Douglas Adams, 1952-2001
by Sean Carolan

Another exit through the Great Revolving Door, this time for one of the folks that taught me how to think: Douglas Adams has died suddenly, of a heart attack, at age 49.

I never did get a chance to meet him, though a friend was kind enough to have a copy of "Mostly Harmless" (I'm pretty sure it was that one) signed by him for me. Of course, I'm not one for fanboy gush (usually) so I don't know how it would have gone if I had met him, but still.

I am certain he'll continue to wield influence over the average geek, and thus over our technological future. While "parodying" science fiction, he managed to presage the Web, the Palm Pilot, and there's already a BabelFish that's more appealing than sticking a fish in your ear.

There is a lengthy set of mourning comments at Slashdot (some more tasteful than others, it being Slashdot) but it occurred to me that I should head over to americangods.com, where Neil Gaiman keeps a web journal. You should, too; he doesn't disappoint.

Douglas apparently never did quite know where his towel was (otherwise, he wouldn't have considered said knowledge to be the mark of a really amazingly together guy) but he thought his thoughts in unorthodox ways, and challenged us to do the same. Though he'll be missed, that challenge remains.

(Yes, the connection to AltRok is tenuous, but I'd advise you to listen to some Radiohead lest you think it's completely unconnected.)