deep thought

A supercomputer built by Lunkwill, Fook, and other “hyperintelligent pandimensional beings.” When Deep Thought is finally up and running, Lunkwill and Fook ask Deep Thought to tell them the answer to “Life, the Universe and Everything.” After confirming that there is an answer, Deep Thought informs them that it will take 7,500,000 years to come to a conclusion. After 7,500,000 years, Deep Thought finally reveals the answer to “Life, the Universe and Everything” to Pouchg and Loonquawl (ancestral descendants of Lunkwill and Fook). The answer, Deep Thought upholds, is 42. When Pouchg and Loonqwual express their disappointment, Deep Thought suggests that they don’t understand the answer because they don’t truly understand the question they’ve asked in the first place. To help them comprehend this question, Deep Thought makes another computer (the next version of itself). This computer is the planet earth, and it will take 10,000,000 years to explain to them the question they so desperately want to understand. In the intervening time, the “hyperintelligent pandimensional beings” live on the planet in the form of mice. Unfortunately, the Vogons annihilate earth five minutes before the conclusion of the project.