Arthur C. Clarke Talks With The Onion 375
sootman writes "The Onion has an interview with Arthur C. Clarke in this week's issue. My favorite line: 'The asteroid [named after me] is number four thousand and something, and the International Astronomical Federation, which deals with these sorts of things and numbered it, apologized to me because number 2001 wasn't available, having been given to somebody named "A. Einstein."'" Reader ronys point out that Despite the source, the interview is not a spoof or satire."
Author's blog (Score:5, Informative)
Great Quote from the Article (Score:5, Interesting)
ACC: [Laughs.] Well, I was rather a cynic once. But now I've combined all my beliefs into this phrase I've been circulating: "Religion is the most malevolent of all mind viruses." It's adapted from a phrase by the British writer and scientist Richard Dawkins, who said that religion was a mind virus, an idea that infected the mind. He said that not all mind-viruses are malignant; some may even be beneficial. But many are harmful--racist theories, for instance.
Re:Great Quote from the Article (Score:5, Interesting)
"I'm very fond of the quote--I don't know who said it first--'The best proof that there's intelligent life in the universe is that it hasn't come here.'"
Arthur C. Cleark quoting Bill Watterson [ucomics.com]....
Very cool.
Re:Great Quote from the Article (Score:4, Insightful)
The previous poster's logic *is* flawed, but he makes the same mistake that you do: differentiating between secular humanism and religion. As religion does not necessarily require belief in the supernatural, secular humanism fits the definition (or "at least one" definition) of religion. (Maybe Clarke meant "belief in the supernatural" when he said "religion", but that wouldn't be very intellectually honest.)
Clarke's statement could be interpreted as a condemnation of zealous devotion to anything at all, but as someone who is zealously devoted to a number of different things, I don't prefer that view.
Instead, I interpret Clarke's statement as a criticism of lack of critical thinking. People often believe things for bad reasons, and it's no excuse if some of those things happen to be true. Phrased like that, I might agree; it's quite possible that bad decision-making has the most harmful influence on humanity.
Re:Great Quote from the Article (Score:3, Insightful)
Uh, sorry? Could you expound on that? I'd think that religion by definition deals with something beyond the natural. Unless of course you take the view that this 'god' thing is natural, and therefore is not supernatural or whatever. Even zen (the only religion I'm aware of lacking a god) is supernatural, in that the final attainable state is beyond this earth (although of course a taoist would say tht it is the ultimate acheivable form of natur
Re:Great Quote from the Article (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Great Quote from the Article (Score:3)
One online dictionary lists this as one of the definitions of religion: "A cause, principle, or activity pursued with zeal or conscientious devotion."
So perhaps it is not just the belief, but what one does with it, that makes a religion. That can't be the whole story, though, because lots of people don't do anything about their "religious" beliefs.
Re:Great Quote from the Article (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Great Quote from the Article (Score:3, Insightful)
To quote from the Council for Secular Humanism:
"Critics often try to classify secular humanism as a religion. Yet secular humanism lacks essential characteristics of a religion, including belief in a deity and an accompanying transcendent order. Secular humanists contend that issues concerning ethics, appropriate social and legal conduct, and the methodologies of science are philosophical and are not part of the domain of religion, which deals with the supernatural, mystical and transcende
Re:Great Quote from the Article (Score:5, Insightful)
Doug
Re:Great Quote from the Article (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Great Quote from the Article (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Great Quote from the Article (Score:3, Insightful)
The way I see it, there are two basic types of wars... The first type is where you kill the other people for the sake of taking what they have. The second is killing for the sake of ridding the world of a certain kind of people. I think that religion has little influence on the first kind, but much influence on the second kind. People aren't automatically racist and hateful at birth, in fact children are usually the best at getting along reg
Re:Great Quote from the Article (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes, but the problem is that nearly all religions actually encourage people to perceive themselves as different, or superior, if they belong to that religion.
if man hadn't used religion as an excuse for this despicable behaviour, we'd have used something else instead.
Really? So the Crusades, for instance, would have still happened if there wasn't a religious basis for it? I doubt it very much.
Re:Great Quote from the Article (Score:3, Insightful)
Of course, there are some evil atheists. But the 'people will find an excuse' argument is just weak. You might as well defend racist beliefs on the basis that 'Southerners would have found an excuse to string up black people anyway'.
Religion, in general, is a system of false beliefs that cause people to behave badly. Just like racism. EOT
Re:Great Quote from the Article (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Great Quote from the Article (Score:3, Insightful)
Hell, by your definition Christianity is probably the smallest religion that ever existed.
