furrbear | Best Remembered By His Own Words

Arthur Charles Clarke was born at Minehead, Somerset, England, on 16 December 1917. In his youth he enjoyed stargazing and reading old American science fiction magazines that made their way to England as ballast in returning freighters. He served as a radar specialist with the RAF during WW II and contributed to the system that allowed the RAF's success in the Battle of Britain. He is best known for his science fiction, including the film "2001: A Space Odyssey", but was a serious scientist as well. His concept that satellites in geosynchronous orbit could aide in communications has changed the world, your satellite TV signal comes from a transponder parked in what is now knows as the Clarke Orbit. He lived at Colombo, Sri Lanka since 1956, was wheelchair bound since 1988, and died at his home early yesterday morning. His chosen epitaph is "He never grew up; but he never stopped growing."

[Clarke's Laws:]
When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

As our own species is in the process of proving, one cannot have superior science and inferior morals. The combination is unstable and self-destroying.

There is hopeful symbolism in the fact that flags do not wave in a vacuum.

I would defend the liberty of consenting adult creationists to practice whatever intellectual perversions they like in the privacy of their own homes; but it is also necessary to protect the young and innocent.

I'm sure the universe is full of intelligent life. It's just been too intelligent to come here.

The truth, as always, will be far stranger.

Human judges can show mercy. But against the laws of nature, there is no appeal.

The intelligence of the planet is constant, and the population is growing.
- All from Arthur C. Clarke, 1917 - 2008

And, of course, we have his novels and short stories.