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Guest post by Brandon Engel:
Touted as one of science fiction’s “Big Three” alongside Robert A. Heinlein and Isaac Asimov, writer Arthur C. Clarke is warmly remembered, not merely for his prose, but his many contributions to universal knowledge across several different disciplines.
Geosynchronous Satellite Networks
In 1945, Clarke published an essay entitled Extra-Terrestrial Relays: Can Rocket Stations Give World-Wide Radio Coverage? which proposed a geosynchronous satellite communication network. Clarke’s time as a radar technician with the Royal Air Force likely contributed to this. The article also anticipated the creation of the International Space Station (ISS), with Clarke writing: “Using material ferried up by rockets, it would be possible to construct a ‘space-station’ in such an orbit. The station could be provided with living quarters, laboratories and everything needed for the comfort of its crew, who would be relieved and provisioned by a regular rocket service. This project might be undertaken for purely scientific reasons as it would contribute enormously to our knowledge of astronomy, physics and meteorology.” It’s all the more astounding because this article was written 12 years before the launch of Sputnik.
The Internet and Personal Computers
In 1974, Clarke gave a memorable interview with the Australian Broadcasting Company. The interview was conducted in a room with a gigantic, primitive computer. The interviewer asked Clarke what the world would be like for adults living in the year 2001. Without skipping a beat, Clarke then detailed his vision of both the web and personal computers. Clarke predicted that by 2001, people would have “not a computer as big as this” (in reference to the gargantuan apparatus filling the space around him) “but at least a console through which he can talk to his friendly local computer, and get all of the information he needs for his everyday life.” Clarke then went on to list bank statements and theater reservations as two examples of the information we might retrieve electronically in the future.
Clarke was not the only one of his contemporaries to predict the internet. Asimov, for example, had also made predictions about the internet as early as 1964. What distinguishes Clarke the most in this arena was his contribution to the conceptual development of wireless communications, which ultimately yielded everything from transcontinental television broadcasts to high speed internet.
Skype and iPad
As a science fiction writer, Clarke will probably be best remembered by the general public for the script he penned for Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (and the novelization of the screenplay that was written concurrent to the movie). It’s one of the greatest films of all time, and it really set the benchmark for every science fiction epic that followed it. Something that makes the film particularly novel for contemporary audiences are the video conferencing consoles used. While the technology looks laughably dated today, what Clarke envisioned was, essentially, Skype. Also notable are the use of what are ostensibly iPads.
What’s the lesson that modern consumers should take from all of this? To figure out what Apple is going to release in the next five years, read something that Clarke wrote 50 years ago.
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Brandon Engel is a multimedia artist/blogger/cinephile/oddity collector based in Chicago, whose principal interests include vintage horror films, dated video games, and speculative fiction. Follow him on Twitter: @BrandonEngel2.
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