Telha
However, one individual who comes remarkably close to the Bulgarian mystic is a British science fiction writer named Sir Arthur Charles Clarke.
Throughout his life, Clarke was renowned not only as a science fiction author but also as a futurist, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series presenter. He is perhaps best known for his seminal work, “2001: A Space Odyssey.”
A significant part of Clarke’s legacy includes his bold and visionary predictions about the future, many of which he made during the 1960s.
Looking back 60 years, it is uncanny how many of Clarke’s predictions have come to fruition in our present day.
In an episode of BBC’s Horizon program titled “The Knowledge Explosion,” which originally aired in September 1964, Clarke made a striking statement: “The only thing we can be sure of about the future is that it will be absolutely fantastic, so, if what I say now seems to you to be very reasonable, then I’ll fail completely.”
During this 1964 broadcast, Clarke also addressed the concept of artificial intelligence, which was referred to as machine learning at the time. He predicted, “The most intelligent inhabitants of that future world won’t be men or monkeys. They’ll be machines. They will start to think, and eventually they will completely outthink their makers. Is this depressing? I don’t see why it should be. We superseded the Cro-Magnons and Neanderthal men and we presume we’re an improvement.”
Doesn’t that sound all too familiar?
Clarke passed away from respiratory complications and heart failure in March 2008. He was 90 years old.
