“DESPITE all claims to the contrary, no-one can predict the future, and I have always resisted all attempts to label me a "prophet": I prefer "extrapolator". What I have tried to do, at least in my non-fiction, is outline possible "futures" while pointing out that totally unexpected inventions or events can make any forecasts absurd after a very few years.

 The classic example is the statement in the late 1940s by the then chairman of IBM that the world market for computers was about five (or was it six?).

 But perhaps I'm in no position to criticise Thomas Watson Snr. In Transit of Earth (1971), I put the first Mars landing in 1994: now we'll be lucky if we make it by 2010. On the other hand, when Prelude To Space was published in 1951,  I thought I was being wildly optimistic by suggesting a moon mission in 1978. Neil and Buzz beat me by almost a decade.

 Still, I take a modest pride in the fact that communications satellites are placed exactly where I suggested in 1945, and that the name "Clarke Orbit" is now often used, if only because it's easier to say than "geostationary orbit". And the chapter "The Century Syndrome", in my 1990 novel The Ghost From The Grand Banks, may well have been the first account, outside the technical literature, of the now-dreaded millennium bug, its cause and its cure.

 Even so, the chronology that follows should be given with a health warning. Some of the events listed (particularly the space missions) are already scheduled, and will occur on the actual dates given; I believe all the other events could happen, although several, I hope, will not. I have omitted many interesting and all-too-possible disasters, because optimism about the future is always desirable.

 Check me for accuracy - on December 31, 2100:

 2001 - Cassini spaceprobe (launched October 1997; arrived Saturn July 2000) begins exploration of the planet's moons and rings.

 Galileo probe (launched October 1989) continues surveying Jupiter and its moons.

Life beneath the ice-covered oceans of Europa appears increasingly likely.

 2002 - The first commercial device producing clean, safe power by low-temperature nuclear reactions goes on the market, heralding the end of the fossil-fuel age. Economic and geopolitical earthquakes follow.

 2003 - The motor industry is given five years to replace all fuel-burning engines with the new energy device.

 NASA's robot Mars Surveyor (carrying Lander and Rover) is launched.

2004 - First publicly admitted human clone. 2005 - First sample launched back to Earth by Mars Surveyor. 2006 - Last coal mine closed. 2007 - NASA Next Space Telescope (successor to the Hubble) launched. 2008 - To mark what would have been his 80th birthday, on July 26, film director Stanley Kubrick, who made 2001: A Space Odyssey, is posthumously awarded a special Oscar for Lifetime Achievement.  2009 - A city in a third world country is devastated by the accidental explosion of an A-bomb in its armoury. After a brief debate in the UN, all nuclear weapons are destroyed.  2010 - The first quantum generators (tapping space energy) are developed. Available in portable and household units from a few kilowatts upwards, they can  produce electricity indefinitely. Central power stations close down; the age of  pylons ends as grid systems are dismantled. Electronic monitoring virtually removes professional criminals from society. 2011 - Largest living creature filmed: a 75-metre octopus in the Mariana Trench. By a curious coincidence, later that year even larger marine creatures are discovered when the first robot probes drill through the ice of Europa and an entire new biota is revealed.

 2012 - Aerospace-planes enter service.

 2013 - Despite the understandable apprehensions of Buckingham Palace, Prince Harry becomes the first member of the Royal Family to fly in space.

 2014 - Construction of Hilton Orbiter Hotel begins, by assembling and converting the giant shuttle tanks which had previously been allowed to fall back to Earth. 

2015 - An inevitable by-product of the quantum generator is the complete control of matter at the atomic level. Thus the old dream of alchemy is realised  on a commercial scale, often with surprising results. Within a few years, since they are more useful, lead and copper cost twice as much as gold.  2016 - All existing currencies are abolished. The megawatt-hour becomes the unit of exchange.  2017 - December 16. On his 100th birthday, Sir Arthur C Clarke is one of the first guests of the Hilton Orbiter 2018 - A major meteor impact occurs on the North Polar icecap. There is no loss  of life, but the resulting tsunamis cause major damage along the coasts of Greenland and Canada. The long-discussed "Project Spaceguard", to identify and deflect any potentially dangerous comets or asteroids, is activated.

2020 - Artificial intelligence (AI) reaches the human level. From now outwards there are two intelligent species on Earth, one evolving far more rapidly than biology would ever permit. Interstellar probes carrying AIs are launched towards the nearer stars.