Actually, its 42
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notable_phrases_from_The_Hitchhiker%27s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy
But, they didn't know the Ultimate Question for which it answered.

Read the books. All of the movies/TV shows sucked.

Maybe then we won't get as many false positive and negatives, and save more lives.

Can they teach it to fly a plane for "most" conditions? Ryanair would fit it to aircraft to reduce costs of pilots ;-)

Can they teach it to drive my car, so I can sleep, watch tv, surf the net, play games, do more work while on way to/fro the office?

Can they teach it to act as a customer support telesales person? ;-)

For Lipson, the robot is suggesting new avenues of research. "We're working on a different problem we haven't published yet, where we have an answer equation – and don't know what it means." µ

Wasn't the answer to the question in Douglas Adams Hitchhikers Guide 24? ..