ARTHUR C. CLARKE a Science Fiction Legend
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Glossary on Kalinga Prize Laureates UNESCO Kalinga Prize Winner-1961 ARTHUR C. CLARKE A Science Fiction Legend [Born : 1917 December 16, Minehead, Somerset , UK - - - ] Arthur C. Clarke’s Laws Clarke’s First Law : “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.” Clarke’s Second Law : “The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.” Clarke’s Third Law: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” “ I now realize that it was my interest in astronautics that led me to the ocean. Both involve exploration, of course-but that’s not the only reason. When the first skin-diving equipment started to appear in the late 1940s, I suddenly realized that here was a cheap and simple way of imitating one of the most magical aspects of space flight – weightessness.” ...Arthur C. Clarke 1 Glossary on Kalinga Prize Laureates About Sir Arthur C. Clarke Still going strong and recently Knighted, the visionary inventor of geosynchronous communications satellites is prolific as an author, TV producer, and professional prognosticator. Fascinated by outer space, he has also been drawn to the sea. His membership on Earthtrust’s Advisory Board speaks volumes about his priorities – and Earthtrust’s – as’2001’ has passed and ‘2010’ looms on the horizon. “Fishermen sometimes amuse themselves by spearing mantas and letting the terrified beasts tow their boats – often for miles – before they are exhausted. Why quite decent men wil perpetrate on sea creatures atrocities which they would instantly condemn if inflicted upon land animals (has anyone ever harpooned a hors to make it how his car?) is a question not hard to answer. Fish live in an alien element, and many of them have outlandish shapes; therefore we feel none of the sympathy, none of the kinship, for them which often links us to the creatures of the land. Few of us ever overcome the reaction that classes anything strange as automatically dangerous. Let us hope that we will not always retain this primitive behaviour, and will ultimately learn to base our judgments on something more than mere appearance. For one day, when the frontiers of space are down, we may meet creatures who are much more hideous than manta – and much more intelligent than Man.” 2 Glossary on Kalinga Prize Laureates Arthur C. Clarke : A Biographical Note Born at Minehead, Somerset in 1917:educated at Huish’s Grammar School, Taunton. Entered H.M. Exchequer & Audit Department in 1936, then served in the RAF.While running the prototype GCA (Ground Controlled Approach) radar, he developed the basic theory of Communications Satellites, and published it in 1945. After demobilization, he took First Class Honours in Physics and Mathematics at King’s College, London, which later elected him Fellow. From 1948 to 1950 he was Assistant Editor of Physcis Abstracts at the Institution of Electrical Engineers. He was Chairman of the British Interplanetary Society 1946/7, 1950/3. Since 1954 his interest in underwater exploration has taken him to the Great Barrier Reef of Australia and the Indian Ocean, and he is now a director of the Colombo-based Underwater Safaris. He has published more than seventy books and made many appearances on Radio and TV, most notably with Walter Cronkite on CBS during the Apollo Missions. His 13-part “Mysterious World” and “Strange Powers” TV programmes have been seen worldwide. He is a Council Member of Society of Authors, A Vice-President of the H.G. Wells Society and a member of many other Scientific and Literary Organizations. His honours include several Doctorates in science and literature, a Franklin Institute Award, the UNESCO-Kalinga Prize, and an Oscar Nomination for the Screenplay of 2001: A Space Odyssey. In 1987 he was invited to New Delhi to deliver the Nehru Memorial lecture, under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. He has also been Vikram Sarabhai Professor at the Physical Research Laboratories, Ahmedabad . In 1989 the astronauts’ and cosmonauts’ exclusive organization, the Association of Space Explorers, awarded him their Special Achievement Medal at a ceremony in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. His recreations include observing the Equatorial skies with a 14" telescope, table-tennis (despite Post-Polio Syndrome) and playing with his Rhodesian Ridgeback and his six computers. He has lived in Sri Lanka for the past 30 years, and in 1979 President Jayewardene appointed him Chancellor of the University of Moratuwa, near Colombo, which is the location of the Government- established Arthur Clarke Centre for Modern Technologies, specializing in communications and computers. He is also Chancellor of the International Space University, and Master of Richard Huish College, Taunton. In 1989 H.M. the Queen awarded him a CBE for “services of British cultural interests in Sri Lanka.” On returning to UK in 1992 for his 75th birthday celebrations, he was made the first Freeman of his home town, Minehead. He was nominated for the Noble Peace Prize in 1994. 