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Frank Ogden is a Vancouver lecturer and Author of the 1993 book, The Last book You'll Ever Read, now in its fifth printing. This fall, he can be reached on his Glentel mobile satellite phone: 1-600-700-0102.

Think of 74 year-old Vancouver futurist Frank Ogden as a high-tech magician. Computer digital Tv, a solar-powered toothbrush, a voice-print phone, a pen whose ink contains his DNA, virtual reality gloves: you name it and - if it can inspire amazement and give clues to the future - Ogden has had his hands (or gloves) on it. And, this October, he'll add a Glentel satellite telephone to his collection. Is it magic? Sure, Ogden says, quoting his favorite futurist Arthur C. Clarke, the author of 2001: A Space Odyssey: "any advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

Ogden notes that Clarke - who first came up with the idea of a geostationary satellite in 1945 - is really the founder of Glentel's MSAT mobile satellite service. Clarke thought that his communications satellites would make borders and distance irrelevant. Ogden says he's been proven right.

"To the MSAT satellite, North America is just one big neighborhood with its own area code" (the special 600 numbers.) Ogden chuckles at the thought of truckers at opposite ends of the continent chatting to each other using Glentel MSAT dispatch radio like it was a local CB.

Ogden thinks that at a stroke of a beam MSAT makes the concept of "remote" obsolete. "if you're plugged into the Information Highway, it doesn't matter if you're in Toronto or Tuktoyaktuk."

Ogden has a keen appreciation for magic because he keeps in close touch with so called primitive societies. "I spend half my time in the real jungle and half in this modern one." He believes new information technologies like satellites help us catch up to the intuitive powers that people in the jungle already have. "What we might call magic, a witch doctor might call everyday communication."

He says that the jungle inspired one of his favorite pieces of advice on the key to survival in the future: "you have to be able to walk on quicksand and dance with electrons."

Any final predictions for the 21st century, Frank?

"If your satellite phone isn't an implant by then" says Ogden, who answers to the name Dr. Tomorrow, "you'll wear it as a piece of clothing."