Science fiction
writer, inventor and futurist Arthur C. Clarke has died, leaving fans bereft at the loss of his brilliance and creativity.
Clarke died
early Wednesday after suffering from breathing problems, the Associated Press reported. He was
90 years old. He suffered from post-polio syndrome and was confined to a
wheelchair toward the end of his life.
Clarke wrote more than 100
sci-fi books, including "2001:
A Space Odyssey." He is credited with coming up with the idea for the communications
satellite and predicting space travel before rockets were even test fired.
Early Life
Clarke
was born to a family of farmers in Minehead, a town in Somerset, England.
He
fed an early interest in science fiction with Amazing Stories
(the world's first science-fiction magazine; it fell out of publication in 2005).
In
the 1930s, he joined the British Interplanetary Society, which he chaired for
two terms, and was active in SF fandom, where his self-promotional efforts
earned him the nickname "Ego."
During
World War 2, he trained users of the Ground Operated Approach Radar, the
military ancestor to today's air traffic control systems, then completed a
college degree (with honors) in physics and mathematics at King's College,
London.
The road of gold
Since
1956, Clarke resided in Sri Lanka as the island nation's sole honorary
citizen, engaging in underwater exploration and participating in the management
of a diving tour company, Underwater Safaris. However, he was most familiar to
global audiences as a futurist and advocate of technology and interplanetary
exploration.
With
Walter Cronkite, who would become a lifelong friend, he co-anchored CBS
television coverage of the launches of Apollo 11, 12 and 15. Continuing his
career in television, Clarke hosted such investigative programs as
"Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World", "World of Strange
Powers" and "Mysterious Universe".
Among
his many honors, Clarke was one of only 17 writers ever named a Science Fiction
Grand Master. In addition, he received the UNESCO Kalinga Award for
advancing interest in science, as well as nominations for both an Academy Award
nomination, for 2001 (shared with Stanley Kubrick), and a Nobel Peace
Prize, for laying the conceptual groundwork for the creation of orbital
communications satellites.
He
served as a fellow at alma mater King's College.
He received both the Order of the British Empire (promoted to Commander of the
British Empire in 1998) and the Vidya Jyothi, the highest honor bestowed by the
Sri Lankan government.
He
was most likely the only person to both appear on two Sri Lankan stamps --
commemorating the 50th anniversary of telecommunications in that country -- and
to have an asteroid named in his honor.
On
a more personal level, luminaries ranging from Carl Sagan, Alexei Leonov and
Willy Ley to Wernher von Braun, Rupert Murdoch and Isaac Asimov called
Clarke friend.
Service to science
With
such an impressive resume, it would be easy to forget that Clarke's greatest
significance was as one of the 20th century's great popularizers of scientific
thought, especially through the medium of science fiction.
Combining
a genuine optimism for humanity's future with visionary insight and an almost
equally uncanny ability to explain difficult points of science, Clarke's body
of genre work was likely one of the most significant in the 20th century.
As
a futurist, he enjoyed such a level of success that he attributed the
failure of humanity to build lunar colonies or send piloted missions to Jupiter
to shortcomings on our part, not his.
Happily,
many of his other significant predictions came true, although the prophecy
may have worked at least partially to fulfill itself. In Rendezvous
with Rama (1973), he created "Project Spaceguard," an
organization dedicated to tracking asteroids likely to intersect with the
Earth. When the real world caught up with him in 1996, its founders named it
"Spaceguard" in homage.
Meanwhile,
his science advocacy continued through such organizations as The Arthur C.
Clarke Foundation, which promotes the ideas and concerns of his life and work
(especially space exploration, future studies and ocean conservation), the
Arthur C. Clarke Institute For Modern Technologies at University of Moratuwa in
Sri Lanka, and the Arthur C. Clarke Award, given annually to outstanding
British science fiction novels.
The Three Laws
Writer
and critic George Zebrowski, a good friend of Clarke and a recognized expert on
his work, once stated that Clarke's Three Laws are central to appreciating the
man's work.
Not
only are these aphorisms fundamental elements of Clarke's literary legacy, but
some would argue that they comprise a valuable contribution to 20th-Century
popular thought. They are:
1)
When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible,
he is almost certainly right. Corollary: When he states that something is
impossible, he is very probably wrong.
2)
The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to venture beyond them
into the impossible.
3)
Any significantly advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
The
Third Law is widely quoted and appears in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations.
The global village
Clarke so relentlessly promoted the exploration of space, while celebrating
cultural and geographic differences here on Earth, that he was called
"our solar system's first regionalist."
Thanks
to his deep love for his adopted Sri Lanka and its people, Clarke became a
true citizen of the global village he helped to create. The international
popularity of his work transcended political boundaries, allowing him to bridge
the chasm between the U.S. space program, the Russians and his native United
Kingdom throughout the Cold War era. How many men of the 20th century could count
both Alexei Leonov and Walter Cronkite as friends?
Clarke's outspoken criticism of individual countries' tendency to nationalize
the exploration of space showed that he still felt that the leap to other
worlds was far too important -- if not too vast -- an undertaking to be
constrained by concepts so transient as "nation-states."
He
often seemed disappointed with us, but his fiction showed that he never wavered in
his belief that the future would be a time of wonders, and that humanity, given
time and common sense, would inevitably transcend the limits of gravity.
Legacy
In 2007, Clarke celebrated his 90th
birthday.
"Sometimes I am asked how I
would like to be remembered," Clarke said at the celebration. "I have had
a diverse career as a writer, underwater explorer and space promoter. Of all
these I would like to be remembered as a writer."
He listed three wishes on his
birthday: for the world to embrace cleaner energy resources, for a lasting
peace in his adopted home, Sri Lanka, and for evidence of extraterrestrial
beings.
"I have always believed that
we are not alone in this universe," Clarke said.
Humans are waiting until
extraterrestrial beings "call us or give us a sign," he said. "We
have no way of guessing when this might happen. I hope sooner rather than
later."
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