Article

2008-03-19 Science & Technology

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. local time after suffering breathing problems, aide Rohan De Silva told The Associated Press.

Clarke was regarded as a technological seer as well as a science-fiction writer, and was known as "the godfather of the telecommunications satellite."

His most famous novel, "2001: A Space Odyssey," was the basis of the 1968 film of the same name, co-written and directed by Stanley Kubrick. The film and the book elevated the plot's mentally unbalanced computer, HAL 9000, into the pantheon of great fictional characters.

During World War II, the Royal Air Force put him in charge of a new radar blind-landing system. Then, after the war, he proposed the idea of using geostationary satellites as relays for wireless communication. It took decades for the idea to bear fruit, but it eventually earned him a claim to fame almost as great as his science-fiction stories. Geosynchronous orbits, which keep satellites in a fixed position relative to the ground, are today called Clarke orbits.

Also during the 1940s, Clarke predicted that man would reach the moon by the year 2000 an idea that some experts dismissed as nonsense. In the late 1960s, Clarke served as a commentator along with CBS broadcaster Walter Cronkite for the Apollo missions that turned his prediction into reality. Later, NASA Administrator Tom Paine wrote in an inscription to Clarke that the science-fiction author "provided the essential intellectual drive that led us to the moon."

One of my all-time favorite Sci-Fi writers. I like "hard-sci" SciFi, and Clarke was arguably one of the top, along with Azimov, in terms of putting science to proper use. In addition to geosync satellites, he also came up with the basics for a "Space Elevator" that is even now being worked on as a way to get things into orbit cheaply. A brilliant man whose writings were an important part of the lives of a lot of people my age

Posted by OldSpook 2008-03-19 01:36|| || Front Page|| [11133 views ] Top

#1 Arthur C. Clarke formulated the following three "laws" of prediction:

1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.

2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.

3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Posted by OldSpook 2008-03-19 01:48|| 2008-03-19 01:48|| Front Page Top

#2 Somehow this one is resonating deep within me.

I guess its because he is the last of the authors that I truly enjoyed when I was young: Azimov, Clarke, Heinlein.

Thank goodness their books are still aroudn to speak for them - and they still speak well after all these years.

Three giants of science fiction. They feel like old friends who all now are gone.

Posted by OldSpook 2008-03-19 02:13|| 2008-03-19 02:13|| Front Page Top

#3 As long as we remember and have their books, they'll never really be gone.

Still, RIP Sir Arthur, RIP.

Posted by 9,000,000,000 names 2008-03-19 02:26|| 2008-03-19 02:26|| Front Page Top

#4 His book 2001: A Space Odyssey was one of the greats of the 20th century, up there with the best of Tolkien. Very few authors seemed to have the imagination to place humanity into the position he did in that book - or the optimism, for that matter - until he did so.

Posted by no mo uro 2008-03-19 06:24|| 2008-03-19 06:24|| Front Page Top

#5 ...For all of his space-based novels, for my money his best was The Ghost Of The Grand Banks - about an attempt to raise the Titanic

And don't forge Clarke's Law - "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" - gets proven every day as 12th century jihadis meet the US military.

Mike

Posted by Mike Kozlowski 2008-03-19 07:40|| 2008-03-19 07:40|| Front Page Top

#6 LOL Mike!

Clarke certainly earned his Knighthood.

In case other Burgers would like to see some videos on Sir Arthur...

Posted by Icerigger 2008-03-19 08:04|| http://coonlakebeach.com]">[http://coonlakebeach.com] 2008-03-19 08:04|| Front Page Top

#7 First Gary, now Arthur. Bad month for us geeks.

Posted by DarthVader">DarthVader 2008-03-19 09:36|| 2008-03-19 09:36|| Front Page Top

#8 Open the pod bay doors please, HAL...

Affirmative Dave. I read you. I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that Dave.... I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do.

He got the tone of that AI's response just right.

Posted by lotp 2008-03-19 09:44|| 2008-03-19 09:44|| Front Page Top

#9 And perhaps my favorite Clarke observation:

"Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying".

Posted by lotp 2008-03-19 13:03|| 2008-03-19 13:03|| Front Page Top

#10 "Hal, close the pod bay door now."

Posted by Steve">Steve 2008-03-19 16:38|| 2008-03-19 16:38|| Front Page Top

#11 Clarke, Heinlein, and Asimov are the reason I'm an engineer. All engineers should read Science Fiction, it broadens your scope. All three will be missed.

If you like hard Sci-Fi check out James P Hogan.

Posted by Formerly Dan 2008-03-19 18:20|| 2008-03-19 18:20|| Front Page Top

#12 Speaking generaly I've noticed hat the "Wizards Magic Wand" seems greatly like a modern day "Universal" remote control.

Posted by Redneck Jim">Redneck Jim 2008-03-19 22:34|| 2008-03-19 22:34|| Front Page Top

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