Not only was Arthur C. Clarke one of the greatest science fiction writers of all time, he also had a knack for looking ahead at where technology was going, and accurately predicting how it would change life in the future.


In this clip from the BBC's Mysterious World, Clarke postulates on what the future of cities will be like. And thanks to revolutions in communications technology made possible by satellites, by the year 2000 people will no longer have to commute to the office to put in a day's work. He even goes as far as making the wild claim that one day surgeons might not have to be in the same country as the patient they're operating on—which isn't that wild a claim anymore. [YouTube via Brain Pickings]