A passage from “2001: A Space Odyssey”
“When he tired of official reports and memoranda and minutes, he would plug his foolscap-sized Newspad into the ship’s information circuit and scan the latest reports from Earth. One by one he would conjure up the world’s major electronic papers … Switching to the display unit’s short-term memory, he would hold the front page while he quickly searched the headlines and noted the items that interested him. … the postage-stamp-sized rectangle would expand until it neatly filled the screen and he could read it with comfort. When he had finished, he would flash back to the complete page and select a new subject for detailed examination.”
At least our food’s better.
I *heart* Kubrick.
Clarke also had us going to Jupiter (or Saturn if you read the book) in 2001. Instead we went to Afghanistan. Hopefully we are now more on the path to the egalitarianism he envisioned. Maybe the iPad will save the world. One can only hope.
Ha! Brilliant. Clarke and Kubrick. I wonder how long we’ll have to wait for the “far-casters” from Dan Simmons’ “Hyperion” series.