WASHINGTON — Arthur C. Clarke, the world-famous science-fiction writer, futurist and unofficial poet laureate of the space age, died of a respiratory ailment Tuesday at his home in Colombo, Sri Lanka. He was 90.
Clarke co-wrote, with director Stanley Kubrick, the screenplay for “2001: A Space Odyssey,” which is regarded by many as one of the most important science fiction films made. A prolific writer, with more than 100 published books, he was praised for his ability to foresee the possibilities of human innovation and explain them to nonscientific readers.
The most famous example is from 1945, when he first proposed the idea of communications satellites that could be based in geostationary orbits, which keep satellites in a fixed position relative to the ground.
Some scoffed, but the idea was proved almost a generation later with the launch of Early Bird, the first of the commercial satellites that provide global communications networks for telephone, television and high-speed digital communication. The orbit is now named Clarke Orbit by the International Astronomical Union.
“He had influenced the world in the best way possible,” writer Ray Bradbury said in Neil McAleer’s 1992 book “Arthur C. Clarke: The Authorized Biography.” “Arthur’s ideas have sent silent engines into space to speak in tongues. His fabulous communications satellite ricocheted about in his head long before it leaped over the mountains and flatlands of the Earth.”
In addition to his books, he wrote more than 1,000 short stories and essays. One of his short stories, “Dial F for Frankenstein,” inspired British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee to invent the World Wide Web in 1989.
But it was his collaboration with Kubrick in the 1968 film that made him internationally famous. The screenplay for “2001: A Space Odyssey” was based on Clarke’s 1951 short story “The Sentinel.”
Clarke was knighted in 1998, nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 and received the Franklin Institute gold medal, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization-Kalinga Prize and other honors.
Clarke, a resident of Sri Lanka since 1956, worked with Jacques Cousteau and others to help perfect scuba equipment. Disabled by post-polio syndrome, Clarke said diving was as close as he could get to the weightless feeling of space.
According to a news release from the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation, Clarke reviewed the final manuscript of his latest science fiction novel, “The Last Theorem,” a few days ago. It is scheduled to be published later this year.
In a 90th birthday video recorded in December, Clarke said he had only three last wishes: That someone find evidence of extraterrestrial life; that the world adopt clean energy sources; and that an end be found to the long civil war in Sri Lanka.
“I’m sometimes asked how I would like to be remembered. I’ve had a diverse career as a writer, underwater explorer, space promoter and science populariser,” he said. “Of all these, I want to be remembered most as a writer — one who entertained readers, and, hopefully, stretched their imagination as well.”
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