“O Deep Thought computer,” he said, “the task we have designed you to perform is this. We want you to tell us….” he paused, “The Answer.”
“The Answer?” said Deep Thought. “The Answer to what?”
“Life!” urged Fook.
“The Universe!” said Lunkwill.
“Everything!” they said in chorus.
Deep Thought paused for a moment’s reflection.
.
.
.
“Forty-two,” said Deep Thought, with infinite majesty and calm.– Douglas Adams, ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’
A barrel measurement of crude oil is 42 gallons.
Yeah, as sci-fi predicted, we’re relying on computers to tell us what to do.
Way back before Adams or HAL. In the golden age of the 50’s, I think it was either Clarke or Asimov wrote a short short in which all the computers in the world were connected and the first question was “is there a god?”. First answer “there is now.”