Sad News

Arthur C. Clarke has passed away.......

Originally posted by znsho
Arthur C. Clarke has passed away.......

Indeed, for those who want to know more...

http://www.space.com/news/080318-arthur-clarke.html

Yea I just saw that on the paper today, it is an awful shame, I think he was certainly a big influence on me deciding to study science in the first place. Although I did end up doing geology, which isn't quite fountains of paradise grade stuff.....😕

Anyone have a personal favourite prediction/idea of his that we can see today. He was almost prophetic at times. He should have patented his Ideas for comms sattellites.

Originally posted by Mexico
Yea I just saw that on the paper today, it is an awful shame, I think he was certainly a big influence on me deciding to study science in the first place. Although I did end up doing geology, which isn't quite fountains of paradise grade stuff.....😕

Anyone have a personal favourite prediction/idea of his that we can see today. He was almost prophetic at times. He should have patented his Ideas for comms sattellites.

He said in the article, as you may know, he wrote about the subject, INVENTED the subject of geo-synchronous satellites in 1945! But his lawyer advised him not to try to patent the idea because it was so far fetched. Another reason to hate lawyers, eh. He later wrote and article called 'the history of Comsat's, or how I lost a billion in my spare time'!

He gave us much... He inspired us much...

Originally posted by FabianFnas
He gave us much... He inspired us much...

I read with rapture, his first novel, I didn't know at the time he was only 20, Childhood's end. Another was City and the Stars. Just contemplating being a billion years in the future when I was 13 was awe inspiring. And of course the 2001 series. What a talent! He will be sorely missed. He was writing a final novel when he died, I wonder if anyone will finish it or how close to the end it was.

Originally posted by sonhouse
I read with rapture, his first novel, I didn't know at the time he was only 20, Childhood's end.

He was only 20?!? Wow. I had no idea. That novel is indeed breathtaking.

Nemesio

Originally posted by sonhouse
I read with rapture, his first novel, I didn't know at the time he was only 20, Childhood's end. Another was City and the Stars. Just contemplating being a billion years in the future when I was 13 was awe inspiring. And of course the 2001 series. What a talent! He will be sorely missed. He was writing a final novel when he died, I wonder if anyone will finish it or how close to the end it was.

Are you sure he was 20? My copy indicates it was first published in 1953, making Clarke about 34.

Nemesio

Originally posted by Nemesio
Are you sure he was 20? My copy indicates it was first published in 1953, making Clarke about 34.

Nemesio

I got that from the article in spaceflight now I think. I'll look again.

anyone watched his CD Fractals: Colours of Infinity? As usual, Clarke was brilliant. (plus, it had Floyd as soundtrack)🙂

Originally posted by sonhouse
I got that from the article in spaceflight now I think. I'll look again.

You are right, but the book came from a short story he wrote three years earlier, still a far cry from 20!

Originally posted by PinkFloyd
anyone watched his CD Fractals: Colours of Infinity? As usual, Clarke was brilliant. (plus, it had Floyd as soundtrack)🙂

That I never heard of. Where you do hear it? Can you download it?

Originally posted by sonhouse
That I never heard of. Where you do hear it? Can you download it?

I am near illiterate on the computer. Fractals is a DVD and VHS tape that I saw on PBS. I bought one off e-bay for pretty cheap soon after.

Originally posted by sonhouse
You are right, but the book came from a short story he wrote three years earlier, still a far cry from 20!

I'm rereading it presently. What a marvelous book!

Nemesio

Originally posted by Nemesio
I'm rereading it presently. What a marvelous book!

Nemesio

I liked the part where they ALMOST snapped a picture of the alien.