He wrote the future: On Arthur C. Clarke's centenary

VERY fun, short and SFW clip.

he left a comment on my blog once :) i was thoroughly starstruck.

I also met Clarke once when he came to Singapore.

The local SF group gave him a sarong as a gift and he autographed my copy of "Childhood's End".

I loved that program when it first came out because of the episode that mentioned vitrified forts - which are still (AFAIK) a complete mystery:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitrified_fort

I also love the account of the meeting that Clarke, C.S. Lewis and Tolkien had in a pub:

"An extensive correspondence with Dr. Lewis led to the a meeting in a famous Oxford pub, the Eastgate. Seconding me was my friend, Val Cleaver, a space buff from way back (and now chief engineer of the Rolls Royce Rocket Division). Supporting Lewis was Professor J. R. R. Tolkien, whose trilogy, The Lord of the Rings created a considerable stir a few years ago. Needless to say, neither side converted the other, and we refused to abandon our diabolical schemes of interplanetary conquest. But a fine time was had by all, and when, some hours later, we emerged a little unsteadily from the Eastgate, Dr. Lewis’s parting words were "I’m sure you are very wicked people – but how dull it would be if everyone was good."

It's also worth reading his faintly autobiographical and heavily fact-based book about the development of radar-assisted landing systems during the second world war:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/143680.Glide_Path

It's one of his best, and quite different from most of his other books, and is worth reading even if you don't normally read historical novels.

I love his work. He's by leaps and bounds my favorite sci-fi author ever. His optimism remains unparalleled.

It's a measure of how much darker the world has turned recently that I've started in the last few years to think of ACC as perhaps a bit naive. Or maybe he was just too far ahead of the times? That's an optimist thought - albeit a long-term one.

I've only read a few of his novels. I'd say that in 2061, the stowaway suicidal hijacker aboard Galaxy, and her employers, certainly qualify as villains. In 3001, I think it's legitimate to think of the monoliths and whoever built them as villains of a sort.

Thanks for posting that. I interviewed Arthur C. Clarke at his house (see joke above), so it was cool to see it again.