Science fiction writer Isaac Asimov predicted YouTube way back in 1980 on the Letterman show

Avid readers of science fiction novels might be quite familiar with the works of Isaac Asimov. His books have been quite revolutionary, especially for their time. Many of his books make eerily accurate predictions about technologies in the future and continue to impress people today. Asimov was called as a guest on David Letterman's talk show "The David Letterman Show" to share his views on what kind of development we can expect in various fields. The episode aired on October 21, 1980, and Asimov predicted how YouTube would become a big thing.

The full interview has been posted on the official YouTube channel of "The David Letterman Show." Letterman starts by revealing how Asimov had written over 221 books and hilariously remarked how he probably had not written as many postcards. Letterman and Asimov talked about his writing and movie interests for some time. Asimov reveals that he enjoyed watching the second installment in the "Star Wars" series, which had only just been released at the time.

He was so impressed with the movie that once it ended, he immediately yelled out that they should start screening the next installment. The duo also exchanged a few words on the space race between America and Russia, which was the USSR at the time. After some time, Letterman asked Asimov what he thought would be the various developments in medicine and communications. For the medical domain, he suggested that scientists would rely on editing human genes to cure certain conditions.

Letterman then asked him, "Do you see any monumental breakthroughs in the area of communications?" Asimov stated that many breakthroughs have already happened in communications with the development of satellites and optical fibers. He continued, "And I imagine that we'll be using laser beams for communicating rather than electrical currents or radio waves." This advancement, according to him, would allow for larger amounts of messages  compared to the technology back then.

Asimov explained, "So that everyone can have their own television channel, the way we all now have our own telephone numbers. And closed circuit television will become the great thing." The "closed-circuit television" is him indirectly and unknowingly referring to "YouTube" and the countless other streaming platforms that we see on the internet today. Asimov finally shared how these "channels" would prove to be immensely beneficial to people, with countless useful applications. A short excerpt of the interview that contains his prediction for YouTube has been shared on Reddit by u/DrNinnuxx.

People were quite amazed to see how accurately he predicted technology in the future and shared their thoughts in the comment section. u/yParticle said, "He also predicted exactly the sort of climate we're seeing now and that extreme weather events would become more common as a direct result of our 20th-century industrial impact." Another individual, u/FredFlintston3, commented, "I was lucky to watch a lot of Letterman's early TV shows back in the day. Sadly, I missed this one. He was obviously a different interviewer then but destined for great things."