 
"Sometimes I think we're alone in the universe, and sometimes I think we're not. In either case the idea is quite staggering" Arthur C. ClarkeArthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov Robert Heinlein and Larry Niven were four founding authors in the genre of science fiction, and I have read just about everything the four of them have written. Sir Arthur Charles Clarke (December 1917 – March 2008) was an English science fiction writer, science writer, futurist, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host. 
He co-wrote the screenplay for the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, based on his own novel The Sentinel, and widely regarded as one of the most influential films of all time. Clarke was a science fiction writer, an avid populariser of space travel, and a futurist. He wrote many books and many essays for popular magazines. In 1961, he received the Kalinga Prize, a UNESCO award for popularising science.His science fiction writing in particular earned him a number of Hugo and Nebula awards, which along with a large readership, made him one of the towering figures of the genre. Clarke was a lifelong proponent of space travel. In 1934, while still a teenager, he joined the British Interplanetary Society. In 1945, he proposed a satellite communication system using geostationary orbits. He was the chairman of the British Interplanetary Society from 1946 to 1947 and again in 1951–1953. Clarke emigrated to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in 1956, to pursue his interest in scuba diving. That year, he discovered the underwater ruins of the ancient original Koneswaram Temple in Trincomalee. Clarke augmented his popularity in the 1980s as the host of television shows such as Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World. He lived in Sri Lanka until his death. During the Second World War from 1941 to 1946, he served in the Royal Air Force as a radar specialist and was involved in the early-warning radar defence system, which contributed to the RAF's success during the Battle of Britain. After the war, he attained a first-class degree in mathematics and physics from King's College London. After this, he worked as assistant editor at Physics Abstracts. His 1951 book, The Exploration of Space, was used by the rocket pioneer Wernher von Braun to convince President John F. Kennedy that it was possible to go to the Moon. 
Clarke published a number of nonfiction books. Several of these are composed of chapters that can stand on their own as separate essays.
In particular, Clarke was a populariser of the concept of space travel. In 1950, he wrote Interplanetary Flight, a book outlining the basics of space flight for laymen. Later books about space travel included The Exploration of Space (1951), The Challenge of the Spaceship (1959), Voices from the Sky (1965), The Promise of Space (1968, rev. ed. 1970), and Report on Planet Three (1972) along with many others. He once said: "If an elderly but distinguished scientist says that something is possible, he is almost certainly right; but if he says that it is impossible, he is very probably wrong". His books on space travel usually included chapters about other aspects of science and technology, such as computers and bioengineering. He predicted telecommunication satellites (albeit serviced by astronauts in space suits, who would replace the satellite's vacuum tubes as they burned out!). His many predictions culminated in 1958 when he began a series of magazine essays which eventually became Profiles of the Future. In a 1959 essay, Clarke predicted global satellite TV broadcasts that would cross national boundaries indiscriminately and would bring hundreds of channels available anywhere in the world. He also envisioned a "personal transceiver, so small and compact that every man carries one". He wrote: "the time will come when we will be able to call a person anywhere on Earth merely by dialing a number." Such a device would also, in Clarke's vision, include means for global positioning so "no one need ever again be lost". Clarke described a global computer network similar to the modern World Wide Web in a 1964 presentation for BBC, predicting that, by the 21st century, access to information and even physical tasks such as surgery could be accomplished remotely and instantaneously from anywhere in the world using internet and satellite communication. Regarding human jobs being replaced by robots, Clarke said: "Any teacher that can be replaced by a machine should be!". This quote was one that motivated me as a teacher for 40 years! Clarke supported the use of renewable energy, saying: "I would like to see us kick our current addiction to oil, and adopt clean energy sources ... climate change has now added a new sense of urgency. Our civilisation depends on energy, but we can't allow oil and coal to slowly bake our planet". Clarke was of course also a prolific science fiction writer, who won many awards in the genre. Here's a bibliography of all of Arthur C. Clarke's published works. "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic". |