PDA

View Full Version : Arthur C. Clarke dies


jaehwan
Mar 20th, 2008, 12:59 AM
Don't know if any of you are sci-fi fans, but I saw this:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/19/AR2008031900875.html?referrer=emailarticle

I just happened to see the little text at the bottom of the Washington Post page. For some reason, no one else thinks it important enough to report.

Anyway, Childhood's End is an AMAZING book. And did you know this?

Clarke also was credited with the concept of communications satellites in 1945, decades before they became a reality. Geosynchronous orbits, which keep satellites in a fixed position relative to the ground, are called Clarke orbits.

Granted he had a science degree, but it's pretty amazing that a fiction writer conceptualized the geosynchronous orbits that our cell phones use.

kimtae
Mar 20th, 2008, 01:40 AM
More accurate to say it's amazing that a scientist was able to write such great fiction.

cattygurl
Mar 20th, 2008, 02:25 AM
This sent me into a blue mood. I loved some of AC Clarke's works...

*weep*

Dialectic
Mar 21st, 2008, 04:20 AM
Never read him, but I want to. I poured out some liquor for my man Gygax when he died (though I never really played D&D) ... looks like Clarke needs some too ....