Hattix

It brings me no joy at all and a great deal of sadness to learn that Arthur C. Clarke, the most noted science fiction author since Asimov, passed away yesterday. Born in 1917, his highest moment of fame was writing 2001: A Space Odyssey, but his legacy is much, much greater than a few literary works.

Clarke first described the geosynchronous orbit[1], where weather and communications satellites exist today. He wrote numerous factual books (including the very popular Snows of Olympus) and, indeed, most of his fiction did not stray outside the bounds of science. He had no warp engines, no teleporters, no ultra beam weapons, just physics and astronomy. He inspired two generations of rocket scientists, aerospace engineers, astronomers and physicists.

He was not just an author. He was an acclaimed futurist and inventor and a very influential one. The Apollo 13 Lunar Module was named “Odyssey” after his best known work, he is often quoted saying “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” and is acknowledged as a major influence to Gene Roddenberry’s creation of Star Trek.

His tales of lunar colonisation and journeys through space never once cross the boundaries to fantasy but remain, to this day, engaging, realistic and very well written.

Spend a few minutes on Google exploring this giant of a man and the legacy he leaves. For a personal story, check Phil’s obituary at his Bad Astronomy Blog.

[1] While the idea was being tossed around Bell Labs also, Clarke described and notarised it so well that his writing was used to demonstrate prior art and deny a patent application.