Opinion - Letters to the Editor   

Doyen of science fiction

The world will remember Arthur C. Clarke, doyen of science fiction, as long as it uses the orbit for satellites to beam television and data from space. He predicted the potential of geosynchronous orbit even before the Space Age dawned. During his visit to India in 1971-72, he gave me an exclusive interview on television. I was struck by his enthusiasm about developments in India relating to space technology. By then ISRO engineers had launched Rohini-75. In the days when this was ridiculed in some quarters as a toy rocket, he welcomed the initiative and predicted that India would soon utilise the geosynchronous orbit.

Mohan Sundara Rajan,

Bangalore

When India completed 125 years in external telecommunications in 1995, I had the privilege of contacting Dr. Clarke for a commemorative volume I was writing on behalf of VSNL. Dr. Clarke wrote: “Perhaps the most important moral to be drawn from this first great conquest of space is one which many have forgotten, and which therefore needs reasserting as never before — technology may be possible without civilization; but civilization is not possible without technology.”

C.N.N. Nair,

Mumbai

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Self-inflicted setback
Space odyssey dreams live on
Pakistan’s democracy and the peace process
Concern over extended time frame to probe communal riots cases
Bhagat Singh as seen by Ramasami Periyar
Reichstag to go green
Corrections and clarifications
Taslima’s remarks
On reducing stress
Romance and women
Doyen of science fiction

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu