hitchhikers.earth | Don't Panic

hitchhikers.earth
← Home
The Guide, a green handheld device with DON'T PANIC on its screen in large friendly letters, between a small blue Earth and a yellow towel marked 42.

Don't Panic

hitchhikers.earth is the front door to the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Earth. It is a guide written by the people who use it. It is mostly harmless.

Douglas Adams gave the Guide two words on its cover, in large friendly letters. They are still the best advice we know.

The best place to begin is the Hitchhiker’s Declaration: the history of hitchhikers.earth as told from 2042, and an invitation to help build the Guide for real.

What the Guide Is

A Guide is a multimedia publication with performative logic. It does not only describe the world. It helps you act in it. The Guide to the Earth is many such guides, from democracy to time travel, each written by Hitchhikers on sites they steward. The sites federate, so each guide can quote, fork and build on the others. See Guides and Guidance.

The Guide stands on the Earth Edition that Douglas Adams launched in 1999, h2g2.com, and on twenty five years of Field Research since.

Who Hitchhikers Are

Anyone who writes, researches or broadcasts in the Guide. You do not need to be a fan.

Every Hitchhiker should hold three things of their own:

  • A name. A subdomain held by your own key, not rented from a platform. See Your Right to a Name.
  • A space to write in. A federated wiki site that you steward, with your pages and your history.
  • A voice on air. A place on the network of stations that starts with Hitchhiker FM.

Where to Start

And bring a towel.

Recent Blogposts

to blog

  • Why We Carry a Towel

    Why We Carry a Towel

    Every Hitchhiker now works beside an AI, writes on shared pages, holds a key or two and sometimes an office. Each act needs someone to say who did it, on whose behalf, and with what permission. We chose OpenVTC to be the towel that answers: a small, open program that holds your keys, refuses on your behalf, and keeps the receipts.

    Read post →

  • Trust Without Tracking

    Trust Without Tracking

    Three proposed pilots in Utah, Idaho and New Jersey for communities that make trustworthy commitments and decisions while keeping identity disclosure limited, authority local and participation open. A timebank, seven circles of six, a mandate anyone can verify, and the Towel that holds the keys. Proposals, not partnerships.

    Read post →

  • The Front Door

    The Front Door

    iknowkungfu.club now opens on a home page instead of a wiki page. Behind the line it is named for sit two minutes of The Matrix, cut and treated as fair-use clips, and an argument: the download that taught Neo kung fu was science fiction in 1999 and is a file you can read and install in 2026. Three cards, each opening three pages.

    Read post →