There is the philosophical idea that any question can be put back on a problem in the language in which it is formulated. So if we transform all questions into the ideal language, we can get all answers. But what is the ideal language? Which letters would it use?
The answer came to my mind when I used the gesture build menu. You can move your pen to a number of directions. Then you can move to another direction and form symbols. The decision for a way is like the decision for an answer to a question. But philosophically the answer to a question consists of all possible answers. So you have to count the number of ways, just like the partition function that contains all thermodynamical properties of a system is only the number of microstates.
If you already come from a certain direction in a 2-dimensional space, there are 6 clearly distinguishable possibilities to go to another direction. But why using a 2-dimensional space? Generally if there is a (complex) number x of directions in an arbitrary dimensional space and you can make 1 or 2 steps (like in the gesture menu), the number of possible ways is described by the answer function
[Spoiler]Why exactly k=1 or 2 steps you could ask. k=0 is philosophically impossible, because you cannot "do nothing". Even if you try to do nothing, you actually decide for the way of doing nothing. If you only allow for a sinlge natural (or even complex) number k of steps, compositions of the answer functions applied to 1 would always locally appear to be the identity function and thus answering further questions would not yield further insights. Such a logic cannot be the ideal language. Therefore k from 1 to 2 is the only simple philosophical possibility.
Originally you start at x=1, because you could not decide for other ways before you existed than the 1 way you started to exist. If you ask questions, you take the ways to answer it as possible directions to answer new questions and thus gain knowledge. This is mathematically described by compositions of the answer function. As you ask for life (1), universe (2) and everything (3) you have to apply the answer function 3 times. Thus the result is
(f∘f∘f)(1) = f(f(f(1)))
= 42.
[Spoiler]Don't take all that too seriously! :D.