Re:Great Quote from the Article (Score:3, Interesting)
It doesn't matter if the popes who ordered the crusades were Christian or not - what happened was done in the name of Christianity and God and as a Christian I am ashamed of it.
However, a lot of things done in the name of Christians are just using the nearest excuse and have little to do with religion.
Re:Great Quote from the Article (Score:4, Insightful)
Isn't he getting old? (Score:2, Funny)
Next they'll be conducting an interview with Philip K. Dick by Ouija Board. Not that this wouldn't be any weirder than The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch or Radio Free Ablemuth...
Re:Isn't he getting old? (Score:2, Informative)
I think he's nearly 90 now...
Re:Isn't he getting old? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Isn't he getting old? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Isn't he getting old? (Score:3, Funny)
What other SF book had such an inpact as the Bible?
Re:Isn't he getting old? (Score:3, Interesting)
It's a theory with some holes, but one that's fun to needle the radical right with.
Re:Isn't he getting old? (Score:2, Insightful)
Um...so what?
Re:Isn't he getting old? (Score:5, Funny)
That's the real reason he moved to Sri Lanka.
Irrelevant (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Irrelevant (Score:3, Interesting)
Amen to that.
> He has some fascinating opinions on Martian life, for example.
From the article: "Well, I think they've already found life. There's some pictures from the laboratories which seem to me to be unmistakably vegetation-leaves and stems and thing
Re:Experience, good for anything! (Score:3, Funny)
Time for the Obligatory Simpsons Quote!
Abe Simpson: I needed a new heel for my shoe, so, I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on 'em. 'Give me five bees for a quarter,' you'd say.
Now where were we? Oh yeah
Re:Isn't he getting old? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:What is your fucking point (Score:5, Informative)
The book was not made into a movie, as such. Clarke wrote the book while writing the screenplay, which was based on both Clarke's and Kubrick's ideas.
Believe it or not (Score:5, Interesting)
The print edition is like a reverse newspaper, with the comic section everywhere and a small non-comic center pull-out.
Re:Believe it or not (Score:5, Informative)
--Stephen
Their Frank Miller interview was great, too (Score:2, Funny)
God damn I'm a nerd.
Re:Their Frank Miller interview was great, too (Score:2)
Miller does rule but boy did Dark Knight Strikes Again suck. In my humble opinion, of course. Most of it was a poor rehash of Dark Knight Returns and it contained only a few inspired ideas like using the Flash to generate electricity.
Sorry to play fanboy but... (Score:2)
I find their music and film criticism to be especially astute; I'm sure there are examples of bad calls but on the whole I find their criticism insightful.
And their interviews are top-notch.
The biggest problem with the AV club is the annoying ad click-through. But the content is good enough for me to look past.
AV Club Interviews (Score:3, Interesting)
Sufficiently advanced technology... (Score:5, Funny)
Which of course leads to the corollary: "Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced."
Re:Sufficiently advanced technology... (Score:2)
he first created the popular axiom "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magick."
Which of course leads to the corollary: "Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced."
All bow before TIVO!
Re:Sufficiently advanced technology... (Score:5, Funny)
Would that make Windows... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Sufficiently advanced technology... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Sufficiently advanced technology... (Score:5, Interesting)
Clarke's Law(1962), which was later renamed Clarke's First Law, reads:
It is perhaps relevant given the misattribution to Asimov earlier and the corollary reference of the grandparent to also mention Asimov' Corollary to Clarke's First Law (1978):Re:Sufficiently advanced technology... (Score:3, Insightful)
To be pedantic myself, what was wrong with what the OP said? A corollary is a minor claim which is logically dependent on a previously-established claim.
What particular rule of interference was used to deduce the corollary from the original statement isn't really important. There's nothing wrong with calli
There aren't many like him (Score:2, Insightful)
Clarke, Shmarke.. (Score:4, Funny)
You know you're both old and famous when... (Score:5, Funny)
Childhood's End (Score:2)
Maybe I shouldn't go back to Oregon... (Score:2, Interesting)
Incidentally, have you heard about the discovery of the largest living creature on Earth? Would you believe it's two or three miles across, and probably several thousand years old, and still growing? It's this fungus that's eating Oregon. It's a single creature. I'm not quite sure how that's determined.
Does anyone know WTF he is talking about here? Before I came back to China last year I didn't seem to remember my fellow Oregonians running away in fear f
Re:Maybe I shouldn't go back to Oregon... (Score:4, Informative)
Here's [wisc.edu] one story. It is big, and it doesn't move.
