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 solar system and the colonisation of some of it; seas will mined for energy and minerals, and asteroids will be pulled to Earth to supply needed materials; men, already bigger than they need be, may be bred smaller to be more efficient on less food.
Profiles Of The Future
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Arthur C Clarke says this is his most important non-fiction, noting it is impossible to predict the future and all attempts to do so in any detail appear ludicrous within a very few years. This book does not try to describe the future, but to define the boundaries within which possible futures must lie. Extensively revised in 1999 from the original 1962 edition, ideas here also found their way also into 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Fountains of Paradise. Often Clarke leaves the original text then comments on how knowledge has grown over 37 years, making for a fascinating reflection on the rapidity of our changing futures. He explores the range of science and technology, defining the inability to envision how the future might be in terms of failures of either nerve or imagination... refusal to accept the implications of science as it already is, or to see how it might one day be. He then systematically, in accessible, non-technical language, sets out what may be theoretically possible--manufacturing and medicine to transport and communications--within the laws of physics. And following Clarke's Second Law
The only way of finding the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible.
states the cases for and against the most fantastical science fiction, including time travel, invisibility and matter transmission. Essential for layman, scientist and science-fiction reader alike. --Gary S. Dalkin
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A fascinating collection of essays speculating on future scientific possibilities by the master of science and science fiction
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
In this book Arthur C. Clarke considers the future development of human technology, focusing on the ultimate limits of what is possible rather than on what the near future is likely to bring. Originally published in 1962, Clarke has added comments where developments have substantially modified his earlier views. He addresses a wide range of questions: transport, colonising space, novel sources of energy, artificial intelligence, a universal machine that can produce any specified artefact, as well as more fanciful possibilities such as time-travel, teleportation, and invisibility. He suggests we should be slow to pronounce anything "impossible" as the technology of the future may be as hard for us to imagine as ours would have been for people of earlier ages. (He also quotes a number of "authorities" who denied the possibility of heavier than air flight or the rocket shortly before they became realities!) Sadly, my enjoyment of this book was somewhat spoiled by Clarke's style which is inclined to be rather laboured and pompous. A pity, as this is otherwise a first rate read.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Jan Dierckx
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
If you are looking for a book with scientific facts, I don't think you will find much to your liking. But if you are interested in human imagination (more or less based upon facts), this might be something for you.
Arthur C.Clarke is an English scientist and Science-Fiction writer. 'Profiles of The Future' was first published in 1962. There are nineteen chapters each with a different subject. Arthur C.Clarke calls it 'An inquiry into the limits of the possible.'
One of the chapters is the future of transport. In the future cargo will be stowed in some kind of a submersible container. They could be linked together as the wagons of a train and pulled by a submarine. The idea is that ships are too heavy and loose too much time and energy during a storm. Up until now I'm wondering whether A.C.Clarke is joking or not.
In the chapter 'The Obsolescence of Man' he discusses the future of the Homo Sapiens. Much of this chapter is used for the film '2001: A Space Odyssey'.
At the end of the book there is a 'Chart of the Future'. It's a list of discoveries in the future as far as 2100. (Remember that 'Profiles of the Future' was first published in 1962). To name a few: in 2000, colonising planets (The optimism of the sixties !).In 21OO, immortality (!?).
As you can see, don't take this book too seriously. But it's a engrossing read.
Arthur C.Clarke is an English scientist and Science-Fiction writer. 'Profiles of The Future' was first published in 1962. There are nineteen chapters each with a different subject. Arthur C.Clarke calls it 'An inquiry into the limits of the possible.'
One of the chapters is the future of transport. In the future cargo will be stowed in some kind of a submersible container. They could be linked together as the wagons of a train and pulled by a submarine. The idea is that ships are too heavy and loose too much time and energy during a storm. Up until now I'm wondering whether A.C.Clarke is joking or not.
In the chapter 'The Obsolescence of Man' he discusses the future of the Homo Sapiens. Much of this chapter is used for the film '2001: A Space Odyssey'.
At the end of the book there is a 'Chart of the Future'. It's a list of discoveries in the future as far as 2100. (Remember that 'Profiles of the Future' was first published in 1962). To name a few: in 2000, colonising planets (The optimism of the sixties !).In 21OO, immortality (!?).
As you can see, don't take this book too seriously. But it's a engrossing read.
Format:Paperback
This is the second edition of Clarke's meditation on the likely consequences of the potential and probable scientific and technological breakthroughs during the course of the 20th and 21st centuries. The study is predicated on a key insight: the fact that certain scientific and technological breakthroughs could never have been predicted by earlier thinkers. Whereas the internal combustion engine would have been comprehensible to Galileo or the ancient Greeks, the simplest electronic device operates on principles that were completely unknown to such classical thinkers. For Clarke, the science of Maxwell, Einstein and Heisenberg has enabled us to understand of the fundamental forces that govern the universe, and as a result the anything that is scientifically possible, will become technologically possible for human civilisation in just a few generations.
Some of the ideas contained in the survey that follows look quaint and even embarrassing to the reader in the early 21st century. Particularly cringe worthy is the chapter almost totally dedicated to the hovercraft and the revolutionary implications that it will have. Clarke seems to fall for a pitfall of many futurists: just because a technologcal innovation becomes possible it does not follow that it will see widespread adoption, as it may not fit into any social or economic niche (the videophone exists, but doesn't fit human needs well enough for general adoption). In other areas Clarke is insightful and prescient. His vision of a human-colonised galaxy as a scattering of isolated ant hives is both chilling and inspiring. In particular, his thoughts on satellite communications were visionary for his time - Clarke invented the concept of the geo-stationary satellite some years earlier. He even manages to glimpse the eventual rise of the internet, although he saw it in terms of a global satellite televisual network. His even bolder claims, about anti-gravity for example, have yet to be confirmed or falsified by progress.
All in all, the book is well worth a read as a an idiosyncratic vision of our future technological development. Some of what the book predicts will never come to pass, some of it already has, and much still might.
Some of the ideas contained in the survey that follows look quaint and even embarrassing to the reader in the early 21st century. Particularly cringe worthy is the chapter almost totally dedicated to the hovercraft and the revolutionary implications that it will have. Clarke seems to fall for a pitfall of many futurists: just because a technologcal innovation becomes possible it does not follow that it will see widespread adoption, as it may not fit into any social or economic niche (the videophone exists, but doesn't fit human needs well enough for general adoption). In other areas Clarke is insightful and prescient. His vision of a human-colonised galaxy as a scattering of isolated ant hives is both chilling and inspiring. In particular, his thoughts on satellite communications were visionary for his time - Clarke invented the concept of the geo-stationary satellite some years earlier. He even manages to glimpse the eventual rise of the internet, although he saw it in terms of a global satellite televisual network. His even bolder claims, about anti-gravity for example, have yet to be confirmed or falsified by progress.
All in all, the book is well worth a read as a an idiosyncratic vision of our future technological development. Some of what the book predicts will never come to pass, some of it already has, and much still might.
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