Arthur C. Clarke
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Law Bringer
Member # 2984
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written Tuesday, March 18 2008 14:35
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Clarke was a pretty awesome author. His arguably most famous work, 2001: Space Odyssey is so classic that quotes like "I'm sorry, Dave" and "it's full of stars!" have long entered our meme culture. He explored the concept of technological singularity and first contact pretty deeply. And he died around three hours ago. Much like Asimov, this is a guy whose like we won't see again soon. Edit: In fact, thanks to time zones and from the perspective of Europeans and Americans, he pulled off something pretty astonishing. As is only fitting for a science fiction author, he died tomorrow. [ Tuesday, March 18, 2008 14:46: Message edited by: Arancaytar ] -------------------- The Noble and Ancient Order of Polaris - We're Not Yet Dead. Encyclopedia • Blades Forge • Archives • Stats • RSS (This Topic / Forum) • Blog • NaNoWriMo Did-chat thentagoespyet jumund fori is jus, hat onlime gly nertan ne gethen Firyoubbit 'obio.' Decorum deserves a whole line of my signature, and an entry in your bookmarks. Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00 |
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Lifecrafter
Member # 6193
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written Tuesday, March 18 2008 14:50
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The last of the "Big Three," and easily the one whose work I enjoyed the most. The Rama series, Trigger, Cradle, Time's Eye: (And the sequels that are out now, which I'd neglected to read but am now reminded of) all great stuff. -------------------- "NOW PASS ME MY BOOTS. I HAVE AN APPOINTMENT WITH A FACE." -Nikki Tales From the Tabard Inn: Now if only there was a 3600 Hour Contest..... Posts: 900 | Registered: Monday, August 8 2005 07:00 |
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Law Bringer
Member # 2984
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written Tuesday, March 18 2008 15:04
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Who is the third? (On the assumption that any triad of science fiction authors will contain Asimov.) -------------------- The Noble and Ancient Order of Polaris - We're Not Yet Dead. Encyclopedia • Blades Forge • Archives • Stats • RSS (This Topic / Forum) • Blog • NaNoWriMo Did-chat thentagoespyet jumund fori is jus, hat onlime gly nertan ne gethen Firyoubbit 'obio.' Decorum deserves a whole line of my signature, and an entry in your bookmarks. Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00 |
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Agent
Member # 8030
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written Tuesday, March 18 2008 16:29
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Never read the book or seen the film, but my father (whose name is Dave) had an error warning set for his PowerMac saying "I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that." However, in repetition, it caused the computer to freeze. -------------------- Decca Records - "We don't like their sound. Groups of guitars are on the way out." Posts: 1384 | Registered: Tuesday, February 6 2007 08:00 |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Tuesday, March 18 2008 17:27
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The third of the Big Three is Robert A. Heinlein. —Alorael, who has only two thoughts. The first is that the era of "it's not good to write SF/F right now" isn't over. The second is that the other Big Two created words that entered dictionaries and common parlance (robotics, grok, waldo). What's Clarke's word? His concept, of course, is the geostationary satellite. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
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Lifecrafter
Member # 6700
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written Tuesday, March 18 2008 21:53
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Clarke had the distinction of seeing some modern technologies to otherwise unforseeable and sometimes accurate ends. Though offhand the only item that I remember him predicting the invention of was the (kitchen) microwave, many of his speculations may logically inspire technological developments down the road: His ideas for comfortably dealing with weightlessness through elastic blankets and adhesive salad dressing, for example. And, of course, HAL is definitely one of the better characters that has been ingrained into our social consciousness. -------------------- The Silent Assassin would like to attribute inspiration to Mr. Clarke, but for the difficulty in finding some of the materials Clarke specifies in his novels. Diamonds are hard to find cheap. -------------------- -Lenar Labs What's Your Destiny? Ushmushmeifa: Lenar's power is almighty and ineffable. I like speaking my mind, when the voices let me hear it. Posts: 735 | Registered: Monday, January 16 2006 08:00 |
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Law Bringer
Member # 2984
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written Wednesday, March 19 2008 00:44
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quote:That sentence brings to mind Douglas Adams. :P Incidentally, my dream is that psychohistory some day gains the same usage that robotics got. Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00 |
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By Committee
Member # 4233
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written Thursday, March 20 2008 03:13
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quote:I've noticed this, and I wonder if in part it's due to the fact that sufficiently sophisticated technology exists currently such that any science fiction/futurism concepts can be debunked pretty easily. I.e., the bar is much higher in order to create "believable" science fiction, to the point that it would probably take someone with an engineering degree and a lot of love to write something credible. Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
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Law Bringer
Member # 2984
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written Thursday, March 20 2008 09:31
