In Memoriam: Sir Arthur C. Clarke

In the world of science fiction, three names are bigger than them all. Isaac Asimov, Robert A Heinlein, and Arthur C. Clarke. These three authors, collectively termed the Big Three, are among the most influential science fiction writers to date. Their work did much to establish science fiction as legitimate literature. Their future visions both warn and inspire us. They are united, at their core, by a firm belief in the abilities of human beings, our capacity to find answers and solve problems. And now, after March 19, 2008, with the death of Clarke in Sri Lanka, where he had long made his home, they have all passed away. Their legacies, however, remain with us, and will likely remain for many years to come.

Sir Arthur Charles Clarke was born in England in 1917, but lived most of his life in Sri Lanka, emigrating there in 1956. During the Second World War, he worked as a radar operator. During this time he published a paper in which he proposed that satellites in geosynchronous orbit could be used to enable global communication. This idea has since been enacted. Geosynchronous orbits are now called Clarke orbits. Clarke wrote dozens of novels and many more short stories during his life. He also wrote many volumes of scientific nonfiction. He was knighted in 1998.

Clarke is probably best known for the novel and movie, written around the same time, 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). Based on Clarke's earlier story, The Sentinel(1948), 2001 the film, written with and directed by Stanley Kubrik, won wide acclaim. A full decade before George Lucas's special effects-fueled Star Wars, and one year before Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon, Kubrik and Clarke showed us how awe-inspiring outer space could be -- and the feats special effects could accomplish. The story follows a manned mission to Saturn (Jupiter in the movie) and focuses on the role of HAL 9000, a sophisticated computer who goes somewhat mad and serves as the film's primary antagonist. The film/novel also features an advanced alien race who monitor and encourage the development of intelligent life. We never see these aliens, only the massive black monoliths they use to accomplish their goals. Clarke later followed 2001 with three subsequent novels: 2010: Odyssey Two(1982), 2061: Odyssey Three(1987), and 3001: The Final Odyssey(1997). 2010 was made into a movie in 1984 and released as 2010: The Year We Make Contact. These later novels follow the movie 2001, not the novel. For example, they say the initial mission was to Jupiter, not to Saturn.

The spectrum of Clarke's work extends much beyond the 2001 series. He began writing science fiction in the late 40s and continued throughout his life. Though he has accomplished much in his life, he said he wanted to be remembered mostly as a writer. And while 2001 is undoubtedly his most famous book, Childhood's End (1953) is arguably Clarke's best book. Technically only a novella, Childhood's End stands as a testament to Clarke's optimism. Clarke, like Asimov, wrote many stories where human beings, through rational processes and scientific study, solve daunting challenges. Many Clarke stories show worlds similar to that described in Gene Roddenberry's television show Star Trek, a world where science has conquered disease and poverty and humanity enjoys a kind of utopia. This optimism defines the early science fiction writers, and it is one of the cornerstones of their importance. In Childhood's End, however, a scathing critique of simplistically imagined utopias, Clarke proves that he is not naive. He does not wish for the world laid out in Childhood's End, where humans want for nothing and have no responsibilities other than to do what makes them happy. Clarke rightly shows that in such a world, humanity withers and atrophies. Without pain there is no art. With nothing but time, humans just sort of sit there and sulk. Childhood's End is also a stark reminder that the continued evolution of the human species is not something we can control and something that may, eventually, lead to places we may not like. Happiness is not guaranteed. In The City and the Stars (1956) Clarke furthers this theme, showing a human society billions of years in the future and forcing us to face hard questions about where we, as a species, could be heading.

Clarke has written many novels that, in science fiction lingo, are classified as gadget or gizmo stories. In regular English, these are stories where the characters and the story are of secondary importance, and the idea the story presents is what really matters. The Hammer of God (1993), for example, is a story of an asteroid heading for impact with Earth and the mission to stop it. Unlike summer blockbusters like Armageddon and Deep Impact, The Hammer of God is a very, very scientific examination. The characters have almost no development. The story itself is very muddied. We follow the captain of the mission to stop the asteroid and are also simultaneously given a running commentary on the current state of human affairs, including a wacko religious sect that believes the asteroid is here to take us all to heaven. The science is fascinating, far better researched, and there's far less melodrama as compared to the films. Still, to the non science-buff, the novel is terribly dull. Another such novel, The Fountains of Paradise (1979), attempts similar goals but, I think, accomplishes them more. Set in the near future, The Fountains of Paradise tells the story of an accomplished human engineer Vannevar Morgan who is attempting to achieve his greatest feat yet. He is trying to build a space elevator. Literally: an elevator between Earth and outer space. This tale is interwoven with an historical (perhaps fictional) story of an old king in the ancient world who, in the same place that Morgan is trying to build his space elevator, built a great fountain, the fountains of paradise. The Fountains of Paradise has much more of the human element than did The Hammer of God. Morgan's struggle is one we can relate to, the struggle of someone trying to do something great. Like The Hammer of God, the science here is top-notch. And this novel is one of the first presentations of the idea of a space elevator. And here again, we find Clarke's optimism, his belief in the virtual limitless boundaries of human accomplishment.

The Big Three are gone now. But their works remains. They have left behind dozens of novels and short stories. The lessons and hopes of their work is a timeless part of the human experience. Hopefully, the work of Clarke and his counterparts will be with us for many years still to come.