Re:Maybe I shouldn't go back to Oregon... (Score:4, Interesting)
I don't think anyone with a fondness for the english language could fail to appreciae that sentence....
The 2,200 Acre Thousand Year Old Oregonian Fungus (Score:5, Informative)
I did a double take on this one too, but he seems to have his facts straight [bbc.co.uk].
Re:Maybe I shouldn't go back to Oregon... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Specialization (Score:4, Funny)
vegetaiton statement (Score:4, Informative)
Fungus Eating Oregon (Score:5, Interesting)
His word choice leads one to envision doom and death, and I was sufficiently motiviated to search for more info on this beastie.
http://www.harpers.org/Oregon.html
http://www.newhouse.com/archive/story1b080700.html
Google search gets you more.
on another topic: Anyone amazed at how many quotes this guy has stored up in his head?
20{01,10} (Score:5, Funny)
What's his address? I'll mail him the damn DVDs.
ACC's Mail collection address (Score:5, Informative)
25, Barnes Place,
Colombo 7,
Sri Lanka.
That should be sufficient to get the item eventually received by him; I'd guess that "Colombo 7" is actually a postal/zip code.
Re:ACC's Mail collection address (Score:3, Informative)
An odd code, which seems to span three continents but only include poorer countries. I wonder if they're trying to avoid piracy by keeping all the poorer countries in the same region?
Given the difficuilty of buying region 5 encoded DVDs, you might be better removing the region coding and remastering it unencrypted.
Re:20{01,10} (Score:3, Insightful)
Vegitation Photos Link (Score:5, Interesting)
My questions is, why hasn't this been bigger news? Did it come out and I just missed it?
A really good book of Clarke's (Score:5, Informative)
Onion A.V. Club Interview Collection (Score:5, Informative)
A few real Arthur C. Clarke Quotations (Score:5, Informative)
CNN is one of the participants in the war. I have a fantasy where Ted Turner is elected president but refuses because he doesn't want to give up power.
If an elderly but distinguished scientist says that something is possible he is almost certainly right, but if he says that it is impossible he is very probably wrong.
It has yet to be proven that intelligence has any survival value.
Politicians should read science fiction, not westerns and detective stories.
The best measure of a man's honesty isn't his income tax return. It's the zero adjust on his bathroom scale.
There is hopeful symbolism in the fact that flags do not wave in a vacuum.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible.
Re:A few real Arthur C. Clarke Quotations (Score:4, Funny)
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."
69th) "Reading computer manuals without the hardware is as frustrating as reading sex manuals without the software."
Film Adaptation of "Fountains of Paradise"? (Score:5, Interesting)
I was particularly interested in the last couple of paragraphs, regarding a possible film adaptation of Fountains of Paradise, and the fact that Clarke considers that his best/favourite novel.
Fountains was the first novel to incorporate the modern concept of a space elevator.
Anyone heard anything else about this news item [liftwatch.org]?
Personally, I'm hoping for Steven Spielberg. He did a terrific job on Minority Report. Between that, AI, and Taken, he's definitely on a sci-fi roll lately.
Re:Film Adaptation of "Fountains of Paradise"? (Score:3, Insightful)
Spielberg's always been doing sci-fi - however, unlike his earlier optimistic films (Close Encounters, ET), the more recent ones (Minority Report, AI) have taken a decidedly dystopian direction.
The question is whether or not he's doing this to be considered more "serious" as a filmmaker, or if he's just becoming cynical and curmudgeonly in his elder ye
Clarke's short story (postcard) on chess (Score:4, Informative)
Btw, I remember in that posting someone saying there are more possible games of chess than atom's in the universe. How is that possible? And how do you calculate # of games, with pieces moving back and forth ad infinitum?
Clarks life on mars pics. (Score:4, Informative)
more pics. [marsunearthed.com]
Slight nitpick... (Score:3, Informative)
Not the CIA (Score:3, Insightful)
It just seems they would make much more sense for his book.
Re:small article nitpick (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:small article nitpick (Score:2, Informative)
Moderators, please do not wildly mod up stuff only because the first moderator made a mistake...
Re:small article nitpick (Score:5, Informative)
Not Hari Seldon. Salvor Hardin, Mayor of Terminus.
-Carolyn
Re:small article nitpick (Score:5, Funny)
Re:small article nitpick (Score:4, Insightful)
Oh, you mean refuGe!... Nevermind...
