Douglas Adams wrote Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy in 1979, in those years technology not evolving rapidly rather than these days. Douglas Adams generated some technological terms, places and, actors in his book. When we analyzed Adam’s life, we can see his interest in technology clearly. “In 1984, he was the first person to buy Macintosh in Europe, he was used e-mails when they are not popular in communication, and also he created his own USENET in 1983.” (D’onfro, 2014) Many terms in a Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy are references to today’s technology.
When the internet not invented yet, Adam mentions Sub-Etha Net that is the galactic Internet, gives sub-eta radio band first. 10 years after the book was written, internet usage began to take place.
The Following term related to today’s technology is a Guide Book. That device is a great digital Encyclopedia for Galactica. Arthur can research the galactic actors with the help of this device. He was writing a word which he was wondering, for example, Vogons. The Guide Book makes the definition of the world. Actually, Wikipedia is similar to the Guide Book in the same ways. For instance, Ford Prefect can update the definition of the words which involved the devices. In a story, the meaning of the Earth is “Harmless” in beginning chapters then, Ford Prefect spend time together with his Earthman (Arthur) and he developed the meaning of Earth in guide to “Mostly Harmless” The fact that dictionary can be edited by other people, this interactivity reminds of Wikipedia. Wikipedia is free, easy to get knowledge the same as the Hitchiker’s Guide.
The guide, which referenced many years ago in Adam’s book is now wiki-reader in todays technology.
The book contains another sample related to technology is the Babel Fish. As we, mentioned the Babel Fish story when Arthur put this creature in his ear, fish can translate the Vogon Language. Nowadays, Google has built earbuds that could translate 40 languages in real-time. Google is the first major tech company to build the ‘Bable-Fish’. The Bable-Fish earbuds connect wirelessly with Google’s latest smartphones (especially to Google Assistant). Through Google Assistant, the earbuds can translate 40 spoken languages nearly in real-time or at least, fast enough to hold a conversation. (New Google earbuds offer real-time translation feature, 2019)
THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY 