Predictions BY A. C. Clarke: 2001 - 2100...
Check me for accuracy - on December 31, 2100.
2001 Jan. 1 The next millennium and century begin.
- Cassini spaceprobe (launched October 1997; arrives Saturn July 2000) begins
exploration of the planet's moons and rings.
- Galileo probe (launched October 1989) continues surveying Jupiter and its moons.
Life beneath the ice-covered oceans of Europa appears increasingly likely.
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, and, for their discovery of so-called
"Cold Fusion" in 1989, Pons and Fleischmann receive the Nobel Prize for Physics.
2003 The motor industry is given five years to replace all fuel-burning engines by the
new energy device.
- NASA's robot Mars Surveyor (carrying Lander and Rover) is launched.
2004 The first (publicly admitted) human clone.
2005 The first sample launched back to Earth by Mars Surveyor.
- The Dalai Lama returns to Tibet.
2006 The world's last coal mine closed in India.
2007 NASA's Next Generation Space Telescope (successor to the Hubble) launched.
2008 On what would have been his 80th birthday, July 26, the film director Stanley
Kubrick, who made 2001: A Space Odyssey, posthumously receives a special Oscar
for Lifetime Achievement.
2009 A city in North Korea is devastated by the accidental explosion of an A-bomb.
After a brief debate in the U.N., all nuclear weapons are destroyed.
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.
- In spite of protests against "Big Brother" government, electronic monitoring virtually
removes professional criminals from society.
2011 Largest living animal filmed: a 75-meter octopus in the Mariana Trench. By a
curious coincidence, later that same year even larger marine creatures are discovered
when the first robot probes drill through the ice of Europa, and an entire new biota is
revealed.
2012 Aerospace-planes enter service. The history of space travel has repeated that of
aeronautics, although more slowly, because the technical problems are so much greater.
From Yuri Gagarin to commercial space flight has taken twice as long as from the
Wright Brothers to the DC-3.
2013 On a flight sponsored by Bandar Seri Begawan, a Brunei prince becomes the first
member of a royal family to fly in space.
2014 Construction of Hilton Orbiter Hotel begins, by assembling and converting the
giant Shuttle tanks which had previously been allowed to fall back to Earth.
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.
2016 All existing currencies are abolished. The megawatt-hour becomes the unit of
exchange.
2017 December 16. On his 100th birthday, Sir Arthur Clarke is one of the first guests in
the Hilton Orbiter.
- China holds the first nationwide popular elections to its parliament.
2019 A major meteor impact occurs on the North Polar icecap. There is no loss of
human life, but the resulting tsunamis cause considerable damage along the coasts of
Greenland and Canada. The long-discussed Project Spaceguard, to identify and deflect
any potentially dangerous comets or asteroids, is finally activated
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.
2021 The first humans land on Mars, and have some unpleasant surprises.
2023 Dinosaur facsimiles are cloned from computer-generated DNA. Disney's Triassic
Zoo opens in Florida. Despite some unfortunate initial accidents, mini-raptors start
replacing guard dogs.
2024 Infra-red signals are detected coming from the center of the Milky Way Galaxy.
They are obviously the product of a technologically advanced civilization, but all
attempts to decipher them fail.
2025 Neurological research finally leads to an understanding of all the senses, and direct
inputs become possible, bypassing eyes, ears, skin, etc. The inevitable result is the metal
"Braincap" of which the 20th century's Walkman was a primitive precursor. Anyone
wearing this helmet, fitting tightly over the skull, can enter a whole universe of experience
real or imaginary - and even merge in real-time with other minds. Apart from its use for
entertainment and vicarious adventure, the Braincap is a boon to doctors, who can now
experience their patients symptoms (suitably attenuated). It also revolutionizes the legal
profession; deliberate lying is impossible. As the Braincap can only function properly on
a completely bald head, wig-making becomes a major industry.
2026 Singapore becomes the world's first country to enforce Truth in Advertising.
2036 China overtakes the U.S. in gross national product to become the world's largest
economy.
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, ending that recent invention in
human history - work! There is an explosion in arts, entertainment and education.
Hunter-gathering societies are deliberately recreated; huge areas of the planet, no longer
needed for food production, are allowed to revert to their original state. Young people
can now discharge their aggressive instincts by using cross-bows to stalk big game,
which is robotic and frequently dangerous.
2045 The totally self-contained, recycling, mobile home (envisaged almost a century
earlier by Buckminster Fuller) is perfected. Any additional carbon needed for food
synthesis is obtained by extracting carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
2047 Hong Kong celebrates its 50th year as an SAR by completely eliminating border
controls and barriers between itself and the rest of China.
2050 "Escape from Utopia." Bored by life in this peaceful and unexciting era, millions
decided to use cryonic suspension to emigrate into the future in search of adventure.
Vast "hibernacula" are established in the Antarctic and in the regions of perpetual night
at the lunar poles.
2051 Ground is broken on the moon for self-sustaining, robotized colonies, where the
elderly will survive longer, thanks to the low lunar gravity.
2057 October 4. Centennial of Sputnik 1. The dawn of the space age is celebrated by
humans not only on Earth, but on the Moon, Mars, Europa, Ganymede and Titan - and
in orbit round Venus, Neptune and Pluto.
2061 The return of Halley's Comet; first landing on nucleus by humans. The sensational
discovery of both dormant and active lifeforms vindicates Hoyle and Wickramasinghe's
century-old hypothesis that life is omnipresent throughout space.
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.
2095 The development of a true "space drive" - a propulsion system reacting against the
structure of space time - makes the rocket obsolete and permits velocities close to that
of light. The first human explorers set off to nearby star systems that robot probes have
already found promising.
2100 History beginsÖ..
Clarke is a futurist and science fiction writer. Copyright Arthur C. Clarke 1999 |
