Probability

I was listening to something today which seemed to state that a particle's current state can be determined and changed by observing it's previous state before looking at its current state. Too many states. Or was it that to measure a particle's velocity to the Nth degree would mean it could be in N places at the time it was observed? Maybe a particle doesn't have an individuality then. Maybe there's just one particle covering the job of N particles - especially in these times of cut backs. I also heard that we draw conclusions about physics based on the fact that we exist and that we live in an era that is the only era that is conducive to us being here anyway...
I think I also read somewhere that the answer is 42.