Arthur C. Clarke has died at the age of 90.
I remember being absolutely captivated the first time I saw 2001: A Space Odyssey, it was released the same year I was born so I’m not sure how old I would have been.
It was only later that I discovered his three laws of prediction:
- 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.
- The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
- Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
I have now lived long enough to see each of these three laws play out. They overshadow so many of the conversations that I have with colleagues and customers.
The personal danger is that I become the “distinguished but elderly scientist” in the first law.
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Graham Chastney 
I remember seeing the film in the cinema – it was totally fantastic. However, I had read a) the original short story and b) the longer story. Both of these helped with the latter stages of the film.
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