Farewell to another hero of mine with the demise of Arthur C. Clarke earlier today.

I have fond memories of Arthur, mainly from the ITV series ‘Arthur C. Clarke’s Mysterious World’, and of course from the parody done by the Goodies in the episode ‘Big Foot’.

Arthur’s work was prescient, and he well understood the symbiotic relationship between Science Fiction, and that of Science, Technology, and Innovation:

I’m sure we would not have had men on the Moon if it had not been for Wells and Verne and the people who write about this and made people think about it. I’m rather proud of the fact that I know several astronauts who became astronauts through reading my books.

As a ‘retired’ table top RPGer my favourite quote of his, which I heard, I think from Paul Cooke, was:

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Whilst this following quote amusingly goes very much against Okham’s Razor (which itself is a principal I like, and use, a great deal):

The truth, as always, will be far stranger.

I also like these quotes by Arthur too:

How inappropriate to call this planet Earth, when clearly it is Ocean.

Sometimes I think we’re alone in the universe, and sometimes I think we’re not. In either case the idea is quite staggering.

Somewhere in me is a curiosity sensor. I want to know what’s over the next hill. You know, people can live longer without food than without information. Without information, you’d go crazy.

Apparently another of his most famous works, ‘Rendevous with Rama’, is being adapted and produced as a film, and according to IMDB will be ready for release in 2009. Let’s hope so, and that it’s a fitting adaption.

He leaves the the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation to carry on the good work of promoting Science and Technology in his name.

So here’s to the man, who along with Stanley Kubrick in the adaption of 2001: A Space Odyssey, managed to change the entire World’s understanding of what ‘Space’ might sound like, especially when spaceship’s ‘dock’. Less whoosh, bang and zap, and more ‘An der schönen blauen Donau’ (also known as ‘On The Beautiful Blue Danube’ by Johann Strauss II).