2001, predictions and science fiction

I was telling my kids a few days ago about 2001, that they haven’t seen yet (yeah, I know).

I’ve watched 2001 many, many, many times and I’m always looking out for details of the world-building …but it never occurred to me that push-button numeric keypads or credit cards were examples of predictive extrapolation. As time goes on, more and more of these little touches will become unnoticeable and unremarkable.

I must say I love this notion of “predictive extrapolation”.

The most spectacular thing in 2001 that I was telling my kids about is the videophone. The first time I saw the film, I was struck by the videophone, as possibly the thing that felt the most impossible to see in our lifetime.

And when the year 2001 came, it was beginning to be used in our life, for real. Now we use it on a daily basis on our ubiquitous computers (and yes, this encompasses the one in your pocket).

This still strikes me as the most amazing prediction of all in this film.

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