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Engineering? Once an idea gets sufficiently realistic for engineers to figure out how to actually build it, it's more or less left the stage of science fiction. SF deals with a lot of ideas that have not been proven impossible in theory, but are far removed from being practical yet. And I'd say that Wikipedia and a healthy interest in science are enough to avoid the most glaring mistakes there. The most important part of writing believable science fiction is still the attitude of actually caring about making sense. An author doesn't need to find technologies that have been proven possible - basically he just needs to take an idea and find out if it violates the second law of thermodynamics or requires faster-than-light movement, and perhaps a few other basic checks. That weeds out the obvious nonsense. Or as Clarke put it: "When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong." Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00 |
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Infiltrator
Member # 7488
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written Thursday, March 20 2008 13:28
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I've read all 4 of his "odyssey" books, and enjoyed them. Actually, I think I might've read the first three in reverse order (oops!). quote:As HAL 9000 put it: It can only be attributable to human error. I couldn't resist that quote. -------------------- Either I'm crazy, or everybody else is nuts. And I know I'm not crazy because the little man who lives on my shoulder told me so. If people don't think there's something wrong with you, there's something wrong with you. Oh well. Another day, another dementia. Posts: 558 | Registered: Friday, September 15 2006 07:00 |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Thursday, March 20 2008 17:14
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I've always taken SF/F to stand for Sci-fi/fantasy. You know, that lumped genre that gets shelved together. Also, while that may be true, I think this is actually a very good time to produce fantasy and soft sci-fi. Hard sci-fi seems a little stale these days, but it's still made. What I actually meant is that it's a bad time to be an author. Terry Pratchett, Robert Jordan, and now Arthur C. Clarke. And I'm pretty sure there was another important death in there too. —Alorael, who suspects a conspiracy, probably one involving aliens. Only the last heir of a forgotten space-mage empire can take up the Sword of Clichés and triumph over boundless evil! Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
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? Man, ? Amazing
Member # 5755
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written Thursday, March 20 2008 17:47
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Actually, Terry Pratchett is enjoying remarkably good health for a dead man. I mean, yeah he has early onset Alzheimer's, but he's not yet been visited by Death. Addit - Could fans of Clarke recommend a few of his books, and why they are being recommended? I've never read his stuff, and we're due for another trip to Powell's bookstore soon. [ Thursday, March 20, 2008 17:50: Message edited by: Jumpin' Salmon ] -------------------- Synergy, et al - "I don't get it." Argon - "I'm at a loss for words..." Posts: 4114 | Registered: Monday, April 25 2005 07:00 |
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The Establishment
Member # 6
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written Thursday, March 20 2008 20:38
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Clarke was a visionary for his time. I enjoyed his works greatly and he will be missed. -------------------- Your flower power is no match for my glower power! Posts: 3726 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
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By Committee
Member # 4233
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written Friday, March 21 2008 10:36
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quote:My bad for misinterpreting - I thought you intended "SF/F" to stand for "Science Fiction/Futurism." I do think there's a lot of dross out there though, for the reason I posited. Fantasy is a bit easier to get away with, since apparently there's no such thing as magic. I do think the genre has been awaiting the Next Great Thing for a while though. [ Monday, March 24, 2008 04:34: Message edited by: Drew ] Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
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Warrior
Member # 7213
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written Sunday, March 23 2008 19:01
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Arthur C Clarke, Isaac Asimov, Robert A Heinlien, Larry Niven, Robert L Forward. Greg Bear, Orson Scott Card, gosh, where do you draw a line? Not to mention Steven R Donaldson, and J.R.R. Tolkien... Impossible for me to make a shortlist. Didn't know till I saw it here that Clarke had passed. Now he sees what we've yet to perceive. Thanks for all the wonder and time well spent Sir Clarke. [ Sunday, March 23, 2008 19:20: Message edited by: Micro Phage ] -------------------- The point of fighting is to win. If you ever find yourself in a fair fight, your tactics suck! Posts: 181 | Registered: Monday, June 12 2006 07:00 |
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Warrior
Member # 14343
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written Friday, March 28 2008 20:28
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I have to re-read the Odyssey and Rama series again, those are my favourites of his. I also liked "The City and the Stars"... He was/is a wonderful author and I will miss his writing. -------------------- "And if I had the choice I'd take the voice I got / Cause it was hard to find. / You know I've come too far to wind up right back where I started." - Concrete Blonde (True) http://tobylinn.awardspace.com http://toby-linn.stumbleupon.com/ Posts: 72 | Registered: Wednesday, February 20 2008 08:00 |
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Apprentice
Member # 1420
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written Saturday, April 5 2008 07:34
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Just stumbled across this thread. Arthur C. "Mr. Satellite" Clarke is also famous for the concept of a space elevator which would allow easy transport from planet surface to a space station in geostationary orbit. That may yet come to be! At one point in my youth, he was my favorite author. Rendezvous with Rama, from the early '70s, is a good first exposure to his work. He's not much for character development. Rama does combine the thrill of early space exploration with a solid mystery. Childhood's End, 2001 and 2010 are all worth a read for anyone with any interest in sf. Only the latter two have been made into films. Clarke was a strong believer that man's destiny was somewhere beyond the Earth. The Joy of Tech comic has a fitting tribute, here: HAL Mourns Posts: 37 | Registered: Tuesday, July 2 2002 07:00 |