Abstract
Born in Minehead, Somerset, England, on 16 December 1917, Arthur Charles Clarke became addicted to science-fiction after buying his first copies of the pulp magazine Amazing Stories at Woolworth’s, pursuing his interest through the works of authors H.G. Wells and Olaf Stapledon. Clarke began writing for his school magazine in his teens.
Later, in the wartime Royal Air Force, he was put in charge of a new radar blind-landing system and it was an RAF memo he wrote in 1945 about the future of communications - the possibility of using satellites - that led him to fame.
Clarke worked at the IEE from 1949 to 1950 and contributed the heading ‘Astronautics’ to the index system. In his spare time, Clarke started writing and his first book commission was for “Interplanetary Flight”, a non-fiction work on space travel published in 1950. The book was well received and is credited as being the first written in English to set out the basic technical theory of spaceflight. The success of Interplanetary Flight led to Clarke embarking on a full-time writing career.
Clarke was the author of more than 100 books. He was also the co-author with Stanley Kubrick of Kubrick’s film version of Clarke’s “2001: A Space Odyssey”, but he was regarded as far more than a science fiction writer. He was credited with the concept of communications satellites in 1945, decades before they became a reality. Geosynchronous orbits, which keep satellites in a fixed position relative to the ground, are called Clarke orbits.
Clarke’s fame was due in part to his engaging personality and his ability to articulate a holistic overview of where science was leading mankind - and vice versa. On his initial fame, Clarke noted that “Today, people call me the Father of Communications Satellites, but that’s not fair. I only thought up the idea. It took other, incredibly talented people to turn it into reality. Just call me the Godfather.”
In keeping with his reputation as a science fiction visionary, Clarke continued to look to the future, declaring that, “The time of super-intelligent machines is fast approaching. I hope that when they arrive - these children of our brains - they will treat us as pets and not exterminate us as vermin. Even if we deserve it.”
However, he remained “an optimist”, reasoning that mankind had “a 51 per cent chance of survival”. He concluded by saying, “Our only hope for a better future lies in science combined with wisdom and foresight. I shall be happy indeed if any writings of mine have helped towards this goal.”
“Sometimes I am asked how I would like to be remembered,” Clarke said recently. “I have had a diverse career as a writer, underwater explorer and space promoter. Of all these, I would like to be remembered as a writer.”
Clarke died in March 2008, after suffering from breathing problems. British astronomer Sir Patrick Moore paid tribute to his friend, saying: “He was a great visionary, a brilliant science fiction writer and a great forecaster. He foresaw communications satellites, a nationwide network of computers, interplanetary travel, he said there would be a man on the moon by 1970 - while I said 1980 - and he was right.”
Content sourced from Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). 2001: A Space Odyssey footage sourced from theatrical trailer, which is now in the public domain.