Re:small article nitpick (Score:4, Funny)
How about:
"Any sufficently advanced violence is indistinguishable from magick."
or
"any sufficiently advanced technology is the last refuge of the incompetent"
Or my personal favorite:
"Any sufficiently advanced incompetent is indistinguishable from magick violence."
Nice try at trolling, btw.
Re:small article nitpick (Score:5, Funny)
And there, in a nutshell, lies U.S. foreign policy.
Re:small nitpick about your comment (Score:4, Informative)
It was Salvor Hardins' motto throughout the Foundation Series (by Isaac Asimov). The Foundation series was among the best Science Fiction I have ever read (although Childhoods End still retains the top spot).
Re:No (Score:3, Informative)
Clarke was more famously known for his book "The Time Machine" than anything else.
What, the same "The Time Machine" that was written by HG Wells?
Re:No (Score:3, Funny)
Wells and Clarke are the same person. Clarke went back in time to write under a pseudonym.
Re:Going nuts? (Score:4, Informative)
Since when has stephen hawking been nuts? physically disabled yes, nuts no.
Or am I speaking out of my arse?
Re:Going nuts? (Score:2, Informative)
Here's the article [guardian.co.uk]
Re:Going nuts? (Score:4, Insightful)
Where does one get the idea that he's talking about pictures of vegetation from some place other than Mars?
gotta agree (Score:3, Interesting)
I almost wondered: did I miss a day of NASA releases where they casually announced that 'Oh, by the way... there's stuff growing on Mars'.
I mean, I suppose it's possible that he was referring to debris that resembles decayed plant matter. I'd think anything decayed would be long-since so weather-w
Re:gotta agree (Score:2)
Cum grano salis kids.
Re:gotta agree (Score:5, Informative)
Sagan was a MASTER science popularizer and spokesman, in the end, he wasn't a very good scientist.
Re:gotta agree (Score:4, Interesting)
The Kuwaiti Oil Fires / Nuclear Winter thing was Carl Sagan. Pretty much the entire nuclear winter thing has been discredited as pop / junk science at this point.
I've seen no credible refutation of the Nuclear Winter hypothesis, and would be interested to see any references you may have on this point. Conflating this with the Kuwaiti Oil Fires merely clouds the issue, if you'll forgive the expression. Junk science? I think that remains to be seen (hopefully not anytime soon...)
Sagan was a MASTER science popularizer and spokesman, in the end, he wasn't a very good scientist.
He was a highly-regarded planetary scientist, though it is true that he was more of a bureaucrat for the latter part of his career. Most of his work was done in large collaborations, but that can hardly be held against him.
Cheers,
Mouser
Re:gotta agree (Score:5, Informative)
I think he's talking about these images [space.com].
Re:gotta agree (Score:3, Insightful)
I remember ages ago reading an EXTREMELY unflattering interview with ACC where the reviewer came away hinting (broadly) that he was a self-obsessed has-been. Looking at the onion article and seeing some of the stuff he does (name-dropping Kubrick, deciding the most important recent invention was something he predicted (satellite)
Given his close and productive relationship with Kubrick, I think one could hardly call this name-dropping (they were known to be close personal friends). Also, he didn't "predi
Re:Going nuts? (Score:2)
Incorrect. The discrepancy lies between the semantic difference of 'life' and 'active intelligent life', clearly separating the contexts. The first paragraph you quoted obviously refers to Mars, as he states "I'm still hoping we'll find some Martians up there".
Note I am not commenting on the validity of his assertions vis a vis lab pictures--just on your statements.
Re:Going nuts? (Score:2)
second comment is about intelligent life.
therefor he's seen pictures of life on mars
Re:IAU (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:IAU (Score:3)
What part of that phrase did you use in your original post? You said maybe he "misspoke" or the reporter "screwed up the transcription", but whatever, it seemed to upset you. If you're so nitpicky, expect others to nitpick you too.
Or... (Score:2, Funny)
perhaps he had some other 'Star' topic in mind when he said 'Federation'. Hmmm...
Re:Vegitation (Score:5, Funny)
"We know you have those veggie Mars photos! Dont lie to us! Arthur C. Clark *saw* them!"
Re:Vegitation (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Article Text (Score:2)
Hah, that's certainly an interesting thing to say.
Re:Giant Fungus?? (Score:2, Informative)
Nevermind, I am amazingly stupid, it was the FIRST result from google when searching for "largest living creature earth fungus oregon"
http://www.extremescience.com/biggestlivingthing.h tm [extremescience.com]