[kach22i]

http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2004-08/childhoods-end

The Manifold Futures of Arthur C. Clarke

1953
Childhood’s End: An alien invasion ends war, hunger and poverty, but humanity enters a state of creative torpor, watching—get this!—three hours of TV a day.

1968
2001: A Space Odyssey: The computer on board the Discovery embodies the perils of human-level artificial intelligence. Hal 9000 runs the ship but, inconveniently, is also prone to murder.

1972
Rendezvous with Rama: Spurred by an asteroid strike in Italy, humanity launches a search for future doomsday rocks. The strangest find proves to be a mysterious cylindrical ship.

1979
The Fountains of Paradise: An engineer attempts to build a 24,000-mile-high space elevator to ferry materials into orbit. Humanity is in an era of technological prowess; a bridge over the Strait of Gibraltar is mentioned incidentally.