Profiles of the future
an inquiry into the limits of the possible
by Arthur C. Clarke · first published 1962
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This book originally appeared in 1962, and was based on essays written during the period 1959 - 1961. Since it was concerned with ultimate possibilities, and not with achievements to be expected in the near future, even the remarkable events of the last decade have dated it very little. But Arthur Clarke has gone over the book making corrections and comments where necessary in order to bring it right up-to-date. The author, amongst many fascinating excursions into what the future may hold, discusses the fourth dimension and the obsolescence of the law of gravity, the exploration of the entire
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As an impressionable 13-year-old, I found Arthur C. Clarke's book of popular science essays, 'Profiles of the Future: An Inquiry into the Limits of the Possible', to be a real mind-expand-er. What's your favorite book of science essays?
on “Great Essays and Essayists” ↗Andrew Hodges's biography of Turing, "Enigma", easily. Although "Profiles of the Future" by Arthur Clarke was also surprisingly good.
on “Ask HN: Best book you read in 2010 and briefly why” ↗If you're actually interested in what Arthur C. Clarke thought about the future, may i suggest his book "Profiles of The Future", from whence we get Clarke's 3 laws, including the well-worn "any technology, sufficiently advanced, is indistinguishable from magic." Not only does it contain lots of predictions like the ones in this…
on “Arthur C. Clarke Predicts the Future in 1964 … And Kind of Nails It” ↗I think you've got a point, but then I'm old too. I found reading Arthur C. Clarke's 'Profiles of the Future' early on, and Yergin's 'The Prize' later on to be valuable in reasoning about energy, and found 'The Oil Drum' [1] fascinating during its run. But I know I'm an energy dilettante... what resources would…
on “The Refragmentation” ↗…When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong. -- Arthur C. Clarke, Profiles of the Future, 1962 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarke%27s_three_laws https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Clarke#Clarke's_Thre...
on “Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts (2020)” ↗Clarke's Third Law: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. [0] [0] Profiles of the Future, Arthur C. Clarke
on “The 100 MHz 6502” ↗Thank you for the link, that was a wonderful essay. And you've just reminded me that I've had an old used copy of Clarke's "Profiles of the Future" (the apparent source of this article) sitting on a shelf in the next room unread. Time to change that.
on “Technology predictions” ↗Profiles of the Future by Arthur C Clarke. 3º Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
on “Ask HN: What books are you reading?” ↗Clarke's Profiles of the Future was off on a whole lot, but still impressive. There's a recent book Where is my flying car? with the thesis that old sci-fi visions of the future could've been accurate if not for unnecessary stagnation…
on “Things Stanislaw Lem Predicted” ↗…Stanford Computer scientist. He said "we overestimate the impact of technology in the short-term and underestimate the effect in the long run" [0]. I dimly remember similar sentiments in Arthur C. Clarke's Profiles of the Future (1662) [1], where he talked about "Hazards of Prophecy", where predictions suffered from either "failure of imagination" (predicted too little change) or "failure of nerve" (could/should have foreseen…
on “Deep reinforcement learning is a waste of time (2019)” ↗And a mere 18 months or so after Jeff Raskin wrote this, IBM produced the IBM-PC and the rest is history with BILLIONS of PCs covering the world today. Arthur Clarke wrote about this failing in his "Profiles of the Future" that most people who predict the future are never brave enough to predict big enough- "A failure of Imagination"
on “Computers by the Millions (1979)” ↗…of the town`s main doctor that had recently died. I spent a few weeks exploring his collection and when I went into a science fiction book, I dont remember exactly but I think it was Arthur C Clarke Profiles of the Future, I found a receipt dating beginning 60`s, it was a receipt from an airplane company. The doctor had been the mayor in that time and had paid the company just to have a plane flying low over the town.…
on “What’s the strangest thing you ever found in a book?” ↗…being amazed that there were A WHOLE MILLION hosts on the Internet, and surely 4 billion or so addresses could never run out. (That's what Arthur C. Clarke called 'A Failure of Imagination' in his book "Profiles of the Future".) In my own case, I have been asked many times by the regional IP-address allocator (APNIC) whether I would be willing to allow my block of hosts to be given back for re-allocation.
on “Who is squatting IPv4 addresses?” ↗