Sounds like the point would be to keep the intrigued reader wondering what the significance or meaning was by leaving 42 or 'n' words--what is it that was of similar importance the author didn't share with us but used elsewhere, etc.
To keep things interesting, you have to leave openings for the imagination to wonder.
This keeps getting butchered. Now it's "answer to the universe" which was previously "answer to life the universe and everything".
It's actually "the answer to the ultimate question of life the universe and everything". The fact that there's an answer to a question but no indication of what the question is is literally the underpinning theme running through all the HG2G books.
The books themselves are inconsistent on “answer to life, the universe and everything” vs “answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything”.
”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.
