Tribute to Sir Arthur C. Clarke Before His Death in March at Age 90, Sir Arthur C

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By José Luis Cordeiro Tribute to Sir Arthur C. Clarke Before his death in March at age 90, Sir Arthur C. Clarke greeted many visitors from around the world. Among them was Venezuelan futurist and transhumanist scholar José Cordeiro, who here recounts his meetings with Clarke in Sri Lanka.

COURTESY OF JOSÉ LUIS CORDEIRO ike many people, from the very young to the very old, I was fascinated by the ideas and writings of Sir Arthur C. Clarke. LHe was a very prolific writer, with close to 100 books and more than 1,000 articles. He was also involved in many ways with the film industry, from his landmark 2001: A Space Od- yssey with director Stanley Kubrick in 1968 to numerous documentaries about space and the future. An in ventor and a futurist who met presi dents, popes, and entrepreneurs alike, he was also a longtime mem ber of the World Future Society’s Global Advisory Council. On December 16, 2007, Clarke had “completed 90 orbits around the Sun,” as he would say in his famous Egograms, and a special video was prepared by his personal assistant, Nalaka Gunawardene, for the Inter net. Clarke’s thoughtful and witty Sir Arthur C. Clarke (seated) hosts author José Luis Cordeiro in Sri Lanka in 2004. 90th Birthday Reflections video became an instant success on the In 2. Cleaner energy sources for the hopefully, stretched their imagina ternet. In it, he said that he had “no future of civilization, here and be tion as well.” regrets and no more personal ambi yond Earth. Clarke liked the number three, and tions,” but expressed three wishes 3. Lasting peace, both in his ad his Three Laws of the Future helped for humanity: opted Sri Lanka and in the world. to make him famous. He started with 1. Evidence of extraterrestrial life, He also explained that “I want to just one law in his 1962 book Profiles since he always believed that we are be remembered most as a writer— of the Future. The second law was ini not alone in the universe: “ET, call us!” one who entertained readers, and, tially just an observation that was

THE FUTURIST July-August 2008 www.wfs.org 47 unforgettable experience. One could feel his genius and imagination “Superman” of Futurism when talking to him, listening to On March 18, the Foundation the fiction side of the genre. him, seeing him, reading him. named for him reported with He was also modest; he demon After setting up a satellite connec quiet dignity, “After a prolific and strated a graceful integrity when tion to contact him, I had the plea esteemed career, Sir Arthur has he wrote a letter to the editor to sure to talk to Clarke several times, passed away in Sri Lanka.” THE FUTURIST to correct another and he invited me to visit him in his Best known as the author of the author, who had inadvertently home in Sri Lanka. We met in 2004 short story on which the film 2001: credited him with “inventing” the and 2005 in his “Ego Chamber,” A Space Odyssey was based, Sir solar sail—a sun-powered space which is decorated with many arti Arthur C. Clarke was both an in craft he described in his story facts, from the dinosaur age to the spired writer and a source of in “Sunjammer.” space age. Here are excerpts from spiration for others. Clarke could justifiably be de our conversations. In a poll of futurists for the En- scribed as the Superman of futur José Cordeiro: What do you think cyclopedia of the Future (Macmillan, ism, and not just for his longevity about the future? 1996), Clarke was ranked sixth of against extreme physical chal Arthur C. Clarke: As others have the 100 most influential futurists lenges. According to newspaper said, the future is no longer what it in history—ahead of Jules Verne obituaries, he had suffered from used to be! and Isaac Newton. post-polio syndrome for the past Cordeiro: What do you think He was an early supporter of two decades, succumbing to respi about religion? the World Future Society, partici ratory ailments. Clarke: Religion is the most ma pating in its first conference, pur But his forward-looking spirit levolent of all mind viruses. I am chasing books about the future led him to “predict” in his 1999 afraid to be struck by lightning one from the Society’s specialty book book Greetings, Carbon-Based Bi- day while saying this. [laughing] store, and ultimately joining its peds! that he would celebrate his Cordeiro: Do you think that there Global Advisory Council. one-hundredth birthday as a space might be an afterlife? Society founder Edward tourist, one of the first guests in Clarke: No, I don’t believe in an Cornish noted in his series on the the Hilton Orbiter. afterlife. Society’s founding that “Arthur C. In that regard, Clarke’s goal- Cordeiro: Do you believe in re Clarke not only joined but sent in driven life calls to mind that of incarnation? a membership for Stanley Kubrick, Superman star Christopher Reeve, Clarke: No, I don’t see any mecha the producer/director of 2001: A who set a goal to walk again by nism that would make it possible. Space Odyssey.” age 50 after the riding accident However, I’m always paraphrasing Described as a “prophet” for the that paralyzed him. The decision J. B. S. Haldane: “The universe is not space age for his inspiring stories to strive for a goal is, in many only stranger than we imagine, it’s and meticulous scientific perspec ways, a more heroic act than stranger than we can imagine.” tive, Clarke was one of very few achieving it. Cordeiro: What do you think science-fiction writers equally —Cynthia G. Wagner about physical immortality? gifted on both the science side and Clarke: I have written a lot about it in my books. In fact, in Profiles of the Future, I wrote that we might con called a law by others, but then, in his friend and colleague Isaac quer death by the end of the twenty- the 1972 edition of Profiles, Clarke Asimov, with whom he sometimes first century. added a third law, rounding out the competed, had his Three Laws of Ro Cordeiro: Are you writing a new Three Laws of the Future: botics. However, in the 1999 edition book? 1. When a distinguished but el of Profiles of the Future, Clarke added Clarke: Yes, I have been working derly scientist states that something is an additional law: “For every expert on The Last Theorem. I have written possible, he is almost certainly right. there is an equal and opposite over a hundred pages. It is about When he states that something is im expert.” Fermat’s theorem, which a young possible, he is very probably wrong. Days before he died, Clarke re British mathematician, Andrew 2. The only way of discovering the viewed the final manuscript of his Wiles, proved over 300 years after limits of the possible is to venture a last novel, The Last Theorem, co-writ Fermat. It is quite fascinating that little way past them into the impos ten with American author Frederik something simple took so long to sible. Pohl and expected to be published prove. 3. Any sufficiently advanced tech later in 2008. Cordeiro: And are you also writ nology is indistinguishable from ing a book about science fiction? magic. Clarke: Well, The Last Theorem is Meeting Sir Arthur Clarke often joked that Newton science fiction, in a sense. But what had three laws, and so three were To meet Sir Arthur C. Clarke in is science fiction? That is a good also enough for him. Additionally, person was a real pleasure and an question. And how is it different

