Digital Age Predicted In 1974

In footage shot by ABC in 1974, futurist and inventor Arthur C. Clarke predicts the huge role computer's would play in our personal lives.

Clarke explains to his interviewer that computers will connect us with the world by the year 2001.

Using his son as an example, Clarke predicts not only the internet but the invention of a personal computer.

Behind him whirrs a huge computer in its basic form. Inventions date back to 1936 with the Z1 computer, with the floppy disk and micro-processor added later.

Clarke also talks about the role computers will play in our social lives; enabling us to "live wherever we please," as he describes it.

Arthur C Clarke was an English science fiction author born in 1917. A set of strangely accurate predictions set him aside from the rest. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1998 and was awarded Sri Lanka's highest civil honour, Sri Lankabhimanya in 2005.