"One by one, without any fuss, the stars were going out..."
Arthur C. Clarke, one of the seminal authors of my boyhood, has shuffled off the mortal coil.
I read '2001: A Space Odyssey' in one Sunday afternoon in 1968 - the novel was written contemporaneously with the filming of the movie. To say it struck a nerve is an understatement - I'll bet I've seen '2001' upwards of 50 times in the 40 years since its release, many of those in the theater - in pre-video-DVD-covered wagon days.
His science fiction was optimistic almost without fail - as was he. He was a writer, WWII veteran, visionary, and humanist - and I mean that in the best way.
I'll miss him.
R.I.P, Sir Arthur.
Note: The title of this article is the last line of his short story "The Nine Billion Names of God", which I still consider my favorite short story of any genre ever.
Posted by Cogito Ergo Dem at 18 Mar 2008, 2:41 PM 
Categories: The Solar System, Science, Technologies, That Which Makes Humans Great, Cosmology
Categories: The Solar System, Science, Technologies, That Which Makes Humans Great, Cosmology
Hear, hear; being one of yours, he naturally became one of mine. When faced with the news, I'd hoped you'd chime in before I could.
And yes -- humanist in the best way possible, like Asimov, S. Allen, and others.
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