Who invented the tablet computer? Apple claimed unique status for its iPad Samsung presented a frame from 2001. For instance, in August 2011, the Samsung electronics group began a defence against a claim of patent infringement by Apple. Monoliths aside, 2001 was prescient in almost all its detailed predictions of twenty-first-century technology.

Hovering above Jupiter, another monolith waits. On board are two astronauts, three hibernating scientists and a seemingly sentient computer, HAL 9000. Four million years later, a giant spacecraft is sent to Jupiter on a mysterious mission. Prehistoric apemen have a mind-altering encounter with an alien black monolith. The narrative was ambitious, to say the least. In 2007, director Ridley Scott (of Blade Runner and Alien fame) told a Venice Film Festival audience: “After 2001, science fiction is dead.” However, in terms of artistic and philosophical bravura, it has been a harder act to follow. The influence of 2001 on the design of subsequent space-film hardware and special effects has been pervasive. Half a century later, this unprecedentedly detailed speculation about our place in the cosmos and our evolving relationship with technology is regarded as one of the great landmarks in cinema. In 1968, film-maker Stanley Kubrick and his screenwriting colleague, science-fiction author Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer: 1968. Credit: MGM/Stanley Kubrick Productions/Kobal/REX/ShutterstockĢ001: A Space Odyssey Arthur C. A Pan Am shuttle prepares to dock at the international Space Station V in this classic scene from the film.

Arthur clarke space odyssey