Celebrating the birthday of "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" author Douglas Adams, Google's March 11 Doodle features a retro spaceship console with an iconic tablet computer atop it, providing the answers to all of life's most nagging questions, including the ultimate one.
Click through the Guide's entries, and you'll be surprised at the diversity and cleverness of the Google designers. You'll see pantomimed demonstrations of the virtues of the towel, the effects of drinking a Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster, even the reason why Vogon poetry is considered bad — and not just for humanoids. You'll also see a brief history of Deep Thought, the super computer which replied, when asked, that the answer to life, the universe and everything is "42." And if you click around enough, you'll be able to spot Marvin, the Paranoid Android.
Adams died all too soon, at the age of 49, but his writing will live on for millennia to come, perhaps one day providing us with useful behavioral advice when we do actually venture out into the galaxy, towel in hand.
Wilson Rothman is the Technology & Science editor at NBC News Digital. Catch up with him on Twitter at @wjrothman, and join our conversation on Facebook.