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I hate to be grumpy old guy, but hell, there were articles in science magazines that predicted the same 40-year future -- only 40 years ago. Why do you think al
by DanielBMarkham 15y ago
I hate to be grumpy old guy, but hell, there were articles in science magazines that predicted the same 40-year future -- only 40 years ago. Why do you think all those old sci-fi films put things happening in the early 2000s? Anybody remember 2001? Because that's when inter-system space flight would really be taking off.
There's a rule that anything impossible is always 20 years out. Perhaps a corollary: anything that's truly fanciful should be predicted for 40 years from now -- far enough away for audiences to have no idea of the practicality but close enough that most of them will enjoy reading it because they like believing such things might occur in their lifetime.
- notahacker 15y agoA corollary to Arthur C. Clarke's observation in the original article: The most daring prophecies about space travel and AI will increasingly seem "laughably conservative" only inasmuch as they fail to change from decade to decade apart from the dates
- tomjen3 15y agoThe space travel thing didn't turn out as they guess, but on the other hand we now have regular cheap plane travel -- an ordinary guy can hop on a plane from Europe to New York without breaking the bank. Not to mention the fact that you can even read what I am writing -- thousands of miles away, after it has been beamed through space and traveled under the Atlantic. Aside from This Perfect Day I don't know any science fiction which deals with an extensive communication network like that. And even in that book it was strictly used to control and lord over the citizens.