As Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio production and book series celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, fans around the world are taking time to celebrate and remember the life and work of the very late author, TV writer, conservationist, inventor and all-around smart-arse.
But, how many of Adams' devoted readers realize he thought up Wikipedia before Wikipedia was Wikipedia?
By the time Adams penned Hitchhiker's Guide, he was already the only writer in history to serve on the staffs of both Monty Python's Flying Circus and Doctor Who. He would go on to write five Hitchhiker's books, though portions of a sixth and a feature film based on the series would emerge after his untimely death in 2001.
It was what Adams accomplished with the BBC in April 1999 that the online world evidently forgot, however. Adams was the main driving force in the creation of h2g2, a site designed to serve as "an encyclopedic project where entries are written by people from all over the world." Sound familiar? If not, you should look up "familiar" on Wikipedia -- which was founded two years after h2g2.
While it's certain no one at Wikipedia stole the idea from Adams, we're left to wonder if the author was so far ahead of the curve that somewhere in Japan they've perfected a miserably depressed robot who can park cars for 1,000 years.
Photo courtesy DouglasAdams.com
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