In 1964, Sir Arthur C. Clarke, the futurist and sci-fi writer best known for his novel 2001: A Space Odyssey, peered into the future, to the year 2000, and described what he saw. And a pretty good guess it was. Ours would be a world in which...

We could be in instant contact with each other, wherever we may be, where we can contact our friends anywhere on earth, even if we don't know their actual physical location. It will be possible in that age, perhaps only 50 years from now, for a man to conduct his business from Tahiti or Bali just as well as he could from London.... Almost any executive skill, any administrative skill, even any physical skill, could be made independent of distance. I am perfectly serious when I suggest that one day we may have brain surgeons in Edinburgh operating on patients in New Zealand.

By 2001, California doctors were already conducting virtual surgery on patients in Rome. And, by 2005, Thomas Friedman published his bestseller, The World is Flat, which pretty much told us that us that Clarke's imagined world had arrived -- with, of course, one big exception. Cities? They're still standing...

Would you like to support the mission of Open Culture? Please consider making a donation to our site. It's hard to rely 100% on ads, and your contributions will help us continue providing the best free cultural and educational materials to learners everywhere.

Also consider following Open Culture on Facebook and Twitter and sharing intelligent media with your friends. Or sign up for our daily email and get a daily dose of Open Culture in your inbox.

Related Content:

Marshall McLuhan: The World is a Global Village

Arthur C. Clarke Presents the Colors of Infinity