Watched 2001: A Space Odyssey.

This is one of the highest-rated films, and according to most film directors, it may even be the most important film in the entire cinema industry.

More remarkably, it was scripted based on Arthur C. Clarke’s book. He was a person who predicted over 90% of the technology trends we have today, including longevity, computers, the internet, digital nomadism, AI, space travel, and other ideas. To understand how powerful his predictions were, I highly recommend watching his 1964 predictions about the future, which we would call the present today.

Stanley Kubrick made a genius film using Arthur’s 1948 book The Sentinel, and I highly recommend watching the film, which showcases two geniuses collaborating.

Another great sci-fi writer, Isaac Asimov, made equally impressive predictions in his books, especially regarding robotics, AI, and space travel.

I am impressed by how sci-fi books inspire the greatest entrepreneurs to build the future, and this is how science fiction eventually predicts the world we live in today.

I was wondering: Asimov, Clarke, and others lived in the previous century. It is not cool to hear about the future from information more than 50 years old.

So, first, I read Jacques Fresco — an engineer and futurist who researched for most of his life what it would be like to live in a world with no money. I like some of his ideas, but he passed away in 2017 and didn’t see much of the AI boom, despite predicting it already in the 1990s.

So, the easiest way to find really great futurists who are still alive and study the future is simply by asking ChatGPT.

One recommendation is Kevin Kelly, founder of Wired — one of the well-known tech media outlets.

Kevin predicted bitcoins in the 90s, distributed systems, and commoditized AI decades before they actually happened.

His latest predictions are:

- Robots will lag behind AI. This is mostly due to hardware limitations, especially because they require a lot of energy, and having a lot of energy at home is like having a mini bomb; also, there are many requirements for power systems, and robots need better world models, manipulation skills, and continuous learning.
- Emotional AI, where humans will spend most of their day with digital companions that can show empathy, love, anger, hate, and other feelings.
- No AGI. Instead, a swarm of AIs and robots, each of which can solve a small task well. Think of it as specialized aliens with godlike intelligence that can help humans do certain things.
- Bots as economic units. As the human population declines in some countries, bots can help keep production lines running.
- The Human-AI relationship will reach a new level. We will have more companions, and we will also pay more for real people serving us. Think of an AI therapist versus a real therapist. As AI gets better at showing emotions, it will no longer be weird to have AI friends and spend time in such a mixed company of real people and AI aliens.

One thing I was surprised by in his vision: the AI revolution is not at the beginning; in 2026, it has not even started. This is how he explains what we need to expect for the next 20-30 years.

I watched his prediction video but also inspired to read some of his works