Comments on: Arthur C. Clarke RIP http://jayreding.com/archives/2008/03/18/arthur-c-clarke-rip/ Sun, 31 Jan 2010 18:46:33 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Janek http://jayreding.com/archives/2008/03/18/arthur-c-clarke-rip/comment-page-1/#comment-365034 Janek Fri, 21 Mar 2008 09:10:14 +0000 http://jayreding.com/archives/2008/03/18/arthur-c-clarke-rip/#comment-365034 I liked Arthur C. Clarke for writing the novel "The Songs of Distant Earth", which was pretty bad as a book (at least the German translation I read rather sucked), but which inspired Mike Oldfield to write an album of the same name, which was great. J. I liked Arthur C. Clarke for writing the novel “The Songs of Distant Earth”, which was pretty bad as a book (at least the German translation I read rather sucked), but which inspired Mike Oldfield to write an album of the same name, which was great.

J.

]]> By: bobunf http://jayreding.com/archives/2008/03/18/arthur-c-clarke-rip/comment-page-1/#comment-365032 bobunf Thu, 20 Mar 2008 22:55:59 +0000 http://jayreding.com/archives/2008/03/18/arthur-c-clarke-rip/#comment-365032 I enjoyed much of Clarke’s fiction, especially “Childhood’s End” and “The City and the Stars.” An important element of his fiction (especially apparent in “2001”), which I didn’t like, was his strain at making equivalence of the actors in the East-West conflict--as though there were little difference or choice between communism and liberal democracies. Clarke, of course, was lucky enough to live in one of those liberal democracies until he migrated to Sri Lanka at the age of 39. Beyond that, he didn’t think too much of humans. Unlike in Star Trek, or with Heinlein or Asimov, humans, for Clarke, were barely worthy of survival, at best. Not to get too worked up about his firm grasp of science and the future, consider some predictions he made in 2001: • 2002 Clean low-power fuel involving a new energy source, possibly based on cold fusion. • 2003 The automobile industry is given five years to replace fossil fuels. • 2004 First publicly admitted human clone. • 2006 Last coal mine closed. • 2009 A city in a third world country is devastated by an atomic bomb explosion. • 2009 All nuclear weapons are destroyed. I don’t think I’d bet the farm on any of these predictions. Also, I think Clarke took, and gets, too much credit for the communication satellite idea. Clarke, in 1945, envisioned a system of three manned satellites providing direct-broadcast television; an idea never brought to fruition. But, Hermann Noordung, in his 1928 book, “Das Problem der Befahrung des Weltraums: Der Raketen-motor,” described geostationary satellites and discussed communication between them and the ground using radio; an idea which has certainly been brought to overwhelming fruition. The book was translated into Russian in 1935, but not into English until 1996. The book was widely read within the German Verein fur Raumschiffahrt (Society for Spacecraft Travel), which Werner von Braun joined in 1930. Von Braun, of course, developed all of the progenitors of the Delta rocket that sent the first American communication satellite, Echo 1, into orbit in 1960. Nonetheless, as with all of us flawed humand--ACC, RIP. Bob I enjoyed much of Clarke’s fiction, especially “Childhood’s End” and “The City and the Stars.” An important element of his fiction (especially apparent in “2001”), which I didn’t like, was his strain at making equivalence of the actors in the East-West conflict–as though there were little difference or choice between communism and liberal democracies. Clarke, of course, was lucky enough to live in one of those liberal democracies until he migrated to Sri Lanka at the age of 39.

Beyond that, he didn’t think too much of humans. Unlike in Star Trek, or with Heinlein or Asimov, humans, for Clarke, were barely worthy of survival, at best.

Not to get too worked up about his firm grasp of science and the future, consider some predictions he made in 2001:

• 2002 Clean low-power fuel involving a new energy source, possibly based on cold fusion.
• 2003 The automobile industry is given five years to replace fossil fuels.
• 2004 First publicly admitted human clone.
• 2006 Last coal mine closed.
• 2009 A city in a third world country is devastated by an atomic bomb explosion.
• 2009 All nuclear weapons are destroyed.

I don’t think I’d bet the farm on any of these predictions.

Also, I think Clarke took, and gets, too much credit for the communication satellite idea. Clarke, in 1945, envisioned a system of three manned satellites providing direct-broadcast television; an idea never brought to fruition.

But, Hermann Noordung, in his 1928 book, “Das Problem der Befahrung des Weltraums: Der Raketen-motor,” described geostationary satellites and discussed communication between them and the ground using radio; an idea which has certainly been brought to overwhelming fruition. The book was translated into Russian in 1935, but not into English until 1996.

The book was widely read within the German Verein fur Raumschiffahrt (Society for Spacecraft Travel), which Werner von Braun joined in 1930. Von Braun, of course, developed all of the progenitors of the Delta rocket that sent the first American communication satellite, Echo 1, into orbit in 1960.

Nonetheless, as with all of us flawed humand–ACC, RIP.

Bob

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