The Science Fiction Review Books,Movies,Technology Arthur C. Clarke dies at age 90

Arthur C. Clarke dies at age 90

March 19, 2008March 19, 2008| StettinStettin| 0 Comment| 4:15 pm
Categories:

Arthur C. Clarke died early this morning after a long battle with post-polio syndrome. The New York Times has an interesting summary of his life and major accomplishments. I’m ashamed to say that I still haven’t read 2001: A Space Odyssey, but it is on my ever expanding reading list. Hopefully I can review it some time in the near future. Clark is well known for his laws of prediction, which are as follows:

  1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
  2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
  3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Please prove you are a human * Time limit is exhausted. Please reload the CAPTCHA.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Related Post

Working from home gets a new lookWorking from home gets a new look

July 31, 2010July 31, 2010| StettinStettin| 0 Comments| 5:14 pm

There have been quite a few companies that have explored letting employees work from home part time or even full time. Trevor Blackwell, founder of Anybots, is working on a technology that can make interacting with workers still physically at a building much easier. This seems to me to be an early step to a world like I saw in Surrogates. I’m always fascinated when I see science catching up with Sci-Fi. Check out the company’s promo video at the Anybots homepage.

Read MoreRead More

Contact by Carl SaganContact by Carl Sagan

July 5, 2010July 5, 2010| StettinStettin| 0 Comments| 4:08 pm

Contact Book Cover

If I remember correctly, I saw Contact (the movie) in the theater when it came out. I enjoyed it and always wondered how it compared to the book. It turned out that my future wife owned the book, but I didn’t get around reading it until now. Of course movies rarely ever measure up to the novels they are based on, and this was no exception. Don’t get me wrong, the movie was good, however it just scratched upon the surface of what the novel contains. (more…)

Read MoreRead More

Dune (1984)Dune (1984)

November 28, 2007November 28, 2007| StettinStettin| 0 Comment| 8:34 pm

Dune Movie 1984

The 1984 Hollywood version of Dune directed by David Lynch could best be described as a poor attempt to cash in on one of the best science fiction novels of our time. I highly doubt that anyone that has not read Dune by Frank Herbert could possibly understand how bad the movie was compared to the book. I have only the vaguest of memories from the first time I’ve watched Dune back when I was a little kid. I don’t remember it being one of my favorite movies like the Star Wars Trilogy. Anyway, I decided to watch the movie once again after reading the novel, which I just reviewed.

I watched this movie last week with my wife who has seen approximately 10-15 times. She read the first three Dune novels about 10 years ago, and hadn’t seen the movie for at least 5 years or more. We didn’t realize how comical the movie was compared to the book until I started pointing out the blatant discrepancies. Still, it has a completely pointless gratuitous scene with Sting emerging from some type of steam shower in a speedo, which is one of the best parts of Dune according to my wife. I think that it looks more like Flash Gordon’s underwear rather than a speedo. Anyway, I’ll move on to the review, to be followed by a spoiler-filled list of major discrepancies with the book. (more…)

Read MoreRead More