Arthur C. Clarke

Science fiction writer

Most Important Technology of the Last 40 Years:

The microchip.

Most Important Technology for the Coming Decade:

Microtechnology.

Technology That has Evolved in a Surprising Way:

The speed with which things have happened. The idea that you can put a whole movie on a little silver disc in the palm of your hand, that's magic!

"I still believe cold fusion could happen, and it's hard to believe that anything could be more important. There is evidence of tremendous energies at the quantum level. Maybe we could tap them.

"The space elevator will become a reality now that we have carbon-60. It will also raise lots of problems. We'll have to clean up the satellites below the elevator because sooner or later one would smash into it. But we won't need the satellites. Three elevator towers will cover the whole globe, and we can hang whatever we want to on them.

"The biggest technology in the future might be mind-to-mind contact, through some form of electronic headsets. We could talk to each other through our brains without speaking, from anywhere to anywhere, because it would be transmissible. It would change the world completely. People wouldn't be able to lie, which would put most politicians out of business."