Arthur C. Clarke dies at 90

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206904531

"Arthur C. Clarke, the science-fiction writer who co-authored the screenplay and book 2001: A Space Odyssey and who came up with the idea for the communications satellite in the 1940s, died at a hospital near his home in Sri Lanka early Wednesday. He was 90."

[pieces o nine]

Arhtur C Clarke.

i mournz him.

[Bruder Cuzzen]

I liked Childhood's End the most .

[Aphos]

I have always felt that his later novels were a bit weak (starting abut 1980), but he was a master of short stories.  He was able to explore an idea deeply in just a few pages.

[beagle]

Rats. One by one, all the symbols of the scientific optimism of my youth are disappearing.

Oh well, if the Godsquad are right at least he and Stanley can do a proper screenplay for 2010 now.

[Swatopluk]

Don't forget his non-fiction books

[Pachyderm]

90 is a good innings. Still, it's a damn shame.

Farewell, Mr C.

[beagle]

I knew about the satellite stuff, but didn't know Tim Berners-Lee had credited "Dial F for Frankenstein" as inspiring him for the Web.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

 

[Aphos]

AC Clarke left a letter stating he wanted a purely secular funeral.

    The famed science fiction writer, who once denigrated religion as "a necessary evil in the childhood of our particular species," left written instructions that his funeral be completely secular, according to his aides.

    "Absolutely no religious rites of any kind, relating to any religious faith, should be associated with my funeral," he wrote.

[Griffin NoName]

Mourning him. And Minghella.

Apparently there's a new death fashion to leave one's body to medicine - they chop it up into body parts for trainee surgeons - popular in the US but not so much here in the UK yet. Has been the subject of big money scams but proposals to stop that seem likely to make it mainstream.

Sorry, a bit off topic, but it is a good way of getting out of your own funeral and is something even cancer patients can do.

[beagle]

Don't think the idea is new, though it may well be more popular these days. In the old days (maybe still now) medical schools  would allocate students a cadaver to be kept on ice for the term/year and they'd work their way through dissecting it. Sherlock Holmes, of course, used to beat the subjects with a stick.

...but it is a good way of getting out of your own funeral and is something even cancer patients can do.

They're not obliged to accept you, though it's effectively an SEP by that point if they don't. Another policy would be to do a Jeremy Bentham and donate ones mortal remains to your old alma mater.

[Griffin NoName]

Not new idea. New fashion.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Has been my plan for many years, now-- donate the corpus to whatever scientific endeavor wants it.

I'm a card-carrying organ donor, so the medical types get first crack.

After all is said and done, if anything is left, cremate them, and bury the ashes at the roots of a newly planted tree-- in that way, some of what's left will live on in the substance of the tree.

As for me?  I'll be so far beyond caring, one way or another or another... _I_ won't be needing it.

[Pachyderm]

My plan of being left out for the animals in a game park in Africa was denied. Admittedly, I had asked to be left pulling a moonie at the ferry crossing....