Article

2008-03-18 -Obits-

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - Arthur C. Clarke, a visionary science fiction writer who won worldwide acclaim with more than 100 books on space, science and the future, died Wednesday in his adopted home of Sri Lanka, an aide said. He was 90.

Clarke, who had battled debilitating post-polio syndrome since the 1960s and sometimes used a wheelchair, died at 1:30 a.m. after suffering breathing problems, aide Rohan De Silva said.

Clarke moved to Sri Lanka in 1956, lured by his interest in marine diving which he said was as close as he could get to the weightless feeling of space. "I'm perfectly operational underwater," he once said.

Co-author with Stanley Kubrick of Kubrick's film "2001: A Space Odyssey," Clarke was regarded as far more than a science fiction writer. He was credited with the concept of communications satellites in 1945, decades before they became a reality. Geosynchronous orbits, which keep satellites in a fixed position relative to the ground, are called Clarke orbits.

He joined American broadcaster Walter Cronkite as commentator on the U.S. Apollo moonshots in the late 1960s.

Posted by Glenmore 2008-03-18 18:36|| || Front Page|| [11139 views ] Top

#1 A couple years ago the Beeb had some comments from him regarding the problems in Sri Lanka. The article had a photo of him wearing an "I invented the communication satellite and all I got was this lousy t-shirt!"

Posted by bruce 2008-03-18 19:04|| 2008-03-18 19:04|| Front Page Top

#2 Damn, he WILL be missed. He wasn't my favorite SF author, but he was a damn good one. His stories were always thought provoking and well-written. Too many of these greats are passing now.

Posted by Silentbrick">Silentbrick 2008-03-18 19:21|| 2008-03-18 19:21|| Front Page Top

#3 I love Clarke's work but there's a pretty big leap between a story idea and the engineering to make it a reality.

Posted by lotp 2008-03-18 19:25|| 2008-03-18 19:25|| Front Page Top

#4 I love Clarke's work but there's a pretty big leap between a story idea and the engineering to make it a reality.

It's the "ideas" that give the engineers something to aim for. He had the vision, others worked to make it a reality, give the man credit where credit is due.

Posted by Cleremble Tojo3669 2008-03-18 20:38|| 2008-03-18 20:38|| Front Page Top

#5 Rezvendous With Rama was the first serious SF novel I ever read, and it's still one of my favorites. Mr. Clarke helped me survive innumerable high school study hall periods with Glide Slope, The Nine Billion Names of God, Childhood's End, Tales of Ten Worlds, A Fall of Moondust, The Songs of Distant Earth, and 2001.

Rest in peace.

Posted by Mike 2008-03-18 20:53|| 2008-03-18 20:53|| Front Page Top

#6 As an engineer, we're usually fully tasked with making someone else's bright ideas work. I have made a career of making unwanted improvement ideas :-)

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2008-03-18 21:14|| 2008-03-18 21:14|| Front Page Top

#7 How's that perpetual motion thing coming along, Frank G?

Posted by Muggsy Gling 2008-03-18 21:38|| 2008-03-18 21:38|| Front Page Top

#8 It wasn't a story idea, lopt, and had nothing to do with Clarke's fiction. He hadn't yet written any fiction at the time, in fact. Clarke proposed the geo-stationary satellite in an article entitled "Extra-terrestrial Relays" in the October 1945 issue of Wireless World. He had first mentioned the idea in a letter to the Wireless World editors in February of that year.
It was a serious proposal in a serious technical publication.
In his non-fiction collection, Ascent to Orbit, Clarke said that he had not really expected to see such satellites in his life-time back when he made the proposal, since he could not have anticipated the phenomenol advances in electronics that would follow the invention of the transistor just a few years later.

Posted by Atomic Conspiracy 2008-03-18 21:55|| 2008-03-18 21:55|| Front Page Top

#9 The first serious SF work I ever read was Clarke's Earthlight. I was just 8 years old so it was pretty tough going, but I got through it. I did a book report on it. My third-grade teacher gave me an A, but she also smiled condescendingly and told me that I would eventually outgrow that "science fiction stuff."
That was in 1957 and it hasn't happened yet.

Posted by Atomic Conspiracy 2008-03-18 21:58|| 2008-03-18 21:58|| Front Page Top

#10 trying to get rid of that last friction thang... We've alleviated all mechanical friction, it's the "excessive profits tax" proposed by the Democrats. Their rhetoric of "finding a loophole in the laws of physics shouldn't reward the rich and lawless, who disregard the poor and friction-bound!" is setting an adversary environment

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2008-03-18 21:59|| 2008-03-18 21:59|| Front Page Top

#11 Try adding more socialism, Frank. Maybe that will *finally* be the solution for something.

I'm tempted to make a snark about how women and children are affected more by friction, but I'm not going there!

Posted by SteveS 2008-03-18 22:40|| 2008-03-18 22:40|| Front Page Top

#12 I much enjoyed A.C. Clarke's original story that birthed 2001 A Space Odyssey. Also....did anyone catch the clue that first points to HAL 9000's impending doom? HAL made a mistake during the chess game. He claims checkmate. Frank concedes...though a study of the game shows that is not the case!

Posted by Rex Mundi 2008-03-18 23:45|| 2008-03-18 23:45|| Front Page Top

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