Quote:
Originally Posted by moz
But in the same vein, predicting obvious consequences of existing technology is not very special. In that sense stuff like AC Clarke's prediction of radio communication via artificial satellite instead of via bouncing signals off the moon was extrapolating quite narrowly.
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Not really... when Clarke made that prediction, the very idea of launching a man-made machine into permanent and trackable orbit, intact, was a very new and unique idea, not a "narrow" extrapolation at all. It required very involved and precise engineering to pull off, more involved than was available when Clarke proposed it.
It's like the Space Elevator concept proposed by Yuri Artsutanov in 1960... sure, it seems "obvious," but the trick is in pulling it off.