Hey you,
The answer is always 42.
It is the question that drives us.
I can see you all groan theatrically as you read this. You’ll live.
My mixed cinephers just seemed like the perfect opening to my Just One Thing for today – Wolfram | Alpha – a hella powerful computational knowledge engine that doesn’t just give you a list of results like a traditional search engine; it actually tries to answer your question.
If you were to ask, “What is the average lifespan of a fruit fly?” it will not only give you the answer, but it will also show you how it arrived at that answer. And if you ask follow-up questions, like “How does that compare to the average lifespan of a human?”, it will remember the context of your conversation and answer accordingly.
The long-term goal of the project is to collect and curate all objective data and then make it freely available for anyone to query. In the meantime, it’s an impressive tool for students, researchers, and anyone with an insatiable curiosity.
So go ahead and ask a question that drives you… the answer just might be 42.
Wisdom and wonder,