How long does it take to read Profiles of the Future?
an inquiry into the limits of the possible
Profiles of the Future by Arthur C. Clarke takes about 4 hours 20 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 4 hours 20 minutes
A weekend read
First published 1962. 236 pages, about 64,900 words.
9 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 7 hours 13 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 4 hours 20 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 2 hours 42 minutes |
The page count is the median across 20 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
This book originally appeared in 1962, and was based on essays written during the period 1959 - 1961. Since it was concerned with ultimate possibilities, and not with achievements to be expected in the near future, even the remarkable events of the last decade have dated it very little. But Arthur Clarke has gone over the book making corrections and comments where necessary in order to bring it right up-to-date. The author, amongst many fascinating excursions into what the future may hold, discusses the fourth dimension and the obsolescence of the law of gravity, the exploration of the entire solar system and the colonisation of some of it; seas will mined for energy and minerals, and asteroids will be pulled to Earth to supply needed materials; men, already bigger than they need be, may be bred smaller to be more efficient on less food.
Subjects: Technology, Inventions, Technological innovations, Tecnologia, Technologie, Futurologie
