Requiescat: Sir Arthur Charles Clarke
I just got word that Arthur C. Clarke passed away.
He is the science fiction writer I think most of us want to be — the one who dreams of something that is both wondrous and practical, and which is made into reality into his own lifetime.
In the 40’s he suggested that humans would walk on the moon by the year 2000. While working for the RAF during World War II, he predicted the network of communications satellites we have today. Geostationary orbit is called the Clarke orbit, and the Clarke Belt is that band of space almost 36,000 kilometers above equatorial sea-level where such orbits are found.
We’ve lost a great mind, and a great man, but his contributions will live on.
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March 19th, 2008 at 8:33 am
Howtay,
I too share your sense of deep loss and regret at the passing of such a visionary. Not just for altruistic reasons, ie for the loss of such a great man, but for selfish ones as well, think of the additional books which the world will never get to read.
There are 2 consolations that I can feel.
1. He finished the Oddessey series before he passed.
2. 90 years in one heck of a long life which was filled with more sucess than most can hope for.
Let’s hope is watching us from Clarke Orbit now…………..
March 19th, 2008 at 8:58 am
I hope he’s watching from somewhere less geosynchronous. The man deserves to be flung wide among the stars, and to walk among the greatest handiworks of the heavens.
March 19th, 2008 at 9:16 am
It might appear heretical to say so, but I always thought Clarke was overrated as a novelist. The forum didn’t seem to fit his unique storytelling ability, IMHO.
Where he was without peer was as a short story writer. His ability to change the entire previous 10, 20 or even 50 pages with a single line was brilliant. After having first read them in high school I still remember several of those “last lines.”
“After 50 years the comment didn’t seem so funny.”
“The stars started to wink out of existence one by one.”
As a futurist, he was without peer. What I’ll miss is his comments about what’s coming 50 years in the future.
Yes, let’s hope his is now free to travel far and wide across the cosmos, that he helped us to get a glimpse of.
March 19th, 2008 at 9:43 am
@rbliss: Yeah, I know what you mean. His characters never really stayed with me, but his far-fetched ideas sure did. I remember both of those last lines, and the thrill that went along with them the first time I read them.
I loved the diamond at the heart of Jupiter from 2010, and the odd mountain on Europa from 2061. Those ideas have stuck with me for a long, long time now.
March 19th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
When AT&T was planning the Telestar communications satellite, they tried to patent the idea. The Patent Office denied the patent, pointing to Clarke’s 1945 article on geosynchronous satellites. Clarke was invited to the launch of Telestar in 1962. During the post-launch party, AT&T’s senior corporate counsel told Clarke that if he’d patented geosynchronous satellites, then AT&T would probably have had to pay him $7 million in royalties. Clarke later wrote an article on communications satellites entitled “How I Lost Seven Million Dollars In My Spare Time”.
March 19th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
They could have paid him out of gratefulness;-)
I’m still not sure Heinlein or Asimov didn’t mention the 23,200 mile orbit first. They may not have DIRECTLY mentioned communicating, but they implied it.
Clarke’s short fiction always had a wistful, whimsical feel to it. Great stuff. “Sunjammer” was a great, memorable short, and his Tales from the White Hart.
Add in his massive contributions to marine biology and debunking superstition, and he’ll be missed. I have his autograph on a marine research book. I think I’ll go take it down for a read.
March 19th, 2008 at 8:45 pm
He changed the world…many may never understand just how much…
And…my favorite picture…that in my strange mind respectfully acknowleges this event:
http://lifeisaroad.com/images/stars.jpg
CUAgain!
March 19th, 2008 at 11:36 pm
On a slightly humorous note, a friend of mine that i was talking with yesterday that i told the news about Clarke to asked me, “Who the hell is Arthur C. Clarke?” Thankfully, I happen to carry several books on me at all times. That day, it just happened to be carrying 2001 with me. Along with the rest of the series. I stopped reading the screen on my laptop, dug into my rucksack, and pulled out the book. I threw it at him so hard he fell over the back of his chair, and he still had a heckuva knot on his head from where the book hit him.
Knowledge has power ^_^
-ambush
March 20th, 2008 at 6:10 am
@mzmadmike - Apparently George O. Smith with “The Venus Equilateral” had the *idea* Clarke used first.
Clarke didn’t use quite the same premise as the Venus books. Smith used a space station 1/6th of the orbit ahead of Venus to keep communications open between Venus and Earth, but it did help Clarke.
March 20th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
60 degrees leading is L4, 60 degrees trailing, L5. Those are laGrange points, and date back even further. L1-3 are unstable.
Heinlein had several stories in the 40s with stations geostationary and used for habitation, TV, transport, etc. I suppose Clarke came up with the more doable dedicated communication relay.
Still, he had brilliant things to say.
March 21st, 2008 at 12:03 am
Daniel Meyer: What’s full of stars? The walrus’s bukkit?
Monolith sez: Oh hai i upgraded ur ram.
Monolith doesn’t has a flavour.
Im in ur ship not opening ur pod bay doorz.
I’ll stop now.
March 21st, 2008 at 1:06 pm
Ok Howard, here is a question for you, is the local “Clark Planetarium” named after him, or dedicated to him in some way, or just some odd coincidence?
I too will miss his shorts and his books. Here is hoping that in the next life, by the time I reach it, he will have a stack of them for me to catch up on.
March 21st, 2008 at 2:39 pm
More likely the Clark Planetarium is named after Alvan Clark, a 19th Century astronomer and telescope maker, or his son, also Alvan Clark, also a astronomer.
Clark Senior made telescopes for the Lick and Yerkes observatories. These telescopes are still used today. Clark Junior, using one of his father’s telescopes, discovered Sirius B, the magnitude 8 companion of Sirius and the first known white dwarf.
March 22nd, 2008 at 12:29 am
I liked “Rendezvous with RAMA”, but the sequels were kinda *meh*. I especially didn’t like how the last book in that series ended.
Clarke was a genuine skeptic. On that TV series he did, if he couldn’t explain something, he’d say so- rather than only showing things that could be explained as not-really-weird-stuff or hoaxes.
March 22nd, 2008 at 5:20 am
There is a nice collection of most of his 20th century non-fiction essays in Greetings, Carbon-Based Bipeds! Been a while since I read it, but it was a good book.