Robert X Bishop and Sir Arthur C. Clarke
Robert X Bishop and Sir Arthur C. Clarke were both friends and collaborators in the search for new sources of energy for the human race. Arthur Clarke was somewhat an of an anarchist. He was more than a bit frustrated with the human race’s inability to evolve. It was his fear that the human race would not be able to leave the cradle, that is the planet Earth, in time. He felt that a new source of clean abundant energy would change the face of the human race forever. Robert and Arthur gave financial support to many scientists working in the area of fringe science especially those working in the areas of ColdFusion and luminescence. Robert was in route to St. Petersburg Russia with his then companion Erin to throw birthday party for Arthur and Roberts mutual friend Yuri Artsutanov when Robert received this email from Arthur. Yuri Artsutanov was nonetheless a hoot and incredibly grateful to Robert and Erin for the party. Yuri Artsutanov shared his incredible ideas such as how to travel faster than the speed of light and still remain within a relativistic sphere. This birthday was the last time that Robert met with Yuri in person. Later Robert and Erin were planning a trip to Sri Lanka as the two had arranged a meeting between Yuri and Arthur in Colombo. Sadly, Arthur passed away and the trip had to be canceled.
Below is an Article that mentions Robert and Arthur and contains the brief eulogy Robert wrote for his dear freind Arthur Clarke.
Arthur C. Clarke, 1917-2008
It’s hard today to imagine what the world was like in 1917. There were few telephones; radio was mainly a curiosity; what we think of today as minor infections were often fatal; an airplane was a wonder that could bring an entire town outdoors; a child born in 1917 could expect to live about 50 years. On 16 December 1917, Arthur Charles Clarke was born in Minehead, Somerset, a small town on the water, closer to Cardiff than to London. By the time he died, just past midnight on March 19, 2008 in his adopted home of Columbo, Sri Lanka, Clarke had seen humans walking on the moon, using television transmitted via the communications satellites he was instrumental in creating, hovering 22,300 miles above the center of the Earth in the orbit that was given his name.
Clarke received the equivalent of a high school education, but was fascinated by science and by science fiction, which he read in the pulps of the day. During World War II, he became an electronics officer in the Royal Air Force thanks to his mathematical aptitude; this led to his becoming involved with radar (described in his novel Glide Path). He was able to get the college education he had been unable to afford before the war, and graduated with a degree in mathematics and physics from King’s College, London. Somehow, in his spare time, he wrote science fiction, with his first story sale, “Rescue Party” coming to John W Campbell’s Astounding in 1946.
Clarke was popular from the first, and became known as one of the giants of science fiction along with Robert A Heinlein and Isaac Asimov. What wasn’t appreciated at the time, however, was that he was also contributing to changes their world would see twenty years later. In 1945, while the explosions of V-2 rockets still echoed in London, Clarke privately circulated a paper to the British Interplanetary Society, which was followed by “Extra-Terrestrial Relays: Can Rocket Stations Give World-wide Radio Coverage?”. In this simple paper, Clarke described, for the first time, the idea that communications relays could be put into high orbits, allowing radio and television (itself still just a curiosity then) braodcasts to cover the entire earth without relays and without the constraints of the shrt-wave radio of the time. Clarke was a young man, only 27, but already in his lifetime radio had gone from a curiosity to mass media; aircraft were flying around the world; the revolution of antibiotics was just beginning; self-contained underwater breathing sets had just been perfected by Gagnan and Cousteu; and his small, almost unnoticed paper was setting the foundation for what would eventually be the communications revolution.
