I've been re-reading the Hitchhikers series and I was thinking about the comment made by Prak at the end of "Life, the Universe, and Everything" about not being able to know both the question and the answer, and in fact if both were realized, the universe would be immediately replaced with something much more strange. He talks about the question and the answer, but what is the question? Is it the meaning of life? I don't think so.
I don't really know if Douglas Adams meant this, but I read from the books the idea that the question and answer are immaterial, that the pursuit of them is the true purpose, the real meaning of life, and it is a purpose that must never be fulfilled, because without that quest, life has no purpose for existing.
The higher dimensional beings built Deep Thought to give them the answer to the universe. The universe(or god, if you please), perversely, gives them an answer that answers the question while it asks a thousand more, driving the search to continue. Every tool that we use and bring to bear is used only will unveil more mysteries, that the proper frame of mind is a boundless curiosity.
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