the poor computer was asked for a single answer to a ridiculously generic question. perhaps the number 42 is the sum of all answers in life, the universe, and everything. remember that this includes negative numbers, which allows it to be so small, and complex numbers -- since imaginary numbers are so rarely applicable in every day use, every positive answer has a negative counterpart and adds up to zero, which is why the answer only has a real component. the limitless magnitude of numbers towards positive infinity is canceled out by their negative counterparts. the only things that don't cancel out are questions regarding people's wages -- which would obviously add up to a positive number larger than 42 -- and other similar questions.

these vastly positive results are canceled out by the counting of particles of anti-matter, which add up negatively. anti-matter out-weights matter just enough that all those aforementioned positive results are beaten down to 42.

perhaps due to the vastness of the question and the impossibility of giving a single answer, the non-numeric answers were either ignored, assigned numeric quantities according to popularity (similar to google's pagerank), assigned values based on the amount of characters involved in the answer, or many other combinations/possibilities.

or am i just being silly?

julz