I'm talking about it because I re-watched 2001 the odyssey of Kubrick ... filmed in 1968 and still pretty current, except maybe fashion and hairstyles but it is cyclical so it will probably come back!
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Clarke
Aug 56
Dear Andy,
Odd that we should have crossed in the post! I am afraid that I am too much out of touch with current communication theory and technique to provide much of value for you. (In any event, all my war-time experience was in radar, not radio.)
As you may know, my main interest in this subject is in the use of satellite relays, which I think may revolutionize the pattern of world communications. To the best of my knowledge, I was the first to suggest this possibility (see “Extraterrestrial Relays”, Wireless World, October 45). By another odd coincidence I've just sent my agent an article on these lines, entitled “The Billion Dollar Moon”, giving my latest view on this subject. My general conclusions are that perhaps in 30 years the orbital relay system may take over all the functions of existing surface networks and provide others quite impossible today. For example, the three stations in the 24-hour orbit could provide not only an interference and censorship-free global TV service for the same power as a single modern transmitter, but could also make possible a position-finding grid whereby anyone on earth could locate himself by means of a couple of dials on an instrument about the size of a watch. (A development of Decca and transistorisation.) It might even make possible world-wide person-to-person radio with automatic dialling. Thus no-one on the planet need ever get lost or become out of touch with the community, unless he wanted to be. I'm still thinking about the social consequences of this!
But as for details of frequencies and powers, I'll have to leave that to the experts to work out; I'll get on with my science fiction and wait to say “I told you so!”
Sincerely,
(Signed, 'Arthur')
Arthur c clarke
PS Any chance of seeing you in London? I leave for NY on 28 August.
Found on: http://www.gizmodo.fr/2010/11/20/arthur ... -1956.html
ps: ah I didn't know there are 2 other odyssey:
# 2061: Odyssey Three, 1988 (2061, Odyssey three)
# 3001: The Final Odyssey, 1997 (3001, The Final Odyssey)