Comment on xkcd #3184: Funny Numbers
LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world 7 hours agoWhat did 23 mean? I thought the post was pointing out it meant nothing? 69 is a position, 420 smoke weed, boobs, 42 was a nonsense joke that meant nothing as well. They just defined it as the meaning of life for no reason from what I know… so 23, and 67 seem about the same, running closely behind 42
Additionally, while technically imbued with ‘meaning’, even the number 420 itself is somewhat meaningless and was originally used to delineate those who knew from those who don’t. It’s just that it got famous enough that we now almost all know.
In that sense I would argue it filled more or less the same function as 67.
I’d like to add that that’s called a shibboleth :)
I’ve heard it said that 420 referred to the time 4:20 pm, when a group would come together to smoke, but that sounds contrived.
420 can also refer to the birth date of Adolf Hitler, which makes 420 a bit darker than just “haha, smoke.”
23 is from the movie of the guy escaping from the number 23 I think?
Oh shit I forgot that movie, that was a Jim Carrey movie wasn’t it
I think so
Thank you. I didn’t know what 23 was about
23 was before my time, but it is 1/3 of 69, so there’s that.
Ni
Ni’s NaN though and they no longer say it.
Thaurin@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
42 is from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. They built an enormous computer that is the most powerful ever built to calculate the answer to the question of life, the universe and everything. The computer, after many years of processing, came up with 42. The confused crowd that gathered to hear the answer did not understand. Turns out, 42 is the correct answer, but what is the question?
LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
Yeah I remember that, saying 42 is the answer to everything was what I called nonsense, as I could just as easily say 42 meaning everything is, more like 6 7 being nothing. Poof, now everything is a multiple of nothing, and at the end of the day none of it made any sense.
melmi@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 hours ago
Funny enough, there’s a point in a later book in the series where they suggest the “ultimate question’” that 42 is an answer to is “What do you get if you multiply six by nine?”
MyNameIsRichard@lemmy.ml 1 hour ago
Which works in base 13!