Arthur C. Clarke's July 20, 2019 : A Day in the Life of the 21st Century

Futurists will welcome this book by the science fiction community's prolific dean whose 1963 classic__Profiles of the Future__defined possible futures, some of which already have come true. Clarke rejects any label as prophet; as per__Profiles'__subtitle, he deals with "limits of the possible." In July 20, 2019, he views a day in the life of the 21st century. The oversize, illustrated book forecasts how people are born, live, and die. We ride orbiting space stations, watch 60-year-old, 8-foot athletes, see that people have been replaced with computers and robots, view most aspects of life—schools, transportation, medicine, work, movies. These are astonishing but realistic perceptions by a master of the craft who as always writes with skill, wit, clarity, and remarkable intelligence. Futurists will welcome this book by the science fiction community's prolific dean whose 1963 classic Profiles of the Future defined possible futures, some of which already have come true. Clarke rejects any label as prophet; as per Profiles' subtitle, he deals with "limits of the possible." In July 20, 2019, he views a day in the life of the 21st century. The oversize, illustrated book forecasts how people are born, live, and die. We ride orbiting space stations, watch 60-year-old, 8-foot athletes, see that people have been replaced with computers and robots, view most aspects of life—schools, transportation, medicine, work, movies. These are astonishing but realistic perceptions by a master of the craft who as always writes with skill, wit, clarity, and remarkable intelligence. Starting with an introductory letter from a lunar inhabitant, the book dedicates each subsequent chapter to a major institution or sphere of life, speculating what they will become in 2019 - 33 years after its 1986 publication. The hospital, the school, the office, the movies, and the home are joined by sports, transportation, psychiatry and sex. Some chapters gesture at phenomena yet to come, namely artificial intelligence, interstellar travel, and space stations. Meditations on life, death, the technologically mediated Third World War, and an epilogue on the future of the United Nations close out the volume. For the most part, it succeeds in its retro-speculative framing, although occasional clues do betray its mid-80s era