Sir Arthur C Clarke: The Final Odyssey

COLOMBO: The funeral of legendary science fiction writer, futurist and inventor of the communications satellite Sir Arthur C Clarke, 90, will be held today at the General Cemetery, Kanatte.

Sir Arthur died in Colombo on March 19. He celebrated his 90th birthday on December 16 last year.

He has lived in Sri Lanka since 1956, having developed an affinity with the sheer beauty of Sri Lanka’s coastal belt and diving spots.

Along with Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury, he was one of the three best known science fiction authors in the world. He was also a marine explorer and ran a diving school.

He was Sri Lanka’s most famous overseas resident, though he retained British citizenship.

Author of over 100 science fiction and non-fiction books in addition to breakthrough scientific papers, he was also suffering from the Post Polio Syndrome since the early 1990s, which confined him to a wheelchair for the past decade. He was Knighted in 1998 for his contribution to literature.

Just three days before his death, he finished reviewing his last book The Last Theorem, co-written with the American author Frederik Pohl, which will be published later this year.

Sir Arthur is survived by his brother Fred and sister Mary, both living in Minehead, Somerset, UK. They have arrived in Sri Lanka for the funeral.

Their youngest brother, Michael, predeceased him. Sir Arthur has also left written instructions that his funeral be strictly secular: “Absolutely no religious rites of any kind, relating to any religious faith, should be associated with my funeral.”

Sir Arthur remained alert and active throughout his recent illness. He was also in regular contact with his literary agents, publishers and officials of the non-profit Arthur C Clarke Foundation based in the United States.

Many of Sir Arthur’s books have been filmed, Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey being the most well-known. The book on which the film was based (The Sentinel) and the film featured a computer called HAL, infused with artificial intelligence.

Sri Lanka was the setting for several of his best-selling fiction and non-fiction books.

His first book about Sri Lanka, 1957’s The Reefs of Taprobane, chronicled a tidal wave that struck the area in 1883. Sri Lanka was struck by a massive tsunami in 2004, which Clarke witnessed.

Many of his books drove home the message that man’s destiny lies in space. In 1953, Ballantine Books put Clarke on the map with the publication of his sci-fi classic, Childhood’s End, about a race of aliens who come to Earth and eliminate disease and poverty at the cost of mankind’s freedom. His first book, written in 1937, was also published only in 1953 under the title Against the Fall of the Night. His only non-Science Fiction novel was Glide Path (1963).

Among his most famous books are: Earthlight, A Fall of Moondust, The Fountains of Paradise, The Hammer of God, Imperial Earth, The Nine Billion Names of God, Prelude to Mars, Rendezvous with rama, The Sands of Mars, The Songs of Distant Earth, 2010, 2061 and 3001: The Final Odyssey.

In his 90th birthday reflections video released on YouTube in December 2007, Sir Arthur said he had ‘no regrets and no more personal ambitions’. He listed three ‘last wishes’: some evidence of extra-terrestrial life; adoption of clean energy sources; and an end to the long-drawn war in Sri Lanka.

He added: “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.” He enriched the nascent science of underwater exploration through several books including the Coast of Coral (1956).

One of his short stories (‘Dial F for Frankenstein’, 1964) inspired British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee to invent the World Wide Web in 1989.

Trained in physics and mathematics, Sir Arthur also wrote many books and essays of non-fiction on space travel, communication technologies, underwater exploration and future studies.

In a landmark scientific paper titled “Extra-terrestrial Relays” published in the Wireless World magazine in 1945, Arthur C Clarke was the first to set out the principles of satellite communication with satellites placed in geostationary orbits. Sir Arthur never patented the idea, and received no financial benefits from his invention.

He always maintained that the prediction was based on known facts and that satellites would have been invented anyway in due course. He was contented being acknowledged as the ‘Godfather of the communication satellite’, and having the geostationary orbit designated the ‘Clarke Orbit’.

Born in Minehead, Somerset, England in 1917, Arthur Charles Clarke was educated at Huish’s Grammar School, Taunton, and King’s College, London. He worked in the British Exchequer and Audit Department and served as a Flight Lieutenant in the Royal Air Force before turning a full time author in 1950.

The Sri Lankan Government presented him the Lankabhimanya (‘Pride of Lanka’), the country’s highest civilian honour, in 2005.

In 1996, the International Astronomical Union named asteroid No 4923 in his honour, while scientists at the University of Monash, Australia, named a newly discovered dinosaur species as Serendipaceratops arthurcclarkei in 2003.

Clarke was a futurist who seemed to live ahead of his time. Many of his ideas and theories became reality. His work was embraced by both the scientific and science fiction communities. He viewed the future as something to behold, not fear.

Clarke certainly believed in extraterrestrial, intelligent life. “They might land tomorrow on the White House lawn,” he said.

Clarke’s influence and admiration in the scientific world was undeniable.

The command module of 1970’s ill-fated Apollo 13 mission was dubbed “Odyssey” in honour of the film, as was the 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft. At MIT, a room dedicated to artificial intelligence is dubbed the HAL project.

In his private life, Clarke was often portrayed as an eccentric recluse who refused to give interviews. But in truth he frequently chatted with reporters and fans via e-mail and gave speeches via satellite.

He has donated six strands of his hair to a Houston-based company that plans to launch human DNA into space.

Clarke said he could be cloned in the future by an alien race who may find his DNA Across the Seas of Stars.

One minute’s silence for Sir Arthur C. Clarke

The Government yesterday requested all to observe a minute’s silence today from 3.30 p.m. to 3.31 p.m. as a mark of respect to Sir Arthur C. Clarke.