Robert Anton Wilson wore many academic hats, which included futurology, anarchy, and conspiracy theory research. He was also a prolific American writer, whose career spanned thirty-five years. His best-known work was the Illuminatus Trilogy (co-authored with Robert Shea), a satire about American conspiracy theories. Most of his work covered a wide berth of New Age topics, such as UFOs, crop circles, occult practices, etc.

Wilson didn’t believe in beliefs, but rather in probabilities. “Belief is the death of thought,” he once said.

In fact, he shunned dogmatic beliefs because he felt that they led to fascist behavior. In his book, Cosmic Trigger III: My Life After Death, he used the example of militant feminism to demonstrate how dogmatic adherence to any belief system can result in intolerant and even dangerous ideologies.

On October 2, 2006, Douglas Rushkoff appealed to the blogosphere for donations to Wilson, who was in severe financial trouble due to ailing health. Slashdot, Boing Boing, and the Church of the Subgenius wrote about Wilson’s plight. By October 10th, their efforts succeeded in raising enough money to support Wilson financially for at least 6 months.

Sadly, this generosity couldn’t help Wilson’s health which continued to deteriorate. Doctors gave him between two days and two months to live. Robert Anton Wilson died yesterday at age 74 from post-polio syndrome. Five days earlier, he closed his final message on his blog by saying, “Please pardon my levity, I don’t see how to take death seriously. It seems absurd.”