quote:COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - An aide says science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke has died.
Rohan De Silva says Clarke died early Wednesday after suffering from breathing problems. He was 90.
Clarke is the author of more than 100 books, including “2001: A Space Odyssey.”
Posted by Strider (Member # 1807) on :
It's been a bad year for fantasy and sci-fi authors.
Posted by Tara (Member # 10030) on :
Shucks, now we'll never know what the ending to 2001 is supposed to mean!
Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
Every time I realize that he's still alive, I'm shocked.
I guess that won't happen any more.
Posted by Primal Curve (Member # 3587) on :
Wow, a legend has passed.
Posted by Morbo (Member # 5309) on :
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."--Clarke's Law.
Posted by Shigosei (Member # 3831) on :
Me too, mph.
Posted by Jon Boy (Member # 4284) on :
That was my reaction, too. "Wait—he was still alive?"
Tara: I thought the ending of the book made sense. It was only the ending of the movie that was a nonsensical acid trip, in my opinion.
Posted by Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged (Member # 7476) on :
Sadly I had the same thought. I thought he died a long time ago. Still very sad news.
Posted by Tammy (Member # 4119) on :
Poor man, I also thought he'd died a long time ago. I wonder why we all thought that?
Posted by Nighthawk (Member # 4176) on :
I knew he was alive, but I didn't imagine he was 90 years old. He lived a long life.
Posted by Glenn Arnold (Member # 3192) on :
quote:Tara: I thought the ending of the book made sense. It was only the ending of the movie that was a nonsensical acid trip, in my opinion.
My brother reminds me that I had to patiently explain what the ending meant to the rest of my family after we saw the movie (I was 9). I didn't read the book until years later.
And the nonsensical acid trip also made perfect sense to me, Bowman's brain was operating on overload as he made the transition. Shock the monkey.
Posted by SteveRogers (Member # 7130) on :
This makes me reget having put off reading 2001.
Posted by Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged (Member # 7476) on :
It's that whole out of sight out of mind thing. The number of books published by him wasn't a lot of late.
I remember telling me mom VC Andrews was dead like 5 years ago. She was a huge a huge fan and never realized because the books never stopped coming out.
Posted by sylvrdragon (Member # 3332) on :
I read the book, but I couldn't finish the movie. Maybe I'll go back and just watch the ending... There just doesn't seem to be enough dialog for it to make a good movie (as is evident). I was actually kinda disappointed in the ending of the book myself. It spent the whole time developing the character to the reader, then at the end... he just... changes...
It reminded me of the movie AI. The ending had NOTHING to do with the rest of the movie.
Posted by Starsnuffer (Member # 8116) on :
Alas, he will live on in asteroid form Posted by quidscribis (Member # 5124) on :
We knew he was still alive since Fahim was in contact with him. I guess that won't happen anymore... I hope...
ETA: And we'd seen him at book launches and such. There's another book launch we're going to in a week, and if he wasn't dead, he would have been at that one, too, most likely, since he was at that author's last one. Posted by Lisa (Member # 8384) on :
quote:Originally posted by Morbo: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."--Clarke's Law.
"Any sufficiently rigorous rules of magic are indistinguishable from science."--Lyndon Hardy's corollary to Clarke's Law.
Posted by Glenn Arnold (Member # 3192) on :
quote:He is widely credited with introducing the idea of the communications satellite, the first of which were launched in the early 1960s. But he never patented the idea, prompting a 1965 essay that he subtitled, "How I Lost a Billion Dollars in My Spare Time."
Yeah, I know the feeling.
Posted by Javert (Member # 3076) on :
My very short tribute video. Posted by Intelligence3 (Member # 6944) on :
Hrm, well I had nowhere else to go and say I'm sad about this. So... I'm sad about this. I really should start to write letters to people whose work I have admired.
Posted by Mucus (Member # 9735) on :
Hmmmm, rather depressing. His books are some of the first science fiction books I can remember reading. Definitely worth a toast to a life well lived.
Posted by 0Megabyte (Member # 8624) on :
Oh, man.
