Tsunami

[Skids]

In his 1968 novel 2001: A Space Odyssey, Arthur C. Clarke predicts space travel, satellites, missions to the various planets and so on. All well and good, but in 1982, 2010: Odyssey Two (obviously the sequel to 2001) was first published. In it he makes a one line mention of "the '05 tsunami". Okay, so the tsunami was on Dec 29th '04 but he wasn't that far off. How on earth did know that was going to happen?

[kempie]

A point of clarification: 2001: A Space Odyssey wasn't a novel. If it were, and had been written in 1968, it would have predicted artificial satellites a decade after Sputnik 1 had succesfully orbited the Earth in 1957.

The film (of 1968) was based on various short stories by Arthur C. Clarke, most notably The Sentinel written in 1948 (published 1951).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001:_A_Space_Odyssey

Back to the question; it does appear that Mr. Clarke was/is indeed a visionary, but to what extent I cannot hazard a guess.

[Clanad]

Here's Arthur C. Clarke on Arthur C. Clarke:

Contrary to popular belief, we science fiction writers don�t predict the future -- we try to prevent undesirable futures. In the wake of the Asian tsunami, scientists and governments are scrambling to set up systems to monitor and warn us of future hazards from the sea.
Let�s keep an eye on the skies even as we worry about the next hazard from the depths of the sea.
(Source: Arthur C. Clarke Fondation News, 02.02.05)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[CT]

Mr. Clarke was probably the first person to suggest the idea of geostationary satellites. The geostationary orbit was even nicknamed the 'clarke' orbit in his honour.He may not have been able to predict the future, but he was definitely a bit of a visionary.

[Gef]

Tsunami have been happening for millions of years. Unfortunately, last year's was the worst in recent history to hit heavily populated areas. I don't think Clark was making a prediction but just pointing out that these things happen. How many people had heard of a tsunami before last December. Clarke lives in Sri Lanka so was probably well aware of their existance.

[PFD]

The opening page of another of his books, Rendezvous With Rama, is also somewhat prophetic. He writes something like:

"On the 11th of September, the Western world saw a column of smoke reaching up to the sky...."

He got the date spot on!

[tomd]

Co-incidence. Think about all the times he didn't predict it.