Unpacking humanity’s collective conscience through ‘the last
word in man’s quest for perfect communications.’ In 1964,
legendary science fiction writer, inventor, and futurist Arthur
C. Clarke predicted the future with astounding accuracy,
presaging everything from telecommuting to the digital
convergence. It turns out he predicted the future in even more
granular detail in his 1968 novel-turned-Kubrick-classic 2001 A
Space Odyssey, where in Chapter 9 he describes the “newspad” — a
strikingly prescient vision for the iPad. When [Floyd] had tired
of official reports, memoranda and minutes, he would plug his
foolscap-sized Newspad into the ship’s information circuit and
scan the latest reports from Earth. One by one, he would conjure
up the world’s major electronic papers. He knew the codes of the
more important ones by heart and had no need to consult the list
on the back of his pad. Switching to the display’s short-term
memory, he would hold the front page while he searched the
headlines and noted the items t