Clarke's Three Laws
Science fiction writer and inventor Arthur C. Clarke (author of the book '2001: A Space Odyssey', on which one of my favourite films is based) coined these three laws regarding science and discovery:
- When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
- The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
- Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
The third in particular is true; I grew up in the eighties, and even during my lifetime, technologies have changed so fast and so drastically that it's sometimes hard to grasp what I'm seeing. Look at films like 2001 and their use of what their writers and set designers considered to be the technology of the future. Imagine showing your 5-year old self an iPhone, or the Microsoft Surface.
It's all moving so fast. Where will we go from here?