A great visionary has died

Arthur C. Clarke has died in his beloved Sri Lanka at the age of 90. Arthur C. Clarke was a visionary; during World War II he worked on the development of radar and in the same decade predicted that man would walk on the moon within 50 years - a feat that came true within 25 years and described how satellites in geo-stationary orbit around the earth could be used for communication. His books brought the ideas of computers, space travel and an open-mindedness towards technology to millions.

I suppose that Arthur C. Clarke is best known for two things; Clarke's Law, which saya that "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." and the book Sentinel that he and Stanley Kubrick turned into one of the great films "2001: A Space Odyssey". If you have not seen "2001: A Space Odyssey" then you must watch it. Of his books, the one that sticks in my mind most is "Rendezvous with Rama" a great read and a book that shows how the author could think so clearly outside of the norms of earth science. It is a book that wonders at what could be if things were just slightly different, the first scene in Rama's museum is one that I remember almost weekly. Another must read book would be "The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke", a collection of most of his shorter than a novel stories. This book is a regular holiday read for me.


Finally here are the two opening scenes from 2001: A Space Odyssey: