The Future Ain't What It Used To Be

On This Day In History
1995: Amazon opens for business

Quote Of The Day
"People ask me what my predictions are for publishing and how digital is changing things and I tell them my only real prediction is that it's all changing. Amazon, Google and all of those things probably aren't the enemy. The enemy right now is simply refusing to understand that the world is changing."
(Neil Gaiman)

Right, Neil, play it safe. Prediction is a mug's game. Science Fiction writers have a lousy track record of predicting the future, but that doesn't mean they are lousy writers. Science Fiction has never been about predicting the future, it's about speculating possible futures in order to either realise or prevent them. 

My current read, by one of my all-time favourite authors (I named my son after him), has a better than average track record on predicting the future. He was way off on space exploration - sorry, mankind didn't reach Jupiter in 2001, but he was just a few years out on A.I. As for the internet; wow!

Arthur C. Clarke predicts the internet.

Opportunities (Let's Make Lots Of Money)