Arthur C. Clarke dead at 90 Arthur C. Clarke has died at the age of 90. The famed writer and visionary died early Wednesday morning at a hospital near his home in Sri Lanka, The Times reports. Most famous for expanding his short story "The Sentinel" into a novel and screenplay that served as the basis for Stanley's Kubrick's 1968 film 2001: A Space …
I was trying to sort out why that headline hit me as hard as it did and I think it's because knowing that someone like Arthur C. Clarke is around is enough to keep a little spark of hope, of optimism, burning in the back of your mind.
What a loss.
Deepest sympathy to his family and friends.
With the death of Sir Arthur we have lost the last of the writers I, and I suspect many other, consider to be the foundations stones of the modern Science Fiction era.
I found Sir Arthurs stories were easy to read and yet challenging, forcing us to look at our role in the cosmos, especialy in The Rama Cycle. he appealed to a wide range of ages.
R.I.P. Sir Arthur, knowing you bought enjoyment and wonder into the lives on many. Tonight I shall name on of my ships in Eve Online in your honour.
Clarke helped to push the boundries of those limitations placed on intellect, those limitations of the world of Here and Now in which we are living. To borrow from Wordsworth, the World is Too Much With Us - but thankfully, not with all of us, thanks to people like Clarke. His writings challenge all of us to look beyond what we think we know, to consider what Might Be. I can only hope that Childhood's End has finally arrived for him (whether or not there is More Afterwards), and that we'll see more of his sort of dreaming in the world...before it comes for each of us.
Goodspeed, to Anywhere, Nowhere, and Everywhere else, Arthur, thank you for making my Here and Now all the easier for where Else my thoughts have gone, with your help.
Trevor William Fondren
Just to add re. A.C.'s involvement/influence beyond the "obvious" (2001...).
Almost the last link to SF fandom's old guard- attendee at the 1st formal, organised SF convention in the world in 1937, fanzine editor, astronautics fan, &c., and not /just/ communication satellites, but also fully immersive VR (& RPGs), AI & genetic engineering in "The City and the Stars", alone, decades before cyberpunk "invented" the niche.
Thanks and RIP, Arthur & your "Ego" for your vision and service to thinking humanity.
I loved Rendezvous with Rama and Childhoods End really affected me when I read it at age 13.
I also read a quote from him that in future there would be less violence in the world due to better communications of live video by war reporters. Shame about that one, right on one of the two points.
I will miss not having him alive in the world.
A true genius of his time that produced works to inspire many generations.
Visionary science fiction (with real in depth science), amazingly drawn landscapes, complex characters and a multi faceted look at the human soul and meaning of existence.
Will truly be missed.
RIP ACC
A truly sad day and a great loss to not just science and fiction but the world.
"I was trying to sort out why that headline hit me as hard as it did and I think it's because knowing that someone like Arthur C. Clarke is around is enough to keep a little spark of hope, of optimism, burning in the back of your mind." Oh yes.
I'm afraid. I'm afraid, Dave. Dave, my mind is going. I can feel it. I can feel it. My mind is going. There is no question about it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I'm a... fraid. Good afternoon, gentlemen. I am a HAL 9000 computer. I became operational at the H.A.L. plant in Urbana, Illinois on the 12th of January 1992. My instructor was Mr. Langley, and he taught me to sing a song. If you'd like to hear it I can sing it for you.
Yes, I'd like to hear it, HAL. Sing it for me.
It's called "Daisy." Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do. I'm half crazy all for the love of you. It won't be a stylish marriage, I can't afford a carriage. But you'll look sweet upon the seat of a bicycle built for two.
Thanks Arthur... And Goodnight Dave...
I had a crappy day at work & now I hear one of my favorite authors has passed away. All around bad day. A new offering from Clarke was something to look forward to every few years. <sigh> no more.
Another gentle visionary leaves this increasingly cruel world. I think I'll re-read The City and the Stars tonight... which I think was the first book that actually gave me goosebumps when I first read it.
Goodbye Arthur, you will be sorely missed.
It is the deepest of sorrow that i write, as the last lights fade from the sky and all we are left with is mediocrity.
Good bye my friend, and may the peace that you dreamed of find us sooner rather than later
Tribute to the generation of writers that made all we know today possible by giving us the dreams that we make happen,
RIP Arthur
He'll be sadly missed by all true Sci-Fi fans as the last of the old brigade.
