Profiles of the Future

[WXRtenhundred47]

Hi,

I read Profiles of the Future long ago, and can remember Clarke writing a bit about his hobby of collecting historical instances where leading scientists of the day made wrong judgements about the future possibility of things like manned flight and leaving the Earth's atmosphere.

I don't have a copy of the book anymore - can anyone remind me of the examples he gave? I was just chatting with someone about this and was annoyed with myself for not remembering any specific details...

 

[AE35Unit]

Hmmm thats one of his books I don't yet have! I wish they would discuss stuff like this on the yahoo ACClarke group!

 

[Rodders]

No reason why it a can't be discussed here?

 

[WXRtenhundred47]

I remember it being a very entertaining book. He explains how various classic science fiction ideas might or might not work. As a non-scientist I found his explanations clear and memorable. For example, invisibility would render you blind, and gradually rob you of nutrients that you get from light. And he explains the relationship between Earth's gravity and the natural size-limits of animal bodies: an ant 'grown' into the size of a house would not be able to move due to the design of the ant body.

I remember him having a sense of disappointment in puncturing certain classic ideas, but as I mentioned at the start, he does - with good humour - say that current science of any day could be wrong about future possibilities. And to illustrate, he gives examples from his collection of historic scientists who declared impossible things that subsequently were achieved.

Can anyone with a copy of the book remind me of those examples?

 

[AE35Unit]

Yes Clarke made a very good science writer,makes it very accessible!
Hence the Clarke-Asimov treaty whereby it was agreed that Asimov could claim the title of worlds greatest SF writer as long as Clarke gets worlds greatest science writer,or something like that!