'Space Odyssey' author predicted the future fifty years ago and it's eerily accurate

Fiction movies and novels captivate us by reimagining our world, and sometimes, these fictional worlds become reality. Arthur C. Clarke, one of the most notable science fiction authors, inspired the futuristic film "2001: A Space Odyssey" in 1968. During an AT&T-MIT Conference in 1976, Clarke discussed the future of communication technology. A video of this talk, shared by AT&T Channel on YouTube in 2015, shows how prophetic Clarke's ideas were.

While Clarke's literary achievements are well-known, his technical background is less familiar. After serving in the Royal Air Force during World War II, Clarke pursued a career as a radar technician, gaining expertise in satellite technology, reports History of Yesterday. Clarke was the first to envision a blueprint for telecommunication satellites in Earth's geostationary orbits. With this robust knowledge, Clarke's 1976 predictions on the evolution of communication systems were jaw-droppingly on point.

When the interviewer asked Clarke to explain why he felt that the communication systems were "still in the semaphore," he said: "The telephone is the only way we can communicate outside yet we get a lot of communication inwards through the radio and TV. But we're going to get devices which will enable us to send much more information to our friends. They'll be able to see us, we'll be able to see them, we exchange pictorial information, graphical information, data books and so forth." Speaking of his "ideal communication device," Clarke said that it would be an HD TV screen paired with a keyboard through which people can exchange messages, book flights, do shopping and read news. He gave hints about the internet, social media, online shopping and ebooks decades in advance.

Clarke also emphasized his, "Don't commute, communicate," slogan. He pointed out that people won't have to travel out of necessity but simply for pleasure. True to his words, many are now working remotely without the need to commute to work. While Clarke agreed that these developments in communication systems may affect our social lives, he highlighted that people will feel like they're "living in one small town," with a common time zone. The author also hinted at the possibility of artificial intelligence, contact with extraterrestrials and smartwatches. Though smartwatches might make telephones obsolete, he was sure that they would be saving lives in the future. This visionary interview from nearly 50 years ago left internet users in awe.

"Clarke was a great ambassador for science and technology in popular culture. He's like your favorite uncle who can discuss groundbreaking ideas in a way that you'd imagine you'd talk to someone over a cup of tea," said @CaminoAir. "Wow! And to think this interview is from 1976. He was spot-on with his predictions," remarked @Royalroadtotheunc. "This guy was a visionary. Some would say, mistakenly, he was a prophet, but he was only way ahead of the people of his time. Probably he helped to shape the future that is now our present," added @ErwinWernerTeichmann.