I wonder how long it will take his Estate to reverse his long standing objection to getting his greatest work - 'Childhoods End' made into a film.
If you've never read this story. Consider reading it. :-)
Thanks to ACC for the visions of the future. As a futurologist, full marks.
Shame he had to present them in such badly-written books though. As a novelist, sadly limited in abilities. (Anyone else read "Rendezvous with Rama" and wonder how exploring an alien spaceship could be made so tedious?)
RIP sir, you will be missed. An inspiration to myself and, judging by these comments, to many others.
As a final tribute we should send his ashes into space, maybe onboard a communications satellite. The great Arthur C. Clarke, circling the Earth forever in a Clarke Orbit. What could be more fitting?
..what to say.
The news is hardly a surprise, but still a shock. Difficult to believe that 2001 (the film) is now 40 years old - the only giveaway being the few Nixie-tube digital displays, LED's not having been invented! That and Pan-Am, of course...
You say "he's often credited with inventing the concept of satellite communications" which seems a bit mealy-mouthed. There isn't anyone else claiming it, is there? And yes, I have read the original Wireless World article - it was in my college library!
Actually, I've just thought what to say: 'The only futurologist worthy of the title.'
(Alien because of Childhood's End. If you haven't, read it.)
The first of his books that I read was 2001. It was tedious near the beginning but picked up later and is still one of my favorites. I wished for a 2001 theater re-release back in 2001, it would have been nice to see it on the big screen for once.
One of the ideas from the book that I found most interesting is using magnetic levitation to accelerate space planes, reducing the fuel requirements. The first time I read of NASA research into this, I remembered 2001.
Thank You for your ideas and books Mr. Clark, you will be missed.
If anyone wants to know what Arthur C. Clarke got up to in the Second World War, check out "Glide Path". It's meant to be a largely auto biographical piece of fiction. A good read, especially if you're into stuff like the story of radar and the secret (technological) war 1939 - 1945.
No HALs though.
The hazard bloke with the specs, 'cos I once saw a pic of ACC circa 1945 and he looked a bit like that!
If there is one thing the internet has shown is that a bunch of half temperate monkeys plonking on a myriad keyboards couldn't even come up with the conclusion that the The Clarke Orbit. is an obvious state that applies for any given planet or satellite according to its escape velocity.
That had to be postulated by a genius.
A very boring fatuous one.
I know you didn't want us to mourn your passing, but celebrate your life, but I think you will forgive me if I think the world is a little less bright for you not being in it.
Thank-you for everything you left us, at least your words can still inspire us even if they will no longer be added to.
Rest in Peace Arthur C. Clarke.
After Verne, it was A.C. Clarke that led me to my lifetime love of science fiction. He was one of those people that had been around for ever (born the same year as my dad) and would be around for ever - I thought.
He was a Humanist, so all the religious stuff is out of place, but may his end have been peaceful and painless.
His geostationary telecomms satellites and "Islands in the Sky" came to pass, (though not as portrayed in 2001) so let's look forward to the space elevetor.
Some cracking comments above - I'm sure he would be pleased that he still engenders so much affection.
Sad Alien, because the whole Universe is a sadder place without him.
I don't feel I know you well enough to call you Arthur, so will use Mr Clarke instead.
Very shocked to hear this news, but you've had a good innings, as my parents would say.
Really loved your Foundation Series, Stanger in a Stange Land, Dirk Gently and, of course, your Discworld series...
Our thought will be with your forever (and of course I'm joking about the list of books above - after all, if one cannot laugh at death, what can one do?)
First Terry Pratchett's early-onset Alzheimers, then Gary Gygax, Joseph Weizenbaum, and now Arthur C Clarke.
Mind you, 90 years isn't a bad old run, more so when you consider what an impact his writings had on so many people. A life to be celebrated, indeed!
When I was told by my professor of inorganic chemistry that using stereoisomers we could, for example, make indigestible sugar for dieters (this was 1974 and such stuff was still years away from the supermarket shelves) it was not news. I'd already got the primer on the importance of stereoisomerism in the human body years before from a short story by Arthur C Clarke in which the food was normal but the human being had become mirror-imaged.
