Arthur C. Clarke Predicts Internet and PCs in 1974

Sci-fi author and futurist Arthur C. Clarke predicted in this 1974 TV interview that in 2001, regular people would have personal computers that communicate and retrieve information using a system that sounds rather like the Internet.

He will have in his own house…a console through which he can talk to his friendly local computer and get all the information he needs for his everyday life, like his bank statements, theatre reservations—all the information you need in the course of living in a complex modern society. This will be in a compact form in his own house. You”ll have a television screen…and a keyboard and he’ll talk to the computer and get information from it. And he’ll take it as much for granted as we take the telephone.

The interview is from the archives of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

E.D.W. Lynch
E.D.W. Lynch

Writer and humor generalist on the Internet and on Facebook.