Fast forward to 2000. These days, Adams is not just a sci-fi fantasist, but a new-economy entrepreneur and the creative mind behind the British company h2g2 Ltd.

h2g2.com (the name is a dot-com abbreviation of the title of Adam's bestseller) was launched in 1999 as the real-world iteration of the guide -- a quirky online community where users could read up on everything from how to conceal love bites to the life-like qualities of lampposts to why men should wear pajamas.

But the Web is a limiting medium if you're trying to be a portable guide to "everything." So last month, in a case of life imitating art, Adams and his compatriots launched a wireless version of the guide in conjunction with Phone.com. If you're using a WAP-enabled cellphone, you can now browse an abbreviated version of h2g2, getting this kind of marginally useful information on the go.

The wireless version of h2g2 has a long way to go before it becomes a truly comprehensive guide to "life, the universe, and everything." Adams is trying to woo users to fill in the gaps in his guide, but still the cellphones available are a far cry from his vision of an electronic calculator with hundreds of buttons and a limitless database.

How, exactly, did the real h2g2 come about?

When I invented the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, some 20-odd years ago now, I didn't think of myself as being in the line of being a predictive science fiction writer. But I kept returning to the guide as a good idea -- something that, instead of being compiled by an editor, [everyone] could work on together.

But there were two things that needed to be in place. One has been with us for a few years now, and the other is just starting to arrive. One is the Web, which lets people share everything. But there's a limitation on the Web in terms of creating a real-time, on-the-fly collaborative guide -- people log in at their desks.

The real change takes place when the second shoe falls, which is mobile computing, and that is beginning to arrive now. We're beginning to get Internet access on mobile phones and things like personal digital assistants. That creates a sea change, because suddenly people will be able to get information that is appropriate to where they are and who they are -- standing outside the cinema or a restaurant or waiting for a bus or plane. Or sitting having a cup of coffee at a cafe. At those moments something different happens: You think about something that is very appropriate [to where you are at the time]. With h2g2, you can look up where you are at that moment to see what it says, and if the information you need is not there you add it in yourself. For example, a remark about the coffee you're drinking or a comment that the waiter at the restaurant is very rude.

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