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Arthur C. Clarke Is Dead At 90
Many readers are sending in word that Arthur C. Clarke has died in Sri Lanka. He wrote over 100 books including 2001: A Space Odyssey and Rendezvous With Rama, and popularized the ideas of geosynchronous communications satellites and space elevators.
The world will miss him.
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It's understandable that, as he got older, his energy to write faded, but it's a real shame that he let other people put his name on shoddy products that he essentially had nothing to do with. They say that the apalling sequels to Rendevous with Rama (an excellent work and a science-fiction classic) were basically entirely Gentry Lee's doing in spite of the prominent appearance of both names on the covers. When the sequels are so bad they can only tarnish the perception of the original (see Star Wars).
This news is sad, but I hope that younger generations today will go back to the early works, ignoring all of the later publication, and see just how visionary a writer Clarke was.
...I shed a tear - and then I felt...ashamed...why?
Why is it that when one cries at a movie involving war heroes or romance it is socially acceptable, but when I become choked-up not just about the passing of one of our greats - as I have today - but at the whole of scientific discovery I feel somehow, I'm not sure...I guess just ashamed.
This happens to me now and then. Like when I saw a documentary on mitochondrial eve, and I became full of such emotion about the interconnectedness of us all that I had to leave the room lest my wife see me weep (not that she would ridicule me, just because).
Why should I not be proud of my tears? Why, even in this day, surrounded by so much intellect and accepting cultures should I still not disclose this little secret to anyone except the pseudo-anonymous like-minds on this website?...
Why should we not all weep at the stars?
Read my Very Short "Stories"
They got so much wrong, but the issues they got right. We don't have flying cars, but we are different people due to technology. We do not get our food from cubes, but the fast food is just presented manner meant to imitate the food it replaces. We had pocket calculators long before the cleaning work was autonomously taken over by machine, but the roomba exists. Children are being trained in ware fare using video games. The basis of our interactions are being changed by rapid instantaneous communication. Our basic functions, such as sex, have been changed by the picture phone and internet. No longer must anyone settle for the person next door, when one can surf for an attractive specimen in the morning, text during class, and set up the date for the evening at a bus stop midway between the two of you. In fact, we never have to settle when everything can be custom made to out specifications.
There are two things that disappoint me about many so-called intellectuals. The first is that they don't seem to read enough history. The second is that don't seem to read enough science fiction. To me this strikes me as a person who knows not where they came from, and who knows not where they are going. All they know is what is happening at the moment, their immediate desires, and all they care about is what they must do to fulfill those desires.
Clarke's writing clearly defines him as a different sort of person. The Foundation series clearly identifies him as a man who knew history. His life defines him as a man who knew where he as the rest of us were likely going. I wonder what the world would be like if our leaders were like this. People of history and vision, rather than people who apparently do not even both to hold a book correctly, and proudly states that they never read, or that they read the cliff notes versions. I am reminded of John F. Kennedy, the person who pushed the nation to space, for better or worse. It is claimed in Thirteen Days that JFK had read the Guns of August, did understand that many conflicts start because leaders assume they know what the other party is thinking, and then constructs inflexible plans based on those assumptions. As he knew history, he could do something different in his attempt to achieve a result. Again, history and vision of the future. Something we are sorely lacking, and something that is all too often ridiculed by those who are justing looking at how to swindle their first million by the time they are 25.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
Indeed. I remember an interview of his where he discussed his ideas around satellites. The amusing thing to him was in fact how wrong he had been. He had imagined them as (relatively) enourmous, crewed space stations. A limitation of the technology at the time he was envisaging them, where you only had unreliable vacuum tubes (or whatever they would have been) which needed constant replacing, and hence a human crew. Also a salutory lesson out there for all the people who like to predict what the future holds technology wise. It is just impossible to know what is going to come along out of the blue and knock your world view on its head.
Let us be reminded that Clarke also wrote about the Newspad back in 1964; it appeared a couple of times in the film 2001, It was tablet computer accessing a world wide web, thirty years before it finally came to life. The only difference was that Clarke thought the URLs were numeric instead of ASCII strings.
How cool it must have been for him to see so many of his visions turn into reality!
"WIRED: Have you given any thought to what you'd want your epitaph to be? ACC: Oh, yes. I've often quoted it: "He never grew up; but he never stopped growing." now will some moderator with a soul please tag this story with this?
