- Sci-Fi writer Arthur C. Clarke has been predicting the
future with uncanny accuracy for more than 50 years.
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- The author, who is 83 today, is best known for his 1948
short story The Sentinel, which in 1968 was turned into the smash hit film
2001: A Space Odyssey.
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- Sir Arthur,s original tale foretold of space travel,
today,s technology and many other historic breakthroughs decades before
they happened.
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- In later books and articles he went on to forecast the
Millennium Bug and modern inventions including the mobile phone.
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- With 2001 almost upon us, TIM SPANTON and PAUL SUTHERLAND
reveal Sir Arthur,s thoughts on what he got right - and wrong.
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- SPACE SHUTTLE
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- Space craft ... cinema version of Arthur's story The
Sentinel became a sci-fi classic
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- In the film 2001, Dr Heywood Floyd catches a space shuttle
to connect up with a larger spaceship.
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- FACT: America,s NASA space shuttles are now commonplace.
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- "WE HAVE A PROBLEM"
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- HAL, the talking on-board computer in 2001, tells the
astronauts something has gone wrong by announcing: "We have a problem."
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- FACT: During the 1970 Apollo 13 mission, the crew told
mission control: "Houston, we have a problem."
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- SUPER COMPUTERS
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- In 2001, HAL beats the astronauts at chess and claims
to be better than any human.
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- FACT: IBM,s super-computer Deep Blue beat world chess
champion Garry Kasparov in 1997.
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- GRAVITY PULL
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- In 2001, the spaceship Discovery uses the "perturbation
manoeuvre" to harness the gravitational pull of Jupiter to "slingshot"
the craft towards Saturn.
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- FACT: NASA used the same manoeuvre when it sent the two
Voyager space probes on to Saturn via Jupiter in the Eighties.
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- VIDEO PHONES
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- Video phone ... another spot-on prediction
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- In 2001, one of the crew uses a video phone to call home
for a chat with his daughter.
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- FACT: Video phones are now used for business conferences.
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- SATELLITES
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- Sir Arthur says: "I take some modest pride in the
fact that communications satellites are placed exactly where I suggested
in 1945."
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- FACT: The name "Clarke Orbit" is now a common
term used in relation to satellite positions.
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- ION DRIVE
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- In 2001 an "ion drive" is used to power a spacecraft.
FACT: An ion drive was actually used two years ago for the launch of the
probe Deep Space One.
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- NOTEPAD COMPUTERS
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- In 2001, Dr Floyd uses a "foolscap-sized notepad"
to access automatically updated news reports.
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- FACT: Notepad computers and TV services Oracle and Teletext
are now part of everyday life.
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- MILLENNIUM BUG
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- Good call ... bug alert
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- Sir Arthur says: "My 1990 novel The Ghost From The
Grand Banks may well have been the first account outside technical literature
of the Millennium Bug."
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- FACT: The cure outlined in Sir Arthur,s book was widely
used to reprogramme computers last year.
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- SPACEGUARD
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- Sir Arthur says: "Almost 30 years ago in Rendezvous
With Rama I wrote about a dazzling fireball impacting on northern Italy.
So began Project Spaceguard."
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- FACT: Four years ago Britain launched its own Spaceguard
UK project to try to prevent giant asteroids colliding with earth.
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- MOBILE PHONES
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- In the 1960s, Sir Arthur predicted that people would
one day be contactable wherever they were on earth by means of wristwatch
phones.
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- FACT: Though they are not yet the size of watches, miniature
mobile phones are now used by millions.
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- But you can't win 'em all
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- SPACE ELEVATORS
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- IN the late Seventies, Sir Arthur predicted satellites
could eventually be linked to the Earth by cables, allowing payloads to
be hoisted up by purely mechanical means, saving on costly rocket journeys.
He said the concept would lead to massive reductions in the cost of getting
people into space.
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- FACT: There are no plans to put the idea into practice,
but the theory is widely thought to be plausible.
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- MARS LANDING
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- Too soon ... man on moon
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- Sir Arthur says: "In my 1971 book Transit Of Earth
I put the first Mars landing in 1994. FACT: We will now be lucky if the
first manned craft touches down before 2010.
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- SPACE COLONIES
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- In his 1953 book Profiles Of The Future, Sir Arthur predicted
Man would begin colonising the solar system with permanent space communities
by this year.
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- FACT: Sir Arthur says: "The Vietnam War delayed
this but I think the first lunar colonies will be built around 2020."
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- MAN ON THE MOON
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- Sir Arthur says: "I thought I was being wildly optimistic
in The Sentinel by suggesting a moon mission in 1978."
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- FACT: The prediction was not far off. In fact, Neil Armstrong
and Buzz Aldrin made the historic landing nine years AHEAD of the date.
- More hits for Arthur C. Clarke
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- From Michael Portaro
12-18-00
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- Jeff,
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- After reading the list of predictions by Arthur C. Clark
I had to chime in on four more, all from the book Childhood's End, published
in 1953.
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- 1. The book starts off with our first mission to the
moon about to be launched... in 1971 - much closer than his Sentinel prediction.
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- 2. He describes a process to determine the father of
a child that sounds exactly like today's DNA testing.
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- 3. He mentions a Birth Control Pill.
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- 4. He described a device that uses telephone lines to
transmit documents - he referred to it as a Facsimile Machine!
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- Also, although not a prediction, the opening for Independence
Day was taken almost straight out of Childhoods end - and the ending to
ID4 bears a very similar resemblence to the ending of the last Space Odyssey
book - 3001.
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- Michael Portaro
Clarkston MI
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