Sir Arthur C Clarke: 90th birthday reflections
Hello! This is Arthur Clarke, speaking to you from my home in
Colombo, Sri Lanka.
As I approach my 90th birthday, my friends are asking how it feels
like, to have completed 90 orbits around the Sun. Well, I actually don’t
feel a day older than 89!
Of course, some things remind me that I have indeed qualified as a
senior citizen. As Bob Hope once said: “You know you’re getting old,
when the candles cost more than the cake!”
I’m now perfectly happy to step aside and watch how things evolve.
But there’s also a sad side to living so long: most of my contemporaries
and old friends have already departed. However, they have left behind
many fond memories, for me to recall.
I now spend a good part of my day dreaming of times past, present and
future. As I try to survive on 15 hours’ sleep a day, I have plenty of
time to enjoy vivid dreams. Being completely wheel-chaired doesn’t stop
my mind from roaming the universe - on the contrary!
In my time I’ve been very fortunate to see many of my dreams come
true! Growing up in the 1920s and 1930s, I never expected to see so much
happen in the span of a few decades.
We ‘space cadets’ of the British Interplanetary Society spent all our
spare time discussing space travel - but we didn’t imagine that it lay
in our own near future... I still can’t quite believe that we’ve just
marked the 50th anniversary of the Space Age! We’ve accomplished a great
deal in that time, but the ‘Golden Age of Space’ is only just beginning.
After half a century of government-sponsored efforts, we are now
witnessing the emergence of commercial space flight.
Over the next 50 years, thousands of people will travel to Earth
orbit - and then, to the Moon and beyond. Space travel - and space
tourism - will one day become almost as commonplace as flying to exotic
destinations on our own planet.
Things are also changing rapidly in many other areas of science and
technology. To give just one example, the world’s mobile phone coverage
recently passed 50 per cent or 3.3 billion subscriptions.
This was achieved in just a little over a quarter century since the
first cellular network was set up. The mobile phone has revolutionized
human communications, and is turning humanity into an endlessly
chattering global family!
What does this mean for us as a species?
Communication technologies are necessary, but not sufficient, for us
humans to get along with each other. This is why we still have many
disputes and conflicts in the world. Technology tools help us to gather
and disseminate information, but we also need qualities like tolerance
and compassion to achieve greater understanding between peoples and
nations.
I have great faith in optimism as a guiding principle, if only
because it offers us the opportunity of creating a self-fulfilling
prophecy.
So I hope we’ve learnt something from the most barbaric century in
history - the 20th. I would like to see us overcome our tribal divisions
and begin to think and act as if we were one family. That would be real
globalisation...
As I complete 90 orbits, I have no regrets and no more personal
ambitions. But if I may be allowed just three wishes, they would be
these.
Firstly, I would like to see some evidence of extra-terrestrial life.
I have always believed that we are not alone in the universe. But we are
still waiting for ETs to call us - or give us some kind of a sign. We
have no way of guessing when this might happen - I hope sooner rather
than later!
Secondly, I would like to see us kick our current addiction to oil,
and adopt clean energy sources. For over a decade, I’ve been monitoring
various new energy experiments, but they have yet to produce commercial
scale results. Climate change has now added a new sense of urgency. Our
civilisation depends on energy, but we can’t allow oil and coal to
slowly bake our planet...
The third wish is one closer to home. I’ve been living in Sri Lanka
for 50 years - and half that time, I’ve been a sad witness to the bitter
conflict that divides my adopted country. I dearly wish to see lasting
peace established in Sri Lanka as soon as possible. But I’m aware that
peace cannot just be wished it requires a great deal of hard work,
courage and persistence.
I’m sometimes asked how I would like to be remembered. I’ve had a
diverse career as a writer, underwater explorer, space promoter and
science populariser. Of all these, I want to be remembered most as a
writer - one who entertained readers, and, hopefully, stretched their
imagination as well.
I find that another English writer who, coincidentally, also spent
most of his life in the East has expressed it very well. So let me end
with these words of Rudyard Kipling: If I have given you delight by
aught that I have done.
Let me lie quiet in that night which shall be yours anon;
And for the little, little span the dead are borne in mind, seek not
to question other than, the books I leave behind.
This is Arthur Clarke, saying Thank You and Goodbye from Colombo!
Text of video address recorded on YouTube
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