Forty-two. That is the meaning of life, at least according to Deep Thought, the supercomputer in Douglas AdamsThe English author (1952 - 2001) who created The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. 's famous The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. 

Since no-one knows what "42" means, Deep Thought creates an even bigger computer to work it out: the Earth. Over 4 billion years of evolution it is supposed to come up with the question that will unlock the meaning of life.

Instead, a spaceship full of hairdressers and telephone-sanitisers crashes into it and messes the whole thing up. Humanity evolves from these useless interlopers and the meaning of life is lost forever.

Nonetheless, even on this doomed Earth, the quest for the meaning of life persists. And some think 2024 is the year we almost got there.

Here are five big stories about what it means to be from this year:

1. Don't die. For tech millionaire Bryan Johnson, the meaning of life is simply that: to keep living. He believes he can keep his body young forever with a strict diet, supplements, injections and even an operation to replace his entire blood plasmaThe liquid part of blood that carries blood cells and nutrients throughout the body. with that of a younger man.¹ Others say Johnson has got it exactly the wrong way round. An endless cycle of diets and jabs must render life miserable. In his quest to live forever, he is not really living at all.

2. Leave a mark. The Pyramids of GizaThree Ancient Egyptian pyramids built near the Nile River. have stood for more than 4,500 years, for 3,800 of which they were the tallest structures on the planet.² They have ensured the name of Khufu, their builder, has lived on for millennia after his death. And even in 2024 they still have mysteries to divulge: in May researchers discovered an ancient, dried-up branch of the NileThe longest river in the world, passing through eleven different countries. It is an exceptionally old river, thought to have existed in some form for 23 million years. Egyptian civilisations have sustained themselves on the Nile, whose floodplain creates very fertile soil, for 7500 years. that they believe was used to ferry stone to its building site.

3. Finding other life. For some, life on Earth will make sense only if it can spread itself across the whole universeEverything. Including all of time and space and its contents. . In the last few months of the year, a number of US states, Ireland, the UK, and Kuwait have all seen unexplained aerial objects hovering in their skies. While some experts blame Iran, others say it points to only one thing: extraterrestrial visits. One expert even predicted an alien invasion via a portal in Athlone in Ireland.³

4. Choose our death. A vote in the UK parliament put the nation on course to join a dozen other countries that allow assisted dying. For centuries human beings have believed that a good death is what makes a good life. Now some think having the choice when to die will help people to think about why it is that they live, and in what conditions they would opt to live no longer.

5. Prehistoric roots. Some believe the answer to questions about who we are and what we are doing here must lie in our evolutionA process of gradual change that takes place over many generations, during which species of animals, plants, or insects slowly change some of their physical characteristics.. In 2024, scientists have made great leaps forward in tracing humanity's ancient origins. We now know we were already cooperating on a global scale more than 300,000 years ago, trading dyes and tools across large swathes of Africa. Perhaps, some think, the meaning of life really is to be found in working with other people.

Are we closer to having an answer?

Yes: If the meaning of life is to be found anywhere, it must surely be in our birth or in our death. We are moving much closer to understanding how humanity was born and what it means for us to die.

No: The meaning of life is a question we all have to work out for ourselves. We will not find it in the distant past of humans who had little in common with us, nor in fancies about far-off civilisations.

Or... We will probably never find a meaning of life that really satisfies us, but then we mostly seem to muddle on regardless. Perhaps the meaning of life simply does not matter all that much.