Arthur C. Clarke Dead

ScottM

ScottM

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iBazinga!
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - An aide says science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke has died.

Rohan De Silva says Clarke died early Wednesday after suffering from breathing problems.
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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...arthur-c-clark-science-fiction,0,102587.story

One of my favorite Sci-fi authors. I read 2001 when I was in 7th grade. It took me another 10 years to fully understand it. But I loved it nonetheless and the movie (which came first BTW) is a masterpiece of the cinema. ?He was good author and gave great commentary on many of the world's issues.
 
I need to be in the right mood to read sci-fi but I've always liked his short story "The Nine Billion Names of God".
 
Everskyward said:
I need to be in the right mood to read sci-fi but I've always liked his short story "The Nine Billion Names of God".
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Huh... I thought that was Ray Bradbury, but I looked it up and sure enough, it was Clarke! That was an excellent story, I still remember my heart doing a backflip and getting a good adrenaline shock when I read the last line! :hairraise:
 
"...one by one, the stars were going out."

And another one:

"If any of you are still white, we can cure you." (I think that was Clarke, but maybe it was Asimov).
 
He was forward looking. RIP. I always hoped to fly on the Pan Am shuttle someday, but that hope was dashed in the early 90's.
 
A brilliant man...in contrast to Richard's comment above I would say that the world is always a better place when men of intelligence use that intellect toward our betterment.

Here is one of my more favorite quotes - from anyone:

The greatest tragedy in mankind's entire history may be the hijacking of morality by religion.

I believe he also said that the world would be a better place if Presidents read Science Fiction instead of westerns and crime dramas :goofy:
 
I liked Clarke, but unfortunately, his latter years went the same way as too many other famous authors/actors.

I like to read his work, not hear his opinions on why our society is doomed to fail.

But, he was an amazing author, and had a hell of a brain for good stories.
 
Sad. A great man, vivid thinker. We're in sore need of more like him to challenge our imaginations.
 
TMetzinger said:
"...one by one, the stars were going out."
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Close -- I think the last line of "Nine Billion" was actually "Overhead, without any fuss, the stars were going out."
And another one:
"If any of you are still white, we can cure you." (I think that was Clarke, but maybe it was Asimov).
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It was Clarke, in 1971 -- "Reunion." Kinda hokey, I thought at the time, and still do.
 
My favorite...

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"
 
Cap'n Jack said:
He was forward looking. RIP. I always hoped to fly on the Pan Am shuttle someday, but that hope was dashed in the early 90's.
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First date with my wife when we were in high school was to take her to that movie. And she still doesn't get the ending. :D
 
Let's not forget that Clarke was the inventor of the geosynchronous satellite! Had he patented that, he'd have been so rich...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geosynchronous_orbit said:
Author Arthur C. Clarke is credited with proposing the notion of using a geostationary orbit for communications satellites. The orbit is also known as the Clarke Orbit. Together, the collection of artificial satellites in these orbits is known as the Clarke Belt.
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A slight correction, with cites from that same bastion of science:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Clarke said:
In the postwar years Clarke became involved with the British Interplanetary Society and served for a time as its chairman. Although he was not the originator of the concept of geostationary satellites, one of his most important contributions may be his idea that they would be ideal telecommunications relays. He advanced this idea in a paper privately circulated among the core technical members of the BIS in 1945. The concept was published in Wireless World in October of that year.[3][4][5]
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(Note that I did not first learn of these from WikiPedia!:no:)
 
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Whatever one thinks of his prose (I was a fan, myself; even liked Childhood's End despite the fact that it creeped me out), he was one of those speculative fiction writers who really had excellent ideas, some of which went straight from his stories to technical reality- like the idea of a geosynchronous satellite network (he didn't come up with the idea of a GS satellite, and Kepler had already done the math, but I think he was the first to talk about groups of them for globe-circling communications, etc.). Such a simple concept, but revolutionary, and very useful.

A big thinker who told a good story and, by all accounts, a nice guy...he'll be missed.
 
Ghery said:
First date with my wife when we were in high school was to take her to that movie. And she still doesn't get the ending. :D
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The end is Astronaut Bowman being reborn as a new further evolved human. The monoliths push species to the next level, you saw this in the beginning with the monolith on the earth with the proto-humans.

In his new incarnation Bowman's job is to go back to the earth to be its protector and start to help the rest of the humans reach beyond their current capabilities to also get to the next level. Again the foreshadowing of this was from the very beginning of the movie when the one proto-human picked up the weapon to regain control of their watering hole form the proto-humans.

The message or moral of the story is that we as human must continue to stretch beyond ourselves to survive as a species.
 
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rottydaddy said:
Whatever one thinks of his prose (I was a fan, myself; even liked Childhood's End despite the fact that it creeped me out), he was one of those speculative fiction writers who really had excellent ideas, some of which went straight from his stories to technical reality- like the idea of a geosynchronous satellite network (he didn't come up with the idea of a GS satellite, and Kepler had already done the math, but I think he was the first to talk about groups of them for globe-circling communications, etc.). Such a simple concept, but revolutionary, and very useful.

A big thinker who told a good story and, by all accounts, a nice guy...he'll be missed.
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I loved that book too. When I saw the trailer for Independence Day my first thought was that they made that book into a movie. Alas they did not but ID was still a good movie.
 
Cap'n Jack said:
He was forward looking. RIP. I always hoped to fly on the Pan Am shuttle someday, but that hope was dashed in the early 90's.
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I actually own that poster. I understand it's worth exactly the $100 I paid for it 30 some years ago.
 
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