Clarke continued writing, both science fiction and popular science, becoming a full-time professional writer in 1951. He moved to Sri Lanka (then called Ceylon) in 1956, and made his home there, with some interruptions, until his death. In Sri Lanka, Clarke became an enthusiastic SCUBA diver as well as a writer; his fiction began to include seagoing themes, including novels like The Deep Range and Dolphin Island. Still, he was considered, basically “just a science fiction writer” until his astonishing 1966-68 collaboration with director Stanley Kubrick 2001: A Space Odyssey. Based loosely on his short story “The Sentinel”, 2001 was not an immediate commercial success, but established Clarke to many as the pre-eminent science fiction writer of his time; he was brought in by Walter Cronkite as a commentator on the Apollo moon landings. It was 1969; Clarke was 51, already past his life expectancy at birth, watching as televised moon landings were broadcast throughout the world on the communications satellites he had, arguably, invented.
Even after his success with 2001, he remained a gentle, gracious, and kind man. In 1972, he visited Colorado Springs, Colorado and the Air Force Academy. One attendee, now Professor Anil Rao of Metropolitan State College in Denver, remembered it this way:
“Four years later I and a friend had the chance to meet A.C. Clarke. He was giving at talk at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. Afterward he was kind enough to chat with us back stage for about 10 minutes. There weren’t too many people around; the cadets had other things to do I guess. He signed books (I still have them ), we talked about India (I’m originally from there and Clarke lives in Sri Lanka) and was invited to come out to Sri Lanka. Being a student in high school did not afford me much opportunity to engage in such a trip, but it was nice of him to offer. I asked him what his next book was going to be, Clarke replied ‘Rendezvous With Rama.’ and asked me ‘Do you know what “Rama” means?’ so talked about Hinduism, space travel and such. After ‘Childhood’s End’, ‘Rama’ is my favorite Clarke novel. A nice memory of a very gracious man.”
The friend was me, and this was the first time I met an author, any author.
Clarke continued to be active, vital, and interested until just a few weeks before his death, although post-polio syndrome had increasingly limited his activity and travel. In later years, he was able to remain in close contact with friends and admirers the world over.
He was particularly interested, in later years, in new approaches to generating energy, including some that were considered “fringe science” at best. But then, that was one of his greatest strengths: the ability both to be a hard-headed skeptic and at the same time preserve an open mind, exploring things that were still considered unconventional, including helping sponsor research in Russia into alternative energy. One partner in this, Robert Bishop, remembers him this way:
Arthur C. Clarke was more than a writer, inventor and philosopher, he was a maker of very special maps, capable of guiding anyone with a willing imagination into a most incredible, hopeful future. Arthur may be gone, but his books will continue to guide dreamers and visionaries for the foreseeable future and beyond.
He was able to provide a televised greeting on his 90th birthday. By his 90th birthday, Clarke had seen the world go from aircraft of cloth and wood to robotic starships, made of metal and silicon, sending back reports from the deep cold dark between the stars. In poor health, he ended his greeting to his fans and admirers world wide by saying “good bye”, but I don’t think any of us believed he would die.
As word was passed throughout the world over the communications network he had helped create, a friend reminded me of a single line from the book version of 2001. As the great Monolith opens to carry him to transfiguration and rebirth, David Bowman sees through it, and cries out “Oh my God! It’s full of stars!”
THE FINAL MEDIA STATEMENT
THE OFFICE OF SIR ARTHUR C CLARKE
25, Barnes Place, Colombo 7, Sri Lanka.
Phone: + 94 11 2699 757 or 2694 255; Fax: + 94 11 2698 730
Email: <media@arthurclarke.org>
Media contact:
Nalaka Gunawardene
Office of Sir Arthur C Clarke
Phone: + 94 11 2699 757 or + 94 777 714 525
Sir Arthur C Clarke dies aged 90
Colombo, Sri Lanka: 19 March 2008
Science fiction author and inventor of the communications satellite Sir Arthur C Clarke passed away today after a brief illness. He was 90 years old.
He died at Colombo’s Apollo Hospital in the early hours of March 19 (Sri Lanka time) from respiratory complications.
He was also suffering from the Post Polio Syndrome since the early 1990s, which confined him to a wheelchair for the past decade.
Sir Arthur is survived by his brother Fred and sister Mary, both living Minehead, Somerset, UK. Their youngest brother, Michael, predeceased him.
