The writer Douglas Adams, who already 24 years ago predicted the idea on which the Internet is based as it is today, died unexpectedly at the end of the week at the age of 49
Adams. "Completely by accident I wrote a bestseller, and then another and another"
"In the past, writers used to write a few lines and then look a little through the window, write some more and stare some more. Computers and the Internet united these two actions, because now the device on which you write and the window through which you look are the same thing"
Douglas Adams, on how computers changed his life
British author Douglas Adams died last weekend of cardiac arrest at the age of 49 at his home in Santa Barbara, California. Adams, who in recent years has become one of the most sought-after speakers on topics such as the nature of cyberspace, the effect of the internet on modern man and the paramount importance of carrying a towel everywhere, first became famous in 1977 when he published one of the most popular science fiction books of all time - "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy".
Adams was born in Cambridge, England in 1952 and studied English literature at St. John's College. Among various odd jobs, Adams began working at the BBC as a feature editor. "The Guide", which was first revealed to the public as a series of radio skits that were an immediate success, was conceived by Dams years earlier, when he was lying drunk on his back in a field in Italy and staring at the sky above him. The source of inspiration that he carried with him was the "Hitchhiker's Guide to Europe", a book for travelers with an extremely low budget. "I thought someone should come and write a similar guide for hitchhikers traveling the galaxy," he said years later.
The original "guide" was translated into dozens of languages, sold more than 15 million copies worldwide, and the four sequels he wrote after it were also resoundingly successful. Such quick success, Adams said, was like jumping straight from foreplay to orgasm. Although the series of books made him a very rich man, in an interview he gave to "Captain Internet" about three years ago, he defined writing it as an unfortunate mishap: "Totally by chance I wrote a bestseller, and then another and another, and then I had to write another, and suddenly I realized If I spend my whole life alone in a room, in front of a typewriter, I will go out of my mind."
To this day, there are those who see the idea behind the "Guide" as symbolizing what the Internet is really supposed to be. According to Adams, there are emissaries of a publishing company roaming around the universe who constantly update the guide, and make the many contents collected in it available to the bewildered travelers of the universe. The replacement of the words travelers with "surfers", and "universe" with "cyberspace", tells the story of the network.
A few years after it was published, "The Guide" became a TV series for the BBC, later an attempt to adapt it into a Hollywood film failed - an adaptation that Adams detested with all his heart - and in the last two years he has been in talks with the Disney company for the production of a new film based on the book. In the early 80s, a computer game was also created that tried to translate Adams' delusional content into the computerized world. These days they are working in the UK on an upgraded version of the game.
When Adams began to fear for his sanity if he continued writing bestsellers, he founded the "Digital Village" together with a team of artist friends, a company engaged in the production of products in the field of music and computers - CDs, books and multimedia. Adams' role in it was defined as "chief fantasist". Adams said that he brought to the position his rich experience as a "bodyguard of an Arab royal family, a cleaner of chicken coops and a guitarist for Pink Floyd".
The most prominent product that the company released under its hands was the "Spaceship Titanic", a wild computer game in the beginning of which the hero of the story sits comfortably in the living room of his house sipping a cup of tea. Suddenly the Titanic, the largest spaceship ever built, crashes into the house. The ship's motto is "nothing can go wrong here", but of course everything does.
