<P> In The Hitchhiker 's Guide to the Galaxy ( published in 1979 ) , the characters visit the legendary planet Magrathea , home to the now - collapsed planet - building industry , and meet Slartibartfast , a planetary coastline designer who was responsible for the fjords of Norway . Through archival recordings , he relates the story of a race of hyper - intelligent pan-dimensional beings who built a computer named Deep Thought to calculate the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life , the Universe , and Everything . When the answer was revealed to be 42 , Deep Thought explained that the answer was incomprehensible because the beings did n't know what they were asking . It went on to predict that another computer , more powerful than itself would be made and designed by it to calculate the question for the answer . ( Later on , referencing this , Adams would create the 42 Puzzle , a puzzle which could be approached in multiple ways , all yielding the answer 42 . ) </P>
<P> In The Hitchhiker 's Guide to the Galaxy ( published in 1979 ) , the characters visit the legendary planet Magrathea , home to the now - collapsed planet - building industry , and meet Slartibartfast , a planetary coastline designer who was responsible for the fjords of Norway . Through archival recordings , he relates the story of a race of hyper - intelligent pan-dimensional beings who built a computer named Deep Thought to calculate the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life , the Universe , and Everything . When the answer was revealed to be 42 , Deep Thought explained that the answer was incomprehensible because the beings did n't know what they were asking . It went on to predict that another computer , more powerful than itself would be made and designed by it to calculate the question for the answer . ( Later on , referencing this , Adams would create the 42 Puzzle , a puzzle which could be approached in multiple ways , all yielding the answer 42 . ) </P>
when was the hitchhiker 's guide to the galaxy published
when was the hitchhiker 's guide to the galaxy published
1979
1979