This is a normal tactic in the book industry. It is a way for publishers to introduce new authors they think might be good to the reading public. If you saw a book by someone named Gentry Lee, how likely would you be to buy it if you had never heard of him before? Now, if you see Arthur C Clark's name on the cover, you would be likely to buy it. It's not a totally bad system, because it does help to get people who are really good authors established. My father is a best selling author and the first 6-10 of his books were coauthored with someone famous (who did little more than add a couple anecdotes and a forward).
The big problems with the system, though, are when you have authors who are famous not checking up on the books they put their names on. This can happen either because they are lazy, getting old, or most likely just want another paycheck that they know a book with their name on it will bring. This can dilute the brand when bad books with their name on it get out, and sometimes hurt the author if thecoauthor gets into a scandal or does something disgraceful. That also happened to my dad when the famous coauthor did something entirely out of character with what the books were about.
So here's the basic rule of thumb when buying books. If you see a book with two names on it (one of them being a famous person you recognize), IMMEDIATELY assume that the book was written by the other, unknown author with the name in small print. Know that you are taking a risk and getting a book that may not be as good as previous books by the famous author. However, also know someone at the publishing house thought this author was pretty good or they wouldn't be trying to publish him and get his name known. So there is some chance you may find a gem of a book, and if so, you should buy books from that author again. But know going in that 95% of the time you see coauthors on anything other than a university text, the famous coauthor did 0% of the work, and probably didn't even read the book before putting his name on it. You have no guarantee he liked it, and no guarantee of quality (because even if he wrote the forward, he didn't necessarilly read the book).
Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it.
Look at the advancement of humankind because he didn't patent the idea of satelites
Back in 1997 I did a live internet streaming event with Arthur C. Clarke, it was the first of it's type, and literally sent video across a 12 hr time difference to Chicago, even then Clarke was making internet history and I was privileged to be part of it.
I actually got to travel to Sri Lanka and meet him. It was truly the experience of a life time. I had been following the foot steps of many other great people. Astronauts, writer, Hollywood types and scientists that have all traveled there to meet him. I had lunch at his home, got to play ping pong with him, it was one of the few physical activities he was still up to. He showed me original sketches of the Space elevator that he and Buckminster fuller had drawn. Even gave me a signed copy of one of his books.
Unfortunately I was so broke at the time all I could afford was one of those 10 Dollar disposable cameras and none of the photo's I took came out, maybe the X-ray machine zapped em. The grand old British hotel there the Galle Face Hotel built in 1864 was incredible but was killing my finances at $150 per night. http://www.gallefacehotel.com/
The video streaming even was at UIUC in celebration of Hal's birthday.
It was amazing to see the turn out. On the large theater screen he was larger then life and it really seems th e internet owes him a large debt of gratitude. For he has been an inspiration for so many.
Sri Lanka was Paradise. In spite of the Civil war, I have never been anywhere so majestic, the people were so hospitable, even strangers on the street were inviting me to there homes to have some food and drink with them. I must have walked every part of Colombo in the week I was there. The food was fantastic, the women were so beautiful, the ocean breeze and the sun sets. Oh the sun sets they put even the best ones in Santa Monica to shame. I still feel almost home sick for Sri Lanka even though I have only been there the one time.
I can completely understand why he moved there. I would if I could also.
Never making it back there is something that I deeply regret. Hearing this news really drove that home this afternoon. Meeting him has been one of the defining moments in my life.
Godspeed Arthur.
For Clarke is for us techies far more significant to us then Prices Dianna ever was.
It's nice to see that this slashdot page it turning into a memorial. I wonder if more formal memorial services would happen around the world.
http://www.dnull.com/~sokol/clarke.html This is from the streaming even and some video clips of him.
I actually think this may be the longest clip up on youtube, somehow they must have allowed it to slip through there size restrictions.
I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it. - Pablo Picasso
"And to this day almost no one can spot the aliens right there in plain sight (and no, they aren't the monoliths)."
at no risk of sounding stupid -- AC here! -- could you clarify that statement, please? Or perhaps you're talking about us? Even if we were seedlings of extra-terrestrial intelligences, Earth has been our home for millions of years and I'd feel uneasy at calling ourselves aliens in our home planet...