Sir Arthur Charles Clarke

Sir Arthur Charles Clarke was a British writer and inventor who was one of the most influential figures in science fiction and futurism. He was born on 16 December 1917 in Minehead, Somerset, England, to a family of actors and artists. He developed an interest in astronomy and science fiction from an early age and joined the British Interplanetary Society in 1934. He served in the Royal Air Force during World War II as a radar specialist and wrote a technical paper on the concept of geostationary orbits for communication satellites in 1945. He moved to Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) in 1956 to pursue his passion for scuba diving and underwater exploration. He also discovered the ruins of an ancient temple in Trincomalee. He wrote over 100 books and many essays on science fiction, science, space travel, and the future. He is best known for his novel and screenplay of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), which he co-wrote with director Stanley Kubrick. The film is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential films of all time. He also wrote other acclaimed novels such as Childhood's End (1953), Rendezvous with Rama (1973), The Fountains of Paradise (1979), and The Songs of Distant Earth (1986). He won many awards for his work, including the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award, the Kalinga Prize, the UNESCO-Kalinga Prize, the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, and the Arthur C. Clarke Award. He was also knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1998 and received Sri Lanka's highest civil honour, Sri Lankabhimanya, in 2005. He was a visionary thinker who made many predictions about the future of technology, society, and humanity. Some of his predictions that came true include online banking, e-commerce, teleconferencing, email, global positioning systems, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and space tourism. He also coined the famous phrase "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" in his essay "Hazards of Prophecy" (1962). He was a humanist and a pacifist who advocated for world peace, environmental protection, animal rights, and rationalism. He was also interested in paranormal phenomena and hosted several television shows such as Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World (1980) and Arthur C. Clarke's World of Strange Powers (1985). He never married or had children but had several close friends and associates. He suffered from post-polio syndrome since the 1960s and used a wheelchair in his later years. He died on 19 March 2008 at his home in Colombo, Sri Lanka, from respiratory failure and heart failure at the age of 90. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered in a secret location according to his wishes ¹²³.