the answer to life is 42 :]
Just to be pedantic, the answer to the question of the meaning of Life, the Universe and Everythin is not 42, it is very clearly
forty-two. This is relevant because, if you will recall, the Vogon constructor fleet demolished the Earth
just before the mice finished their experiment and finally found the Answer, which means that the version of the Answer that can be found in Arthur Dent is incomplete - and thus not really the Answer. (Also, the previous sentence may be the most surreal I have ever intentionally written.) There are some theories that, therefore, the
real answer is something that is almost but not quite like forty-two like ''fortitude''.
Anyway the question posed is an expression of the human psyche, and fundamentally meainingless. We are inherently social creatures, always concerned with what other people are doing, thinking or intending. As such, we constantly fall prey to the
pathetic fallacy, leading to seemingly profound, but essentially useless questions like this one.
When you say, ''what is the meaning of life'', you are saying, ''I know how to think about humans; therefore in order to make things easier for me, I ascribe human characteristics to an ephemeral concept 'life', and from there make decisions about life's goals and desires.''
This is wrong. Life is not a human. Life is a
process, a vaguely defined collection of natural forces. It does not have goals, it does not have desires, it does not have reason. Asking ''what is the meaning of life'' is like asking ''what is the meaning of gravity'' or ''what is the meaning of chemistry'', and just as useless.
Of course since
you are human,
your life can have meaning. Life itself however, does not.