3 Glossary on Kalinga Prize Laureates Arthur Charles Clarke (1917- ) – Pseudonyms : Charles Willis, E.G. O’Brien – A Brief Profile UK writer, resident since 1956 in Sri Lanka, one of first science-fiction stories. In 1945 he wrote a the grand masters of science fiction with Isaac technical paper that was the forerunner of Asimov and Robert A. Heinlein. Apart from his communication satellites. The essay was reprinted literary endeavours, however, Clarke may best be in ASCENT TO ORBIT, a collection of his technical remembered as the inventor of communication writings, that he brought out after receiving the satellite, an idea he first expounded in a 1945 article Marconi Award in 1982 for his contributions to entitled ‘Extraterrestrial Relays’. communications technology. “Behind every man now alive stand thirty ghosts, After the war Clarke entered King’s College, London, for that is the ratio by which the dead outnumber and took his B.Sc. with honours in physics and the living. Since the dawn of time, roughly a mathematics in 1948. His first published novel, hundred billion human beings have walked the PRELUDE TO SPACE, was written in three weeks planet Earth. during the summer of 1947. From 1949 to 1951 he —Now this is as interesting number, for by a was an assistant editor of Physics Abstracts. Since curious coincidence there are approximately a 1952 Clarke has been a full-time writer. In the 1950s hundred billion stars in our local universe, the Milky Clarke became interested in undersea exploration Way. So for every man who has ever lived, in this and moved to Sri Lanka, writing several fiction and universe, there shines a star.” (from Clarke’s nonfiction books and articles about the Indian Ocean. foreword in 2001, A Space Odyssey, 1968) With his friend Mike Wilson he filmed the Great Barrier Reef of Australia, from which his novel THE Arthur C. Clarke was born at the coast town of DEEP RANGE (1957) derives. Clarke also worked Minehead, as the eldest of four children. He became as a director of Rocket Publishing, London, interested in science in early age, and constructed Underwater Safaris, Colombo, and Spaceward his first telescope at thirteen. Clarke’s father died Corporation, New York. when he was fourteen and his mother, left with her children, gave riding lessons to augment the family In 1962 Clarke became completely paralyzed after income. an accidental böow on the head. He wrote DOLPHIN ISLAND as his farewell to the sea. After recovering While in school Clarke started to writes ‘fantastic’ Clarke started his cooperation with the director stories and read eagerly the magazine Astounding Stanley Kubrick and later he accompanied his friend Stories. He also read works from such writers as Mike Wilson on an underwater adventure six miles H.G. Wells and Jules Verne and looked at the stars off the coast of Sir Lanka, which was depicted in through his homemade telescopes. On leaving THE TREASURE OF THE GREAT REEF (1964). school he worked in the Exchequer and Adult However, Clarke still spent over six months out of Department in London. His apartment became the his beloved island because of tax laws. In 1975 the headquarters of the British Interplanetary Society, Indian government presented him with a satellite and in 1949 he became its chairman. Clarke served dish, with which he was able to receive programs from 1941 to 1946 in the Royal Air Force, broadcast from experimental satellite ATS6. specializing in radar, and sold during the service his 4 Glossary on Kalinga Prize Laureates “The island of Ceylon is a small universe; it Clarke continued the Odyssey Saga in three contains as many variations of culture,scenery, sequels, 2010: ODYSSEY TWO (1982), 2061: and climate as some countries a dozen times its ODYSSEY THREE (1988), and 3001: THE FINAL size. What you get from it depends on what you ODYSSEY (1996). bring; if you never stray from your hotel bar or the dusty streets of westernized Colombo, you could Clarke’s other works include CHILDHOOD’S END perish of fulminating boredom in a week, and it (1953), a story about the beginning of the age of would serve you right. But if you are interested in Humankind after Overlods have eliminated people, history , nature, and art-the things that ignorance, disease and poverty, EARTHLIGHT really matter-you may find, as I have, that a lifetime (1955), A FALL OF MOONDUST (1961), a tale of is not enough.” (Clarke in The View from Serendip, marooned moon schooner. 1977) RENDEZVOUS WITH RAMA (1973), in which a In the 1980s Clarke was a presenter of the television research team is sent to investigate a cylindrical series Arthur C.