Science fiction writer Sir Arthur C Clarke dies aged 90 in Sri Lanka.
 

Science fiction writer Sir Arthur C Clarke dies aged 90 in Sri Lanka.

Rest in piece.

If you're all into the future and stuff, is Sri Lanka really on the cutting edge like that? I don't get it

Peace...

Legendary British science fiction writer Sir Arthur C Clarke has died in Sri Lanka at the age of 90.
He came to fame when his story, 2001: A Space Odyssey, was made into a film by director Stanley Kubrick in 1968.

Once called "the first dweller in the electronic cottage", his vision captured the popular imagination.

Sir Arthur, who was born in Minehead, Somerset, and was a radar specialist for the RAF in World War II, become a full-time writer in the 1940s.

A farmer's son

Sir Arthur's vivid - and detailed - descriptions of space shuttles, super-computers and rapid communications systems were enjoyed by millions of readers around the world.

His writings are credited by many observers with giving science fiction - a genre often accused of veering towards the fantastical - a human and practical face.

A farmer's son, he was educated at Huish's Grammar School in Taunton before joining the civil service.

Rest in peace...

I haven't read Clarke in a long time - but he was among the great thinkers when I started reading long ago.

May he rest in peace

damn good books, the films do not do them justice
this man had a wonderful imagination

i heard that on the news last night.

i am surprised he was only 90. i remember back in the day he used to host a show on TLC (when it was still a decent channel) and looked older than dirt then.

i had honestly figured him for more like late 90's early 100's.

I recently picked up 2001: A Space Odyssey on DVD and was watching the special feature - 2001: The Making of a Myth

A few interesting facts about the movie:

1. The movie was made before man has ever seen Earth from orbit or from the moon. This is why the Earth depicted in the movie appeared to be a muddy blue white sphere with no contrast between clouds, land and water.

2. HAL's main processing unit takes up an entire room because scientists then really believed computers in the future would require that sort of space.

3. The scene where Bowman launches himself into the pod bay (after HAL closed it) was originally done by having a camera looking upwards and Bowman would be dropped from a ceiling attached to a tether bouncing back, to and fro. It was a pretty neat gravity hack. Looked cool!

a great man

I was sorry to read that last night as I was a fan.