Arthur Clarke, 1964:
“The only thing one can say about the future is that it will be utterly amazing! If what I am about to tell you seems quite plausible, then my attempt to describe it has failed. My vision has a chance of success only if my words seem absolutely incredible to you.
Let’s start with a look at the city of ‘tomorrow’. Some people think that it will be just so, and they are essentially right. Everything you see now already exists. All materials, all ideas—they can all be implemented in practice right now. But what if we try to imagine the city of ‘the day after tomorrow’, say in the year two thousand?
I think it will be completely different. Generally, it may never come to exist. No, I am not thinking about a nuclear disaster and a new stone age; I am thinking about the incredible breakthroughs that will be made thanks to discoveries in the field of communication. Particularly, I am talking about transistors, and above all, communication satellites.
These things will make possible a world in which we can instantly contact each other, no matter where we might be. We will be able to communicate with friends around the world, without even knowing where exactly the person is located.
Conducting your business from Tahiti or Bali as successfully as from London will become possible in this century (or maybe in about fifty years). Managing anything will be possible from anywhere on the globe regardless of distance. I presume that someday a surgeon in Edinburgh will be able to perform brain surgery on a patient in New Zealand.
When this time comes, the world will literally shrink to a single point, and the traditional role of cities as places where people meet will no longer make any sense. Generally, people will no longer make business trips, they will be accessible always and everywhere. People will travel primarily for pleasure, not money.”
Arthur Clarke died in 2008, in his 97th year of life. Thus, he did get to see the internet, robotic remote surgery, and the system of geostationary satellites orbiting, which is named after Arthur Clarke (http://lakdiva.org/clarke/1945ww/).
Hi, I'm Rauf Aliev. 