[EID] Predictive SF?

[rerjohnson at gmail.com]

 In a recent Boing Boing, the Stanley Kubrik film "2001" is credited with
predicting the iPad.

Arthur C. Clark's 2001
Newspad<http://feedproxy.google.com/%7Er/boingboing/iBag/%7E3/dNnEAiLPaEA/arthur-c-clarks-2001.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email>

Posted: 02 Feb 2010 05:03 AM PST
[image: newspad.jpg] Steven Sande<http://www.tuaw.com/bloggers/steven-sande/>of
TUAW <http://www.tuaw.com/> remembers a passage from 2001: A Space Odyssey:

When he tired of official reports and 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 ... Switching to the display unit's short-term memory, he
would hold the front page while he quickly searched the headlines and noted
the items that interested him. ... the postage-stamp-sized rectangle would
expand until it neatly filled the screen and he could read it with comfort.
When he had finished, he would flash back to the complete page and select a
new subject for detailed examination. Floyd sometimes wondered if the
Newspad, and the fantastic technology behind it, was the last word in man's
quest for perfect communications. Here he was, far out in space, speeding
away from Earth at thousands of miles an hour, yet in a few milliseconds he
could see the headlines of any newspaper he pleased. (That very word
"newspaper," of course, was an anachronistic hangover into the age of
electronics.) The text was updated automatically on every hour; even if one
read only the English versions, one could spend an entire lifetime doing
nothing but absorbing the ever-changing flow of information from the news
satellites. It was hard to imagine how the system could be improved or made
more convenient. But sooner or later, Floyd guessed, it would pass away, to
be replaced by something as unimaginable as the Newspad itself would have
been to Caxton or Gutenberg.

There's actually a history of stories which tie a current gadget to this
particular device. Three years ago, it was Sony's
Reader<http://www.livescience.com/technology/060112_sony_reader.html>graced
with the comparison. In
2001 itself, however, Transmeta-powered Tablet
PCs<http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=529>got the buzz.
Now, of course, it's Apple's turn. Photo:
News Research <http://newsresearch.blogspot.com/2008_04_01_archive.html> Arthur
C. Clarke's 2001 Newspad finally arrives, nine years
late<http://www.tuaw.com/2010/01/28/arthur-c-clarkes-2001-newspad-finally-arrives-nine-years-late/#continued>[TUAW]
end quote
Clark, pshaw!
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