Arthur C. Clarke, RIP
by Henning FischerIt is no secret that a lot of us were science fiction geeks growing up, so it was with sadness that we learned of Arthur C. Clarke’s passing yesterday. In our own ways we remembered his influence on our lives:
Jesse James Garrett:
Not the year, but the movie. Arthur C. Clarke died today — yes, but did you know he invented the communications satellite, complete with math, decades before it was technologically possible? — and I’ve seen this link in a few places about the creative process behind the film:
http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/amk/doc/0073.html
As you probably know, I love hearing about the dead ends and abandoned concepts in any creative project, and this diary is rich with them: he describes their initial schedule as “hilariously optimistic”, recounts working through at least two Christmases, and the blow-by-blow accounts of directions considered and abandoned (and crucial last-minute rewrites) show that even the path to great work requires innumerable wrong turns along the way.
Jeff Veen:
His Three Laws are still inspiration to me, even if contemporary usage
has pushed them to cliche:1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is
possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something
is impossible, he is very probably wrong.2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to
venture a little way past them into the impossible.3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
Kate Rutter:
That last one [Law #3] is still my favorite. During one recent project, the similarities between what we were designing and the World Of Harry Potter kept me up at night.
As for me, books like the 2001 series, The Songs of Distant Earth and short stories like “The Nine Billion Names of God” have remained with me in many ways. Last weekend I unpacked my books after my 14th move in 12 years. Arthur C. Clarke’s books have been with me for every one of those moves. They remain some of my favorite stories and they even got me through college astronomy. Not only were they factually correct on the particulars of our solar system, they were way more entertaining than the stuff the professor assigned.
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March 19th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
Watched 2001 again 1 month ago and still delights. Understand that this film was made before man landed on the moon?
March 19th, 2008 at 7:42 pm
That’s correct. The first moon landing occurred on July 20, 1969 when Apollo 11 touched down in the Sea of Tranquility (or the Arizona desert, depending on how prone you are to conspiracy theories).
March 19th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
Would be nice to rewrite Law 1 to be gender non-specific. No need to maintain the 1960’s biases.
March 19th, 2008 at 10:47 pm
I mean before “persona” landed on the moon
March 20th, 2008 at 7:58 am
I loved the third law as well. Especially the use of “sufficiently” is a good reminder to think about “good enough”. I used the law as a quote to defend the use of technology and magic in my research work.
March 21st, 2008 at 10:40 am
I think you guys need a couple of different avatars for your posts, one for good news where your smiling avatars are entirely appropriate, and another with a more serious expression for sad or serious news. Just a thought, there are two RIP messages on this page and both have a very happy avatar… cognitive dissonance.
See you at the party