Zeeeeeeeeeeeeeev Congratulations being # 4 SI PeopleMarked for June 99
Please comment on the future predictions.
the 21st century, BEYOND 2001, By Arthur C. Clarke
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2002 The first commercial device producing clean, safe power by
low-temperature nuclear reactions goes on the market, heralding the end
of the Fossil-Fuel Age. Economic and geopolitical earthquakes follow
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2010 The first Quantum Generators (tapping space energy) are developed.
Available in portable and household units from a few kilowatts upward,
they can produce electricity indefinitely. Central power stations close
down; the age of pylons ends as grid systems are dismantled.
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2015 An inevitable byproduct of the Quantum Generator is complete
control of matter at the atomic level. Thus the old dream of alchemy is
realized on a commercial scale, often with surprising results. Within a
few years, since they are more useful, lead and copper cost twice as
much as gold.
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2016 All existing currencies are abolished. The megawatt-hour becomes
the unit of exchange.
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2020 Artificial Intelligence (AI) reaches the human level. From now
onward there are two intelligent species on Planet Earth, one evolving
far more rapidly than biology would ever permit. Interstellar probes
carrying AIs are launched toward the nearer stars.
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2040 The "Universal Replicator," based on nano-technology, is perfected:
any object, however complex, can be created - given the necessary raw
material and the appropriate information matrix. Diamonds or gourmet
meals can, literally, be made from dirt. As a result, agriculture and
industry are phased out...
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2090 Large-scale burning of fossil fuels is resumed to replace the
carbon dioxide "mined" from the air and postpone the next Ice Age by
promoting global warming.
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My only comment is that the consciousness of the AI being will prove
to be false as later it will be realized that the brain of a human or
other living species is only a receiver of an existence that happens
elsewhere. We all do indeed live on this planet Earth thru each's
physical body, but our thoughts originate not in our space and time,
its just our awareness that exist inside our head.
For example, the Universal Replicator mentioned above was sucessfully
able to duplicate a person, including all present energy content at
the time of duplication, and the result was that it had no awareness
of the person it was copied from, and also it lacked total ability to
reconize or learn as would a new born baby.
Proved that life is created not by man, but from something higher.
Man and woman can create a person, but a higher gives it life.
Man cannot create life outside the birth process of a baby.
Man and woman creates a baby, and the baby receives life not from
the creation of cells, but from the creation of man joining woman.
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Clarke is a futurist and science fiction writer. Copyright Arthur C.
Clarke 1999
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