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Author Topic:   Arthur C Clarke Laid to Rest
jwhop
Knowflake

Posts: 2787
From: Madeira Beach, FL USA
Registered: Apr 2009

posted March 24, 2008 12:27 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for jwhop     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Most people don't know there's a cadre of science fiction writers who are scientists...especially physicists and mathematicians. Their old books read like oracles of the future as their themes become true in later eras.

In the case of Clarke, he wrote a paper in 1945 about communications satellites in orbit around Earth at a time when rocketry and missiles were in their infancy and no nation had fired a single rocket into space, let alone a complex wireless communications satellite.

Today, we all know how that worked out. Whenever we make a cell phone call or receive a television signal from a satellite dish.

I sometimes wonder if some of these scientist science fiction writers don't fire the imagination of other scientists who begin to work on their ideas and make them a reality.

I also recall a passage from Genesis where man was building a high tower to reach Heaven..Tower of Babel and God saw what they were doing and confused their language so they could no longer understand and communicate with each other. Apparently, this was displeasing but God also said something interesting which has had far reaching implications.

Genesis 11-4-6
And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

Idea after idea have been introduced by science fiction writers which today are reality.

Who could forget Jules Verne's 20.000 Leagues Under the Sea...written in 1870. All about submarines and forget the title since 20,000 leagues is about 10 times the diameter of the earth. The idea of submarines was introduced, though there were submarines used in the American Civil war. They were powered by men, much like the ancient galley and nothing like what Jules Verne wrote about. Today, submarines are some of the most technologically advanced and refined products of science...in numerous fields.

So, it seems once someone conceives of a process or concept, it only remains for them or others to develop the idea into reality.

Science fiction writers seem to conceive of a large number of concepts which come on line later and that seems to bear out what was said so very long ago, for good or evil.... "and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do"

I will miss Arthur C Clarke and also Isaac Asimov who gave me many hours of pleasurable reading and fired my own imagination as to what was to come.

Sci-fie writer Clarke laid to rest

British science-fiction writer Sir Arthur C Clarke has been buried in his adopted country of SRO Lank.
Music from the film 2001: A Space Odyssey was played at the funeral and members of the family which had adopted him cried as his coffin was lowered.
"Here lies Arthur C Clarke. He never grew up and did not stop growing," his gravestone in Colombo is to read, in accordance with the author's wishes....
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7309598.stm

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Mannu
Knowflake

Posts: 45
From: always here and no where
Registered: Apr 2009

posted March 24, 2008 12:40 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Mannu     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Interestingly the country where he died has a remarkable mythology connection with India.

Ravana used to be the only one who used to have a flying aircraft on earth during those days. He sees Sita, Rama's wife in the forest and snatches her and takes her with him to Srilanka.

[digressing...Rumors has it that Germans got access to the ancient vedic texts about the flying machine and used it to build powerful german machine. Is it coincidence that their swastika is mirror image of the hindu swastika ---hmmmm..or could it be that the germans and aryans of india came from the same ancestors.]


Ok back to the story - the rest is a inspiring tale on how Rama travels on foot, crosses the indian ocean with his army. Destroys sri lanka and gets back his wife defeating Ravana. They say atomic weapons were used in that war.


As I always say - we had been very advanced civilization here on earth so many times. We have also destroyed each other ....sad but true.

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juniperb
Moderator

Posts: 856
From: Blue Star Kachina
Registered: Apr 2009

posted March 24, 2008 08:34 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for juniperb     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
He had one heck of a lifetime filled with wonder and achievements.

I loved Childhood's End written in the 50`s.

Rest in Peace .

------------------
~
What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world is immortal"~

- George Eliot

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NosiS
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posted March 24, 2008 10:17 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for NosiS     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Beautiful post, jwhop.

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Xodian
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Posts: 275
From: Canada
Registered: Apr 2009

posted March 24, 2008 11:09 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Xodian     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I really enjoyed his Collaborative work "Firstborn;" The one he co-wrote with Stephen Baxter. It was quite the read. And who can't forget the Rama series.

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jwhop
Knowflake

Posts: 2787
From: Madeira Beach, FL USA
Registered: Apr 2009

posted March 24, 2008 09:29 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for jwhop     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I enjoyed Childhood's End too juni and everything Clarke wrote that I read. The world literally changed during his lifetime.

Perhaps my favorite science fiction books are the Foundation series written by Asimov, also passed on and another scientist...biochemist PhD.

Along with Robert Heinlein, Asimov and Clarke were known as the Big Three of science fiction.

Thanks NosisS

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goatgirl
unregistered
posted March 24, 2008 09:51 PM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Oh I hadn't heard that he had died. Thanks to Clarke for expanding my horizons. Rest in Peace.

Thanks for posting this Jwhop.

------------------
The truth is ... everything counts. Everything. Everything we do and everything we say. Everything helps or hurts; everything adds to or takes away from someone else. ~ Countee Cullen

We are weaving character every day, and the way to weave the best character is to be kind and to be useful. Think right, act right; it is what we think and do that makes us who we are. ~ Elbert Hubbard

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BlueRoamer
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Posts: 95
From:
Registered: Apr 2009

posted March 24, 2008 10:15 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for BlueRoamer     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote

A brilliant author....one of the top sci fi authors of all time.

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