The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Future
Douglas Adams and the digital world
Published on 5. March 2020
Audio
CD-Audio
978-1-5291-2892-5 (ISBN)
Description
Technology affects almost everything we do, and its possibilities can be both exhilarating and daunting. This collection features two radio documentaries exploring Douglas Adams' vision of the digital future, plus Did Douglas Get it Right?, presented by Mitch Benn.
Douglas Adams was a passionate technology enthusiast. His bestselling The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is full of futuristic tech, and in 1990 he predicted something very like the World Wide Web in the BBC2 film Hyperland. So in 1999, he was the natural choice to present Radio 4's The Internet: The Last 20th Century Battleground. In it, he looked at the explosion in online communication, the evolution of cyberspace, and the risks and opportunities of the new virtual world.
A year later, he hosted The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Future, in which he and his guests discussed how music, publishing, broadcasting, and society in general would be transformed in the 21st century. Sadly, this was Adams' last BBC project: his death in 2001 meant he would never see if his visions came true.
However, in 2015, Mitch Benn dipped into the archives for a follow-up programme, Did Douglas Get it Right?, revisiting Adams' predictions to discover how prescient (or otherwise) they turned out to be...
Fascinating, funny and insightful, these three programmes are a wonderful tribute to Douglas Adams, and a treat for fans and futurists alike.
Produced by Mark Rickards.
Douglas Adams was a passionate technology enthusiast. His bestselling The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is full of futuristic tech, and in 1990 he predicted something very like the World Wide Web in the BBC2 film Hyperland. So in 1999, he was the natural choice to present Radio 4's The Internet: The Last 20th Century Battleground. In it, he looked at the explosion in online communication, the evolution of cyberspace, and the risks and opportunities of the new virtual world.
A year later, he hosted The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Future, in which he and his guests discussed how music, publishing, broadcasting, and society in general would be transformed in the 21st century. Sadly, this was Adams' last BBC project: his death in 2001 meant he would never see if his visions came true.
However, in 2015, Mitch Benn dipped into the archives for a follow-up programme, Did Douglas Get it Right?, revisiting Adams' predictions to discover how prescient (or otherwise) they turned out to be...
Fascinating, funny and insightful, these three programmes are a wonderful tribute to Douglas Adams, and a treat for fans and futurists alike.
Produced by Mark Rickards.
More details
Edition
Unabridged edition
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
BBC Audio, A Division Of Random House
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Edition type
Unabridged edition
Product notice
Audio CD
Dimensions
Height: 143 mm
Width: 126 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Duration
Dauer: 210 min
Weight
198 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-5291-2892-5 (9781529128925)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
DOUGLAS ADAMS was born in Cambridge in March 1952. He is best known as the creator of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which started life as a BBC Radio 4 series. The book went on to be a No. 1 bestseller. He followed this success with The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (1980); Life, The Universe and Everything (1982); So Long and Thanks for all the Fish (1984); Mostly Harmless (1992) and many more. He sold over 15 million books in the UK, the US and Australia. Douglas died unexpectedly in May 2001 at the age of 49.