48 THE FUTURIST July-August 2008 www.wfs.org WORLD FUTURE SOCIETY ARCHIVE from fantasy? My definition of fan tasy is something which we would like to happen but it can’t in the real world, and science fiction is some thing which we would like to hap pen and it probably will. Cordeiro: Have you revised your famous laws of the future? Clarke: They stand as they are. Some technologies were pure magic only 20 years ago, and they are real ity today, just like your digital cam era and recorder. Cordeiro: Would you like to add a new future law now? Clarke: No, I don’t think so. Has Newton added any new laws? Cordeiro: Do you believe in the ac celerating pace of technology? Clarke: Yes, my best example is the In 1971, Arthur Clarke (center, left) made an unannounced appearance at the World Future CD-ROM. It is my favorite example Society’s First General Assembly as a show of support for the new future-oriented organi- of the first law. I still remember the zation. first tape recorders we had years ago. Another incredible example is mo bile telephones. will make travel to space cheap. up, but you could get a refund on the Cordeiro: Are you familiar with Bucky [Buckminster Fuller] was a way back! [laughs] the NBIC (Nano-Bio-Info-Cogno) good friend, and the last time I saw Cordeiro: When do you think that idea? him was in this room. this will happen? Clarke: It is quite possible that Cordeiro: How much would it cost Clarke: I will give you the same there will be a convergence of sev to go to space with such new tech answer that I give everybody. Just a eral technologies in the near future. nologies? few years after everybody stops Cordeiro: How about nanotechnol Clarke: It will cost nothing to go laughing! ogy and space elevators? into space. Cordeiro: In 1999, you predicted Clarke: I have talked about Carbon Cordeiro: No cost at all to go into clones by 2004. What has happened?

60 (C60), Buckyballs, and Fullerenes space? Clarke: Well, it was only a guess, that can be made commercially and Clarke: Well, OK. Just $100 to go but some people have claimed that it

Edward Cornish Remembers Fellow WFS Member and Futurist, Arthur C. Clarke Sir Arthur C. Clarke played a key referring to his colleagues who fully shipped half way around the role in the founding of the World shared his interest in the future. world to his home in Colombo, Sri Future Society and was a member His kind letter got me thinking Lanka, but the Society’s staff was of the Society’s Global Advisory about the possibility of establishing delighted to provide him with this Council at the time of his death. an association for people interested service. During the 1960s, I happened to in the future, and that led about a When the Society held its first read his remarkable book Profiles of year later to the founding of the conference in 1971, Clarke told me the Future, which carefully assessed World Future Society in October he couldn’t be listed on the pro the possibilities and impossibilities 1966. gram due to an agreement with his of the human future. I noticed that The first regular issue of the So lecture agency. But he came un he had dedicated this book to his ciety’s magazine, THE FUTURIST announced and participated ac “colleagues in the Institute of (January-February 1967), featured tively in the conference. Twenty-first Century Studies.” Clarke’s book Profiles of the Future, Clarke maintained a lively inter I wrote Clarke inquiring about and by the end of 1967, the Society est in the Society through the rest the Institute, since I wanted to was selling not only that Profiles of his life. He was a good friend make contact with other people in but also other books about the fu and an inspiration to us all. terested in the future. Clarke re ture to Society members. Clarke —Edward Cornish, founder of the sponded that there was no such In turned out to be the Society’s best World Future Society stitute in reality. He was simply customer. His books had to be care

