Other paperwork · the Guide
Arithmetic reviewed. Situation not improved.

The kitOpen the paperwork
DON’T PANIC42
Large friendly letters. English reduction. Reverse is 48. Face-specific. Panic accordingly, but nicely.
DEEP THOUGHT42
Seven and a half million years. Then an ordinary smallish number. The name reverse-reduces to 42 as well, which the computer has filed under Coincidence, Galactic, Mildly Irritating.
HUMANITY111 · 42
Ordinal 111. Reverse 42. Same two faces as HESPERUS. Not a proof. A paperwork problem.
DOLPHIN42
Second most intelligent. They knew. They left. Typical.
FISH24 | 42
Put it in your ear. Suddenly you understand Vogon poetry, which is not an improvement.
TOWEL24
Most massively useful. Always know where it is. 24 would also have done. He did not pick 24.
MICE24
Most intelligent. They were running the experiment. Do not tap the glass.
GROK ME69
Ordinal. A 69 sitting next to a 42, as if the forms had been shuffled in transit.
In the books, not the cipher: the Answer after 7.5 million years; 6 × 9 (base 13, which Adams later declined to be proud of); Milliways table 42; number 42 at Club Beta; a puzzle of 42 balls, built because people would not stop looking.



























