Arthur C. Clarke And His Orbital Newspaper
By Ray X Five decades ago Arthur C. Clark predicted the present decline of print publishing, books and newspapers. This disruption would be caused by a new communications medium: satellites. Besides SF Arthur C. Clarke also wrote nonfiction, extrapolating about future inventions based upon scientific and technological developments at the time. His book, Profiles of the Future (Bantam edition 1964), includes portions of articles previously published in magazines like Science Digest during the late 1950s - early 1960s. Chapter 16, Voices from the Sky , discusses future changes in the delivery of media via satellites. How far advanced was such technology when Clarke was extrapolating? Check out this footnote: " This chapter was written before the launching of Telstar. " (You young non-nerds will have to Google Telstar.) Relay satellites would bring the world together, he wrote. Information could be transmitted to any spot on the glob...