According to press reports, science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke has passed away. He was 90.Clarke was the author of more than 100 books, including "2001: A Space Odyssey." Clarke was well-known in satellite circles, receiving credit for developing the concept of geostationary satellites for communications. He proposed the idea in a paper titled "Extra-Terrestrial Relays" published in Wireless World in October 1945.
In fact, geostationary orbit is sometimes referred to as the Clarke Belt in his honor.
Rest In Peace.
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So another regrettable entry goes into my "watching the state of the culture" file. Tom Brokaw in his book "The Greatest Generation", argues convincingly that the 20th century produced an amazing, if not the singularly greatest, generation in those born between 1911 and 1924 (Clarke was born in 1917). Lately I've noticed an increasing number of iconic persons passing away and I am wondering who, if anyone, are rising to fill their places.
While most academics are convinced that 'modernity' and its torch bearers' time has passed and post-modernity is our milieu now, I remain deeply suspicious of any epoch that can not describe itself except in terms of what it isn't.
While many may not believe that Clarke's influence reached deeply into our common experience, beyond Kubric's artful if tortured vision of Clarke's story "The Sentinel" - which we know as "2001 - A Space Odyssey", his vision, art, imagination and foresight were expansive and brilliantly prescient.
Another giant falls to the scythe of human mortality and I ask 'wither the new giants?'
'Nuff said!
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