Club Troppo

2001: A Space Odyssey is probably one of the most important films of the 20th century. It was hopelessly optimistic, in retrospect, but it was bold and by the shonky standards of Hollywood it was very true-to-life.

The real Odysseus was not Dave, HAL9000 or the Monoliths; it was Arthur C. Clarke.

Yesterday Sir Clarke passed away, aged 90.

He leaves a magnificent legacy. Together with Isaac Asimov he is among the more prolific authors who ever lived — a hundred books, hundreds of short stories, hundreds of articles, essays and papers. He predicted geosynchronous satellites and man landing on the moon before 2000, amongst many other things. He has also predicted things which have yet to come to pass, including the concept of a space elevator (The Fountains of Paradise).

Shortly before he died, he expressed three wishes. First was for his adopted country, Sri Lanka, to be at peace. Sir Clarke called Sri Lanka home during the duration of the conflict in that nation and sadly, the conflict has outlived him.

His second wish was for the world to adopt cleaner sources of energy; a wish he held in common with Asimov. Both had stories of a fusion-driven world coming into being in the 2000s. We’ve yet to see it.

His final wish is for any observing intelligent extra-terrestrials to “call us or give us a sign.”

He never made it into space himself, mostly due to being a victim of polio. But his DNA will be given to the cosmos in the form of a strand of hair that will be launched into space. He left a note for a distant future in which his DNA might be vivified: “Farewell, my clone”.

Rest In Peace, Sir Arthur. We’ll miss you.

Below is Sir Arthur’s final message. Quite moving.