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Arthur C. Clarke Talks With The Onion
sootman writes "The Onion has an interview with Arthur C. Clarke in this week's issue. My favorite line: 'The asteroid [named after me] is number four thousand and something, and the International Astronomical Federation, which deals with these sorts of things and numbered it, apologized to me because number 2001 wasn't available, having been given to somebody named "A. Einstein."'" Reader ronys point out that Despite the source, the interview is not a spoof or satire."
2001: A Space Odyssey came out in 1968 if memory serves, isn't Clarke getting a bit old?
Next they'll be conducting an interview with Philip K. Dick by Ouija Board. Not that this wouldn't be any weirder than The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch or Radio Free Ablemuth...
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
he first created the popular axiom "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magick."
Which of course leads to the corollary: "Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced."
Let's just mix and match:
How about:
"Any sufficently advanced violence is indistinguishable from magick."
or
"any sufficiently advanced technology is the last refuge of the incompetent"
Or my personal favorite:
"Any sufficiently advanced incompetent is indistinguishable from magick violence."
Nice try at trolling, btw.
CMDRTACO CHECK YOUR EMAIL!
What, the same "The Time Machine" that was written by HG Wells?
Wells and Clarke are the same person. Clarke went back in time to write under a pseudonym.
I pity the fool who doesn't name an asteroid after one of The Onion's previous interviewees, Mr T.
you've written two autobiographies
maybe NASA vexed him in some way, and it's his way of getting his revenge, by getting the tin-foily sci-fi crowd to endlessly send FOIA requests for the Mars vegetation photos...
"We know you have those veggie Mars photos! Dont lie to us! Arthur C. Clark *saw* them!"
Black magic? Its behaviour is certainly often incomprehensible.
What's his address? I'll mail him the damn DVDs.
I've met people involved with leaves and stems and things that seemed a bit odd, but knew an awful lot about hydroponics.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
"Any sufficiently advanced incompetent is indistinguishable from magick violence."
And there, in a nutshell, lies U.S. foreign policy.
--
I Hit the Karma Cap, and All I Got Was This Lousy
Mars is the Dalmation Planet!
Table-ized A.I.
Clark has his own set of laws, most of which you have mentioned. He reportably created the first three because Isaac Asimov had three, however over time, a 4th has been added. ACC Laws
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."
69th) "Reading computer manuals without the hardware is as frustrating as reading sex manuals without the software."
Time for the Obligatory Simpsons Quote!
Abe Simpson: I needed a new heel for my shoe, so, I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on 'em. 'Give me five bees for a quarter,' you'd say.
Now where were we? Oh yeah - the important thing was I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time. They didn't have white onions because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones...
My patience is infinite, my time is not.
And here I thought the comic book store owner on the Simpsons was only an animated character.
It goes from God, to Jerry, to me.
That's probobly because they mistook it for another giant slug ;) Or maybe they thought it was Tonya Harding...
I always liked H. Beam Piper's variation -- Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent because only the incompetent wait that long to use violence.
Les Miserables Volume 1 now up with my reading of
70) ??? 71) Profit!
"Do not drill any holes in your cat - it will not like it."
-- Nick Davies
Or about 90% of New Zealand when it comes to Rugby...