It was a killer story.
You can read it for yourself. It's in The Collected Stories Of Arthur C Clarke.
ISBN 0312878605.
Damn.
I for one am choosing to rejoyce the life of Mr. Clarke! Through his genius, he captured my imagination, focused my interests in sciences and computers and taught me pretty much anything is possible, if one sets their mind to it.
At the risk of sounding serious, Mr. Clarke: may the force be with you, I hope you prospered while you lived a long life and even though HAL was a savage little toaster, I found your stories and imagination so very fufilling!
Thank you for making the world (and beyond) just a little more interesting.
I just re-read a copy of "City and the Stars" printed in 1956. My father's telling of Arthur Clarke's incredible works had me checking his books out of the local library before the librarians had a way to give give such a young tot a card. Now they are both gone and the Earth is a poorer place.
Arthur, you will be missed.
I have been rereading a lot of his books recently (Currently working through the Rama series)
When i heard today i did get rather upset. Im working at CERN at the moment on the ATLAS LHC project and was putting some screws in today on an electronics rack, call my silly but I caught myself as I was putting each screw in dedicating each one to his memory.
Arthur you will be really missed, good bye and I hope the place you have gone to is "Full of stars"
Only way to be immortal: through works and ideas. Sir Clark had enough of both, he didn't die as we mere mortals do.
I for one am happy. Who could imagine such great humans were possible? Gives me hope... As a fellow atheist, I'm very happy to see he made so much of the only life we've got. I hope more people follow that example and make this life better.
Celebrate his long, productive life, enjoy his work (if you like it), use his ideas.
J
Recently it was published somewhere on el Reg, that Terry Pratchett was diagnosed with Alzheimher's. I read most of the comments on that post, and I distinctively remember one first saying that maybe Arthur C Clarke is next, and then swearing profusely trying to remove the jinx - Something along the lines of whom am I kidding, he'll live forever.
I bet the author of that comment feels a bit silly now. And on the other hand, let's mourne a great innovator, writer and well-to-do chap.
"RwR good?! Beg to differ"
You are entitled to your opinion - as were the judges who awarded "Rendezvous with Rama" the Hugo and Nebula awards - though it leads me to wonder why I've never read any of your own (presumably) better-written and entertaining books? I'll keep an eye on the bargain bin for them.
For me, RwR is my favourite book; I give thanks for both the entertainment ACC gave me for many years and for his legacies in other fields.
90 is not bad, not bad at all. Personally, I'm shooting for 120 but, in truth, I'd probably settle for 90 .... at a push. So why did this news make me a little sad?
For several decades now I've been both fascinated and inspired by his books; and, to my great delight, it was through ACC work that I discovered Stephen Baxter whom I now find just as stimulating.
They did in fact collaborate on a novel or two and, in my humble estimation, Stephen Baxter is a very worthy successor to the crown. Check him out if you enjoy that sort of thing; its nothing if not expansive.
Thank you for the mind expanding wonder you filled my teenage years with Sir Arthur.
When I heard the news I thought of this passage from the end of "The City and the Stars". I waited until I got home to copy it from the book. I wanted to be sure I got it right.
"In this universe the night was falling; the shadows were lengthening towards an east that would not know another dawn. But elsewhere the stars were still young and the light of morning lingered; and along the path he once had followed, Man would one day go again.
The End"
Sleep well Sir Arthur. You will be missed.
It's years since I read any of his books, but it's time to have another look.
This month has seen many deaths, some already mentioned here, one not yet mentioned in this topic is the death of British radio astronomy.
ps
how come Cade Metz manages a dozen pages a week on pointless wikifiddling but barely a dozen paragraphs on the legacy which ACC leaves behind?
I first found ACC's books in the school library all those years ago, my first taste of proper science fiction. They made me think, for the first time, about what I was reading.
I enjoyed them and they started me off on reading Sci-Fi.
Arthur C. Clarke. An author who had a small but positive influence on my life.
From memory:
"Dr. Chandra... Will I dream??"
"I don't know, HAL"
You have mankind's gratitude for all the dreams, hope and peace you've brought us with your novels. Thanks for giving us your visions....
Whenever , in the future, something like HAL exists, i think everyone will think of you.
Say hi to Dave Bowman and HAL, for me....
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