And I just started reading some of his short stories. He's already, in the last few months, brought me much joy.
If I'd have known he was still alive, and would be dead so soon, I would have sent him a letter, both cursing him for already writing half the stories I ever would have wanted to write, and thanking him for entertaining me so much in the meantime.
I'm sad...
Posted by Telperion the Silver (Member # 6074) on :
Posted by romanylass (Member # 6306) on :
Posted by Shmuel (Member # 7586) on :
quote:Originally posted by Lisa: "Any sufficiently rigorous rules of magic are indistinguishable from science."--Lyndon Hardy's corollary to Clarke's Law.
Hmm! I'm a fan of Hardy's rigorous rules of magic, but had never seen this particular statement before. Did he actually say this?
(I think it's nicely put either way; I'm just curious.)
Posted by Tatiana (Member # 6776) on :
That's so sad. He was a great man. Did anyone else ever see a show called "Arthur C. Clarke's Astonishing Universe" or something like that? It was so good. I remember the episode I saw was about weird stuff falling out of the sky. It was really scientific, but it was about unexplained stuff that just didn't seem to make sense. Weird and wonderful! In the end, after all these first person stories about fish or pecans or other odd things just falling from nowhere out of the sky, it showed Arthur Clarke walking on the beach, and he was carrying an umbrella. It was awesome.
I miss him already.
Posted by The White Whale (Member # 6594) on :
quote:WIRED: Have you given any thought to what you'd want your epitaph to be?
ACC: Oh, yes. I've often quoted it: "He never grew up; but he never stopped growing."
Posted by Lisa (Member # 8384) on :
quote:Originally posted by Shmuel:
quote:Originally posted by Lisa: "Any sufficiently rigorous rules of magic are indistinguishable from science."--Lyndon Hardy's corollary to Clarke's Law.
Hmm! I'm a fan of Hardy's rigorous rules of magic, but had never seen this particular statement before. Did he actually say this?
(I think it's nicely put either way; I'm just curious.)
I don't believe he did. But he should have.
Posted by Sean Monahan (Member # 9334) on :
quote:Originally posted by sylvrdragon: It reminded me of the movie AI. The ending had NOTHING to do with the rest of the movie.
I have to disagree here. At the beginning, humans create a machine to fulfill the longing needs of a human. At the end, machines create a human to fulfill the longing needs of a machine.
EDIT: And I think it's an interesting comparison to 2001, because I see a similar link between the beginning and end of that movie. The apes encounter the monolith, and then begin displaying characteristics of increased intelligence, as though their evolution has been jump-started. At the end, David Bowman encounters the monolith and evolves into the Star-child.
Posted by Morbo (Member # 5309) on :
quote:Astronomers are familiar with seeing amazing things through their telescopes. But nothing prepared them for an incredible explosion detected early Wednesday morning by NASA’s Swift satellite. At 2:12 a.m. EDT, Swift detected an explosion from deep space that was so powerful that its afterglow was briefly visible to the naked eye. Even more astonishing, the explosion itself took place halfway across the visible universe! Never before has anything so far away come even close to naked-eye visibility. The explosion was so far away that it took its light 7,500,000,000 (7.5 billion) years to reach Earth! In fact, the explosion took place so long ago that Earth had not yet come into existence. [snip--Morbo] Swift normally detects about two gamma ray bursts per week. But March 19 was a special day. The satellite detected four bursts on that day, which is a Swift record for one day. “Coincidentally, the passing of Arthur C. Clarke the day before seems to have set the universe ablaze with gamma ray bursts,” says Swift science team member Judith Racusin of Penn State University. http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/swift/bursts/brightest_grb.html
A fitting tribute for the passing of Sir Arthur! This reminds me of one of my favorite Clarke stories, The Star SPOILERS at the wiki link.
Posted by plaid (Member # 2393) on :
Clarke's death got me re-reading Childhood's End. It's excellent; it holds up quite well.
Posted by Corwin (Member # 5705) on :
I saw this thread bumped, and my first thought was: "again?!" Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
![[Frown]](frown.gif)
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
It was awesome.