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1984: Spring; A Choice of Futures
1984: Spring
254 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1984
About the author
Arthur C. Clarke
1,662 books11.9k followersStories, works of noted British writer, scientist, and underwater explorer Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, include
2001: A Space Odyssey
(1968).
This most important and influential figure in 20th century fiction spent the first half of his life in England and served in World War II as a radar operator before migrating to Ceylon in 1956. He co-created his best known novel and movie with the assistance of Stanley Kubrick.
Clarke, a graduate of King's College, London, obtained first class honours in physics and mathematics. He served as past chairman of the interplanetary society and as a member of the academy of astronautics, the royal astronomical society, and many other organizations.
He authored more than fifty books and won his numerous awards: the Kalinga prize of 1961, the American association for the advancement Westinghouse prize, the Bradford Washburn award, and the John W. Campbell award for his novel Rendezvous with Rama. Clarke also won the nebula award of the fiction of America in 1972, 1974 and 1979, the Hugo award of the world fiction convention in 1974 and 1980. In 1986, he stood as grand master of the fiction of America. The queen knighted him as the commander of the British Empire in 1989.
This most important and influential figure in 20th century fiction spent the first half of his life in England and served in World War II as a radar operator before migrating to Ceylon in 1956. He co-created his best known novel and movie with the assistance of Stanley Kubrick.
Clarke, a graduate of King's College, London, obtained first class honours in physics and mathematics. He served as past chairman of the interplanetary society and as a member of the academy of astronautics, the royal astronomical society, and many other organizations.
He authored more than fifty books and won his numerous awards: the Kalinga prize of 1961, the American association for the advancement Westinghouse prize, the Bradford Washburn award, and the John W. Campbell award for his novel Rendezvous with Rama. Clarke also won the nebula award of the fiction of America in 1972, 1974 and 1979, the Hugo award of the world fiction convention in 1974 and 1980. In 1986, he stood as grand master of the fiction of America. The queen knighted him as the commander of the British Empire in 1989.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 17, 2020
Interesting to read Clarke's predictions of future telecommunications advances, but you should REALLY love Clarke before picking this up.
May 13, 2026
For Arthur C Clarke, 1984 was an exciting time. Our species was on the cusp of major technological breakthroughs, some of which we're enjoying right now.
It was a hopeful time, with satellite technology offering fantastic new opportunities for world peace and universal education. The biggest and most rapid expansion of astronomical knowledge ever was well underway thanks to deep space probes, and he looked forward to permanent Moon and Mars bases within the next four decades.
But it was also a worrying time, due to the ongoing nuclear threat, the increasing militarisation of space and so forth. Clarke discusses these topics with his usual clarity and insight in this collection of 32 essays, book prefaces and speeches that range across his lengthy career as a writer, futurist, oceanic explorer, satellite technology booster and advocate for the peaceful exploration of space. Some are still very current; others remain valuable as time capsules of the hopes and fears at a watershed time in world history.
He predicts the 'wristwatch telephone' in general use by 1997, and an imminent satellite-powered 'pocket tutor' as well. He didn't anticipate their joint arrival as the smartphone but it's still an impressive prediction.
Although he's very positive and enthusiastic about the potential benefits of these 'electronic educators', he adds a wise rider: 'Electronics can never completely convey all the nuances of personal interactions. Not should it attempt to do so, lest we create the pathological societies described by EM Forster in The Machine Stops and by Isaac Asimov in The Naked Sun.' (p83).
He said that in 1979 and here we are in a world overwhelmed with mental illnesses and social problems sparked by screen addiction, social media, AI and the like.
Re satellite-enabled 'instantaneous and ubiquitous' news reporting, he's generally positive but adds the caution: 'Let us hope that it will also be responsible. Considering what has often happened in the past, optimism here may well be tempered with concern' (p19). I'd imagine he'd be very concerned about our uncontrollably irresponsible cyberspace awash with fake news.
