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Topic: Sci-fi guru Arthur Clarke dies at 90 (Read 1140 times) |
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Walter Watts
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Sci-fi guru Arthur Clarke dies at 90
« on: 2008-03-18 18:44:24 » |
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I wasn't sure what to post this under, since we don't have a forum named "Just Sad".
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Sci-fi guru Arthur Clarke dies at 90
Longtime Sri Lanka resident wrote more than 100 books, including ‘2001’
BREAKING NEWS
MSNBC staff and news service reports
updated 5:23 p.m. CT, Tues., March. 18, 2008
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - Arthur C. Clarke, a visionary science fiction writer who won worldwide acclaim with more than 100 books on space, science and the future, died Wednesday in his adopted home of Sri Lanka, an aide said. He was 90.
Clarke, who had battled debilitating post-polio syndrome since the 1960s and sometimes used a wheelchair, died at 1:30 a.m. local time after suffering breathing problems, aide Rohan De Silva said.
Clarke moved to Sri Lanka in 1956, lured by his interest in marine diving — which he said was as close as he could get to the weightless feeling of space. “I’m perfectly operational underwater,” he once said.
Clarke's best-known novel, "2001: A Space Odyssey," became the basis of the 1968 film of the same name, directed by Stanley Kubrick. The film and the book elevated the plot's mentally unbalanced computer, HAL 9000, into the pantheon of great fictional characters.
Three "2001" book sequels followed, and one of them — "2010" — was made into a movie as well.
In addition to the "2001" series, Clarke's best-known works included "Childhood's End" and "Rendezvous With Rama." The latter novel is reportedly being adapted for film, with actor Morgan Freeman as producer and star.
Clarke was regarded as a technological seer as well as a science-fiction writer. He was credited with the concept of communications satellites in 1945, decades before they became a reality. Geosynchronous orbits, which keep satellites in a fixed position relative to the ground, are called Clarke orbits.
Another novel of his, titled "The Fountains of Paradise," sparked the real-world efforts to build a space elevator from Earth to orbit.
He joined American broadcaster Walter Cronkite as commentator on the U.S. Apollo moonshots in the late 1960s.
Clarke was born in the English coastal town of Minehead and spent his early years in Britain, but Sri Lanka was his adopted home. On the occasion of his 90th birthday last December, one of Clarke's three wishes was to see lasting peace in the island nation, which has been divided by ethnic conflict.
Clarke also wished that the world would embrace cleaner energy resources — and that extraterrestrial beings would "call us or give us a sign."
"We have no way of guessing when this might happen," Clarke said in his birthday speech. "I hope sooner rather than later."
This report includes information from The Associated Press and msnbc.com. Check back for updates on this breaking-news story.
© 2008 MSNBC Interactive
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23697230/
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Walter Watts
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No one gets to see the Wizard! Not nobody! Not no how!
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Hermit
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Re:Sci-fi guru Arthur Clarke dies at 90
« Reply #1 on: 2008-03-18 20:26:04 » |
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Worse than sad.
:-(
“If we have learned one thing from the history of invention and discovery, it is that, in the long run–and often in the short one–the most daring prophecies seem laughably conservative.” - Arthur C. Clarke
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With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion. - Steven Weinberg, 1999
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