Cybersurfing: 2001’s Realistic Vision of the Future
Time has a funny way of proving science-fiction predictions wrong. This is actually a good thing, because few if any of us really wanted the year 1984 to turn out like George Orwell’s novel of the same name; it was a relief that 1999 went by without the wrath of Godzilla and cohorts unleashed worldwide (as seen in DESTROY ALL MONSTERS); and highway safety turned out much better one year later than you would expected based on DEATH RACE 2000. On the other hand, matter transporters and flying cars might be nice, and it really is too bad that 2001 came and went without a giant circular space station orbiting the Earth or a permanent base on the Moon.
Despite this last lapse, a team of academics have bestowed upon 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY the honor of being deemed the most realistic cinematic depiction of mankind’s future.
Mark Brake, professor of Science Communication at the University of Glamorgan, said: “2001 raised science fiction cinema to a new level. The unfolding four-million-year filmic story brilliantly portrays Arthur C Clarke’s disturbing man-machine encounter with HAL a computer turned murderer.
“This unsettling scenario is not something we would ever want to imagine happening in reality, but it is not beyond the realms of possibility that artificial intelligence could turn on its creators.”
Other highly rated films were BLADE RUNNER (1982) and THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN (1971). The scientists also rated 2001 as the film most admired for its use of science and BLADE RUNNER as the best sci-fi film.
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