Now for some stray takeaways I found of interest. In 1955, Arthur became one of the first scuba divers to explore the Great Barrier Reef's Heron Island. In 1970 he took the Apollo 12 astronauts diving in Sri Lanka, where he had a scuba business called Undersea Explorers. He was good friends with the cosmonaut Alexei Leonov. He corresponded with HG Wells and George Bernard Shaw, and met Olaf Stapledon at a British Interplantary Society dinner in 1948. 'No other book had a greater influence on my life', he writes of Stapledon's Last and First Men, but the 'nobility' and 'gentleness' of Stapledon's personality is all he recalls of their only meeting.
Finally, one of my favourite essays is 'The Poetry of Space', which includes a comic verse by Julian Huxley ('Unquiet Astronomers') in full, an astronomical impossibility in 'Rime of the Ancient Mariner' and some wonderful quotes from starstruck poets, such as this zinger from Tennyson (in 'Locksley Hall'):
For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see,
Saw the Vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be;
Saw the heavens filled with commerce, argosies of magic sails,
Pilots of the purple twilight, dropping down with costly bales.
It was a hopeful time, with satellite technology offering fantastic new opportunities for world peace and universal education. The biggest and most rapid expansion of astronomical knowledge ever was well underway thanks to deep space probes, and he looked forward to permanent Moon and Mars bases within the next four decades.
But it was also a worrying time, due to the ongoing nuclear threat, the increasing militarisation of space and so forth. Clarke discusses these topics with his usual clarity and insight in this collection of 32 essays, book prefaces and speeches that range across his lengthy career as a writer, futurist, oceanic explorer, satellite technology booster and advocate for the peaceful exploration of space. Some are still very current; others remain valuable as time capsules of the hopes and fears at a watershed time in world history.
He predicts the 'wristwatch telephone' in general use by 1997, and an imminent satellite-powered 'pocket tutor' as well. He didn't anticipate their joint arrival as the smartphone but it's still an impressive prediction.
Although he's very positive and enthusiastic about the potential benefits of these 'electronic educators', he adds a wise rider: 'Electronics can never completely convey all the nuances of personal interactions. Not should it attempt to do so, lest we create the pathological societies described by EM Forster in The Machine Stops and by Isaac Asimov in The Naked Sun.' (p83).
He said that in 1979 and here we are in a world overwhelmed with mental illnesses and social problems sparked by screen addiction, social media, AI and the like.
Re satellite-enabled 'instantaneous and ubiquitous' news reporting, he's generally positive but adds the caution: 'Let us hope that it will also be responsible. Considering what has often happened in the past, optimism here may well be tempered with concern' (p19). I'd imagine he'd be very concerned about our uncontrollably irresponsible cyberspace awash with fake news.
Now for some stray takeaways I found of interest. In 1955, Arthur became one of the first scuba divers to explore the Great Barrier Reef's Heron Island. In 1970 he took the Apollo 12 astronauts diving in Sri Lanka, where he had a scuba business called Undersea Explorers. He was good friends with the cosmonaut Alexei Leonov. He corresponded with HG Wells and George Bernard Shaw, and met Olaf Stapledon at a British Interplantary Society dinner in 1948. 'No other book had a greater influence on my life', he writes of Stapledon's Last and First Men, but the 'nobility' and 'gentleness' of Stapledon's personality is all he recalls of their only meeting.
Finally, one of my favourite essays is 'The Poetry of Space', which includes a comic verse by Julian Huxley ('Unquiet Astronomers') in full, an astronomical impossibility in 'Rime of the Ancient Mariner' and some wonderful quotes from starstruck poets, such as this zinger from Tennyson (in 'Locksley Hall'):
For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see,
Saw the Vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be;
Saw the heavens filled with commerce, argosies of magic sails,
Pilots of the purple twilight, dropping down with costly bales.
March 4, 2017
This is a collection of non-fiction pieces.
July 6, 2015
A collection of Arthur C. Clarke's op-ed pieces and essays from the early 1980s. Interesting, and a rare opportunity to read Clarke weighing in on geopolitical matters of the time.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews