Aaron J. Powner, M.Ed.
High School Science Teacher
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Escaping seconds before Earth is destroyed to make way for an intergalactic freeway by hitchhiking on a random spacecraft, Arthur Dent explores numerous alien civilizations and discoveres THE answer to life, the universe and everything in it. He accomplishes this with the help of his best alien friend, a depressed robot, a rogue President of the Galaxy, and a collection of humorous and infinitely improbable characters.
This question is the foundation of all good science fiction (novels, movies, short stories, ect.). Many of my students have read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams. Beyond his "deliciously absurd" humor, I personally enjoy one of the author's philosohical premises: though we are often intelligent enough to percieve that ultimate questions can be asked (e.g. life, the universe, and everything), we are just as often unprepared to understand the answers to such questions. Both literally and allegorically, the rest of the story is about the pursuit of the greatest questions in existence.