents this being the ultimate
>question.....
>
>(drum roll)
>
>It isn't a question.
>
>"Think of a number, any number" is a directive. ("direction"? don't want to get
>flamed by the grammarphiles here).
Ross, I was the one who posted the question, and I did not use Marvin's
conversation as evidence. What I had said was that a friend of mine who
met DNA on his last tour asked him if he had actually put the question
in Life, the Universe, and Everything because she heard a rumour to that
effect. Adams confirmed the rumour and told her that indeed the question
was "Think of a number. Any number."
Now, the discussion of Marvin and Zem and the bit about the computer do
seem to serve as corroborating evidence. However, as I also pointed out
before, Marvin couldn't have gotten the right question because of the
Golgafrinchons. So Adams probably meant it to be the incorrect question
that resulted because of the programming errors.
--
Michael A. Burstein
Physics Department, Boston University m...@buphy.bu.edu
590 Commonwealth Ave. (617) 353-9437 (o)
Boston, MA 02215 (617) 735-9433 (h)
Bjoern Tore Sund
|> In article <1992Oct26....@guvax.acc.georgetown.edu> on...@guvax.acc.georgetown.edu writes:
|>
|> Something about the ultimate question, so I'll put in a:
[Lots of empty lines deleted...]
[Irrelevant text deleted...]
|> (drum roll)
[I left in the drum roll, since I'm very fond of sound effects...]
[More empty lines deleted]
|> It isn't a question.
|>
|> "Think of a number, any number" is a directive. ("direction"? don't want to get
|> flamed by the grammarphiles here).
We are talking computers here, right? And darn intelligent computers at that...
They were even capable of rephrasing (sp?) the ultimate question into a more
elegant form, therebye making it a directive/direction/whatever.
The ultimate question could be some thing like "Could you think of a number,
any number, please?" - couldn't it? ;-)
|> Cheers,
|>
|> Ross-c
Nah-nah-nah-nah-nah!
--
___ ___
__ |__) | Bjoern Tore Sund (BT) Quote: "Nothing!"
|__) | bjo...@ii.uib.no - Marvin
Osma Ahvenlampi
In article <66...@m1.cs.man.ac.uk>, ros...@scs.leeds.ac.uk (R Clement) writes:
|> "Think of a number, any number" is a directive. ("direction"? don't want to get
|> flamed by the grammarphiles here).
We are talking computers here, right? And darn intelligent computers at that...
They were even capable of rephrasing (sp?) the ultimate question into a more
elegant form, therebye making it a directive/direction/whatever.
The ultimate question could be some thing like "Could you think of a number,
any number, please?" - couldn't it? ;-)
But then the answer would be "Yes, you're welcome", wouldn't it?
--
Osma Ahvenlampi - oahv...@snakemail.hut.fi
Disclaimer: Prolonged contact with posts containing my opinions may prove
harmful to some individuals. You have been warned, proceed at your own risk.
R Clement
I wrote originally:
>|> It isn't a question.
>|>
>|> "Think of a number, any number" is a directive. ("direction"? don't want to get
>They were even capable of rephrasing (sp?) the ultimate question into a more
>elegant form, therebye making it a directive/direction/whatever.
>
>The ultimate question could be some thing like "Could you think of a number,
>any number, please?" - couldn't it? ;-)
No it can't. If you want to command someone to think of a number, you can't
make it a question. If you put the question mark at the end you get something
which would be a response to the directive.
E.g.
A: Think of a number, any number.
B: Think of a number, any number?
(adding please doesn't make any difference).
(I think someone may have posted this already, but I only just got the
original reply by Bjoern now).
Someone posted that this is what DNA said was the ultimate question. Given
that DNA studied (and I assume graduated) English, the chance of him making
a basic grammatical error like this (a question that isn't) should be small.
May I make the suggestion that DNA may have been taking the mickey out of
his readers by doing this? After all, he did say in various book readings
about the film producer that worried that audiences would feel that the
answer "42" would make them feel "jerked off". DNA said that this was the
whole *point* of the exercise, and that the film producer had bought "chocolate
chip ice cream and now he was complaining that it had little black bits in it".
>|> Cheers,
>|>
>|> Ross-c
>
>Nah-nah-nah-nah-nah!
^ So this is sophisticated after-dinner conversation is it?
Cheers,
Ross-c
David Steinberg
No it can't. If you want to command someone to think of a number, you can't
make it a question. If you put the question mark at the end you get
something
which would be a response to the directive.
E.g.
A: Think of a number, any number.
B: Think of a number, any number?
(adding please doesn't make any difference).
Cheers,
Ross-c
Ah, but what about, "If you were to think of a number, what would it
be?"
-David "ZZYZX" Steinberg- King of the ellipses
(dste...@emmy.nmsu.edu)
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