Sir Arthur’s business partner Hector Ekanayake, who heads his adopted Sri Lankan family, was with him to the end, along with his office and household staff.
According to them, Sir Arthur remained alert and active throughout his recent illness. He was also in regular contact with his literary agents, publishers and officials of the non-profit Arthur C Clarke Foundation based in the United States.
Only a few days ago, Sir Arthur reviewed the final manuscript of his latest science fiction novel, The Last Theorem. Co-written with the American author Frederik Pohl, the book is to be published later this year.
Sir Arthur’s wish was that his funeral be held in Sri Lanka as a private event. He has asked to be buried at the family burial plot owned by the Ekanayake family at the Kanatte General Cemetery in Colombo.
Sir Arthur has also left written instructions that his funeral be strictly secular: “Absolutely no religious rites of any kind, relating to any religious faith, should be associated with my funeral.”
Additional biographical information follows
Sir Arthur C Clarke dies aged 90
Background information
In his 90th birthday reflections video released on YouTube in December 2007, Sir Arthur said he had ‘no regrets and no more personal ambitions’. He listed three ‘last wishes’: some evidence of extra-terrestrial life; adoption of clean energy sources; and an end to the long-drawn civil war in Sri Lanka.
He added: “I’ve had a diverse career as a writer, underwater explorer, space promoter and science populariser. Of all these, I want to be remembered most as a writer – one who entertained readers, and, hopefully, stretched their imagination as well.”
Arthur C Clarke wrote 100 books and more than 1,000 short stories and essays over 60 years. Among his best-selling novels are Childhood’s End, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Rendezvous with Rama and Fountains of Paradise.
One of his short stories (‘Dial F for Frankenstein’, 1964) inspired British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee to invent the World Wide Web in 1989. Another short story (‘The Sentinel’, 1948) was expanded to make the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, which he co-wrote with director Stanley Kubrick. They shared an Oscar nomination for the best screenplay in 1969.
Trained in physics and mathematics, Sir Arthur also wrote many books and essays of non-fiction on space travel, communication technologies, underwater exploration and future studies.
In a landmark scientific paper titled “Extra-terrestrial Relays” published in 1945, Arthur C Clarke was the first to set out the principles of satellite communication with satellites placed in geostationary orbits. Sir Arthur never patented the idea, and received no financial benefits from his invention. He was contented being acknowledged as the ‘Godfather of the communication satellite’, and having the geostationary orbit designated as ‘Clarke Orbit’.
Born in Minehead, Somerset, England, Arthur Charles Clarke was educated at Huish’s Grammar School, Taunton, and King’s College, London. He worked in the British Exchequer and Audit Department and served as a Flight Lieutenant in the Royal Air Force before turning a full time author in 1950.
His interest in diving and underwater exploration led him to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), where he settled down in 1956. He pioneered diving and underwater tourism in Sri Lanka through his company Underwater Safaris, and played an active role as a public intellectual and as a patron of art, science and higher education. He served as Chancellor of Sri Lanka’s technological University of Moratuwa from 1979 to 2002.
Although he became the island nation’s first Resident Guest in 1975, Sir Arthur always remained a British citizen. The Sri Lankan government presented him the Lankabhimanya (‘Pride of Lanka’), the country’s highest civilian honour, in 2005.
Government officials, scientists, artistes and diplomats came together to felicitate Sir Arthur on his 90th birthday on 16 December 2007.
Sir Arthur C Clarke dies aged 90
Sir Arthur’s literary achievements were recognised by Queen Elizabeth II when she honoured him with a Knighthood in 1998. He had earlier received the British Royal honour of CBE in 1989. Sir Arthur was conferred several honorary doctorates from universities around the world, and had won all the top science fiction literary awards at one time or another.
In 1996, the International Astronomical Union named asteroid No 4923 in his honour, while scientists at the University of Monash, Australia, named a newly discovered dinosaur species as Serendipaceratops arthurcclarkei in 2003.
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