The 42 conspiracy: Impossible Questions

Thomas McTavish

Thomas McTavish

Absent, forgotten god
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Dark Fantasy, Fantasy, Zombie, slice-of-life survival, Post Apocalyptic, Cyberpunk, Sci-fi, High Fantasy, Modern, medieval
Hello, everyone! If you understand the title reference, good for you. If you don't, 42 is supposedly the answer to the question of the universe. the mystery is: what is the question of the universe? Here, at the 42 Conspiracy Center (FSCC), we ask impossible questions and try to answer them. You can pose a question and answer it, answer another's question, or pose a question to see the feedback. I will do the latter. First question:

How is a Raven like a Writing Desk?
 
Both are capable of producing wrong notes.

If white is technically a combination of all light, then black must be the absence of light. So if black is an absence of light how is it we can see it?
 
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The same way you see a hole in a bucket.

Isn't the answer to life 42?
 
It was, the last time I heard. But maybe science progressed since then.

Who first decided which metals and stones should be the precious ones, and which ones should be cheap?
 
The first people to find them and decide that the shiny ones were interesting, and the dull colored ones were not.

What if we are simply figments of a madman/madwoman, a recreation of the world he/she was a part of before being institutionalized?
 
I don't think that it would change much of anything. The world is still what it is from the inside, wherever it originated, when looking at it from the outside. The only person it would make a difference to would be the said lunatic, and in a sense he or she is not in here.

Why do human cultures usually find it acceptable and even desirable for humans to drink things that incapacitate them?
 
Because it's funny to watch. And it keeps reality at bay.

Why are countries absolutely astounded at the increased production and overall prosperity when their women become educated and start working?
Okay, a better question: How can personal prejudice overrule common sense?
 
Human emotion is tied closely with instincts, and people often times go with their instincts before logic.

Why do people Idolize powerless superheroes like Batman and Iron man, but when actual people try it they laugh and tell them they can't do it, it's a stupid idea?
 
Because if they actually believed that someone can do this in real life, then they would be forced to admit that they simply fail at being this good. And humans are not very good at that, I find.

Why do humans act differently when in a group than each would on their own?
 
There are expectations to be upheld within a group, a social contract. Also, groups can be brutal, so nobody is willing to show their personal weaknesses and be preyed upon. Social hierarchy is multi-faceted and has an entire branch of research devoted to it!

Quantum physics makes no sense. Can someone explain how it makes sense?
 
I'm sure someone can somewhere. I, sadly, am not one of those people.

Why is it necessary for my cat to attempt to sit on my keyboard every time I try to type something?
 
Because your cat feels the warmth radiating from that area and finds it enjoyable.

Why is it that a printed slip of paper with a few modifications made to it is often held to be more valuable than life itself?
 
Because for generation after generation, we have been forced to idolize this piece of paper. To give it worth. Our entire culture, fragile and unstable, is built around the very idea of this piece of paper having worth. And it must continue this way, because if this piece of paper ever lost its worth, everything would crumble and collapse. Our society would die, and the world as we know it would end.

There is one planet in this solar system of 9 that can support life, orbiting 1 star. There are trillions of stars within our own galaxy, with planets of their own. And there are an uncountable number of galaxies in our universe. So why is space so silent? What is the reason we haven't seen signs of life beyond us?
 
I have several answers for this.
The first is that the sampling is faulty. Of course we have one living planet out of nine, but that means nothing. The very fact that we can observe shows that we have a living planet, and, of course, there are a few others nearby. Let me put this another way. You see a picture of a diamond in a bucketful of coal; now do you think there is a diamond approximately for every bucketful of coal? No, but do those that don't have diamonds in it get pictured? No, they get used for fuel. The reason your sampling is faulty is the very reason that you have a sampling at all.
The second is that most of these stars are many, many, many lightyears away. No communication (short of telepathy, possibly) could reach here in a reasonable time, and they should have sent us the communication when mankind has not even existed yet for us to get it now. Also, even the light of the very stars is so faint from all the space dust and whatnot that it crossed that it takes all sorts of scientific equipment to tell what sort of a star it is; if, in the orbit of such a star, there was someone on a tiny, faraway planet sending us a tiny, faraway signal, what would we get?
The third is that we wouldn't have a way to understand it. Maybe they are sending us signals, but we don't have the senses necessary to hear it, and we can't interpret it anyway because they think differently. Many animal species are social and communicate with each other, but humans don't very well understand even that, although they are earthly and rather similar to mankind.

We see a certain part of the spectrum, and percieve the two ends as "reaching around" (I mean that violet fades into red again). Then what do those who see different parts of the spectrum see? Do they stretch this same colour pattern over whatever part of the spectrum they see? Or... does one end somehow continue in some... other unknown colour? Do the two ends still "fit together"?
 
The whole question revolves around the question of perception. Who can really say what any one else really sees, only that what they do see makes sense to them. And besides, no matter how anyone sees it, the the spectrum remains the same. It is what it is regardless of the viewing person's point of view.

Why is it politicians often say one thing and do another? is it part of the job requirement that anyone involved in politics must at some point become dishonest, or is it a side effect of years of working with other people who are in short nothing more then egoists who happen to have the eyes of the media?
 
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I believe it is because they use the Art of Deception, much like thieves and good gamblers do. They make a move to turn the tables in their favor, and once it's in their favor they make a move that would benefit them greater. As we've seen for years in Presidential elections, politicians often make promises to do one thing or another, and then turn around and do something that would benefit themselves. Cynical trickery. They do anything to get into power, and once they are, they betray what they said to get there, taking another turn down a different avenue which would benefit them more than the original proposal. Much like Governor Mitt Romney would have done had he won the election.

Why is it that fiction makes far more sense than reality, often times being much easier to comprehend an follow the story of than the real world?
 
A story has been actively orchestrated. Life has not (or is very good at pretending it hasn't).

Why is there a strip club maybe two hundred feet from my old high school? (I may be bad at judging distances, but it's within walking distance...)
Or, rather, why haven't they been shut down yet? They actually have ads on TV now!
 
Politics, probably. Perhaps there was nothing in the zoning laws to prevent it's construction in the first place.

Why is it artwork always looks better in my mind then it does when I finally create it, even when everybody else swamps the work with praise?
 
Because "images" in our mind are incredibly undetailed. Hence why we can recite things we've read but we can't remember what the page we read them on looks like, because we aren't memorizing the image, we're memorizing the sound. Photographic memory being the obvious exception.


Why do many people find innocent things (clowns, puppets, dolls, spiders, empty hallways, albinos, twins, dial tones, etc.) creepy?
 
Because they are usually not seen in normal life, and people fear the different. That, or the incessant making of movies and other form of entertainment which portrays them as so.

Why is it that people find it necessary to ridicule their fellow man for the individuals problems, views, and beliefs, simply because they contradict with their own?
 
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