Today’s Google doodle celebrates what would have been the 61st birthday of Douglas Adams. Most famous for The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas died tragically early in 2001 aged just 49 and whilst many believe Hitchhiker to be his finest work he was still producing excellent material, not least of which the Dirk Gently series which has recently made it to TV.
The thing about Douglas was that he had it right about ‘life, the universe and everything’. The central premise of Hitchhikers Guide is that on its cover, in large friendly letters were the words ‘Don’t Panic’ and that was the one piece of advice that a galactic traveller should heed at all times.
As a metaphor for the increasingly technologically advance society that have become, this is particularly apt.
In an age when your DVD player can seamlessly integrate itself, wirelessly, with your home internet connection and open up millions of possibilities yet the user knows little more than how to turn the machine on and off, we have become increasingly dependent and interdependent on our wireless lives.
Faced with the overwhelming rise of technology in our lives it can sometimes be hard not to be overwhelmed by everything.
On which basis Douglas was right. The only way to deal with modern life is simply ‘Don’t Panic’.
