“I am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all I think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do.”
- HAL in “2001: A Space Odyssey”
I can admit it. The first time I saw the movie, I didn’t get it. I had to read the book to see the nuances that Kubrick tried to convey.
But the story told by Arthur C. Clarke was clear. The explanation of the evolution of man. Of signs that we are not alone. Of questions about origin and of destination. This was the work of a visionary.
The word visionary gets tossed around a bit too easily, but in this case, it is not only applicable, but perhaps even inadequate. In 1945, Clarke forecast the use of satellites for telecommunications, even the use of geosynchronous satellites, years before the first successful orbital flight.
Clarke was born in Minehead, Somerset, England in 1917, the son of a farmer and a post office telegrapher. At age thirteen, the year his father died, Clarke read a copy of “Astounding Stories of Super-Science”, a popular American science fiction magazine. Fifteen years later, Clarke would launch his career as a fiction writer with a short story, “Rescue Party”, in that same magazine.
Clarke told stories with a relatively neutral perspective, with no real villains or heroes - just characters. For example, in “2001″, HAL is neither demon nor savior. He is simply following his mission. In fact, you feel some empathy for HAL as Dave Bowman removes his circuits from the core one by one. Is Bowman a hero? Or just a passenger? Such were the characters and situations that Clarke liked to create.
His fans and followers included scholars and artists, from Carl Sagan to Gene Roddenberry, who credited Clarke with inspiring him to push forward with “Star Trek”, even as he was derided by network bigwigs.
But in 1962, Clarke was diagnosed with a severe attack of polio, from which he appeared to make a full recovery. However, in 1984 he developed post-polio syndrome, a condition that results in weakening of the muscles and growing fatigue. The condition eventually relegated him to a wheelchair for the remainder of his life. In the end, he succumbed to breathing problems attributed to his post-polio syndrome.
Clarke was an optimist with a scientists knowledge, someone who preferred to look for the possibilities. From his “Profiles of the Future” (1962):
“The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.”
Arthur C. Clarke passed away March, 18, 2008.
Close the pod bay doors, HAL.
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