THE FUTURIST July-August 2008 www.wfs.org 49 has already happened. In 1999 it be tomorrow! I don’t believe it has carefully transcend ourselves, or we seemed like a reasonable guess; it happened because people could not will finish the way of the trilobites may be even an accurate guess, and keep quiet about it. and dinosaurs. Just like other earlier we don’t know yet. Cordeiro: Are you optimistic or life-forms are history today, humans Cordeiro: How about your 100th pessimistic about the future of hu might be history tomorrow. anniversary in space? manity? In 2005, I organized a major inter Clarke: Absolutely in 2017. Clarke: I believe one should be op national conference in Venezuela Cordeiro: But do you really plan to timistic because there is a chance of a about the future of humanity, and celebrate in space? good self-fulfilling prophecy. It is Clarke accepted to be a keynote Clarke: Well, it depends on my dangerous to be pessimistic because speaker. Unfortunately, because of health. I am suffering from post- that could become a self-fulfilling his health condition, he could not polio syndrome. prophecy, but a bad one. However, travel from South Asia to South Cordeiro: How do you feel physi one should avoid being naïvely opti America, but he agreed to have a live cally? mistic. videoconference during TransVision Clarke: I am doing fine except for Cordeiro: Do you think that time 2005: Towards a New World. Due to the post-polio syndrome, which is linear or cyclical? technical problems, however, we had means I can’t really walk anymore Clarke: Everything that can hap to settle for audio only, but Clarke and I have to sleep 15 hours per day. pen will happen. There are billions spoke brilliantly, with hope and opti Cordeiro: Will some future tech of universes proliferating every mism for humanity in the long term. nology be able to cure it? where. He reminded us that many future Clarke: Some doctors have worked Cordeiro: So, do you believe in prophecies are self-fulfilling, and on some electrical stimulation in par parallel universes? that is the reason why we have to be alyzed babies. I am quite sure some Clarke: I don’t “believe,” but it is a positive about the future. I asked day that stimulation will overcome possibility since in a practically in him a final question: “If you could such problems. finite universe almost anything is tell people one thing, just one thing, Cordeiro: What do you think is the theoretically possible to happen what would that be?” greatest achievement of humankind somewhere. “Don’t panic!” was his brief and during the last century? Cordeiro: And, some of those par sharp answer. Clarke: We have finally traveled allel universes could have cyclical I think that he was right. We have outside the Earth, we have gone to time? to avoid panic and keep building a the Moon and beyond. We are now Clarke: Yes, yes. In one of those better future, carefully, here and be able to leave the cradle in our planet. universes I shoot you now, you see, yond Planet Earth (or Planet Ocean, Cordeiro: And what do you think and we end this interview. [laughing as he liked to say). The time of hu is the greatest failure of our civiliza out loud] manity’s childhood is ending, and tion? Cordeiro: Fine, I get your point. our “Carbon-based biped” species Clarke: We have traveled to the Thank you so much for your time, should mature into a higher, post- Moon and then we stopped. We and live long and prosper. biological level. landed on the Moon in 1969 but only Clarke: Good luck, and thanks to Sir Arthur, we Earthlings will al a few years later abandoned it. We you. ways remember you as one of our should continue! That was a witty way to say that great prophets of the future. Hope Cordeiro: Which is your own fa the time was up. Clarke never lost fully, we will meet again in 3001, but vorite book? his British sense of humor. After we far beyond our little cradle, and in a Clarke: That is a difficult question. met, we stayed in touch, and Sir Ar much more advanced posthuman Maybe The Songs of Distant Earth thur even invited me to visit his civilization. After all, that is the year (1986) and then Childhood’s End scuba-diving resort in southern Sri of 3001: The Final Odyssey, when one (1953). Lanka (which was badly damaged of the original astronauts of 2001: A Cordeiro: Do you believe that during the 2004 Indian Ocean tsu Space Odyssey comes back to life after there is life in the universe? nami). While he could, he loved cryopreservation in space. In the Clarke: I think it is quite common. floating underwater while diving, meantime, remember: Don’t panic! ❏ Probably even Mars had life before! which he believed was close to the Cordeiro: But how about really in feeling of weightlessness in space. About the Author telligent life? José Luis Cordeiro is Clarke: Sure, and the proof is that founder of the World Future The Biggest Big-Picture Thinker they are not here! The best proof that Society’s Venezuela Chap- there’s intelligent life in the universe Sir Arthur C. Clarke was a lover of ter, co-founder of the Venezuelan Transhumanist is that it hasn’t come here. both outer space and the deep water; Association, chair of the Cordeiro: When will we make con a student of both the past and the fu Venezuela Node of the Mil- tact with them? ture. He believed that we are not the lennium Project, and former director of the Clarke: Well, we are still searching end of “creation.” In his view, life is World Transhumanist Association and the for intelligent life here on Earth. Who an integral part of the universe and Extropy Institute. Web site www.cordeiro.org; knows? Who knows? I mean, it could will continue to evolve. We have to e-mail [email protected].

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