A message from Arthur C Clarke!

[AE35Unit]

Just received this from the yahoo ACC group,apparently its on youtube too.

> Hello! This is Arthur Clarke, speaking to you
from my home in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
>
> As I approach my 90th birthday, my friends are
asking how it feels like, to have completed 90
orbits around the Sun.
>
> Well, I actually don't feel a day older than 89!
>
> Of course, some things remind me that I have
indeed qualified as a senior citizen. As Bob Hope
once said: "You know you're getting old, when the
candles cost more than the cake!"
>
> I'm now perfectly happy to step aside and watch
how things evolve. But there's also a sad side to
living so long: most of my contemporaries and old
friends have already departed. However, they have
left behind many fond memories, for me to recall.
>
> I now spend a good part of my day dreaming of
times past, present and future. As I try to survive
on 15 hours' sleep a day, I have plenty of time to
enjoy vivid dreams. Being completely wheel-chaired
doesn't stop my mind from roaming the universe - on
the contrary!
>
> In my time I've been very fortunate to see many
of my dreams come true! Growing up in the 1920s and
1930s, I never expected to see so much happen in the
span of a few decades. We 'space cadets' of the
British Interplanetary Society spent all our spare
time discussing space travel - but we didn't imagine
that it lay in our own near future...
>
> I still can't quite believe that we've just
marked the 50th anniversary of the Space Age! We've
accomplished a great deal in that time, but the
'Golden Age of Space' is only just beginning. After
half a century of government-sponsored efforts, we
are now witnessing the emergence of commercial space
flight.
> Over the next 50 years, thousands of people will
travel to Earth orbit - and then, to the Moon and
beyond. Space travel - and space tourism - will one
day become almost as commonplace as flying to exotic
destinations on our own planet.
>
> Things are also changing rapidly in many other
areas of science and technology. To give just one
example, the world's mobile phone coverage recently
passed 50 per cent -- or 3.3 billion subscriptions.
This was achieved in just a little over a quarter
century since the first cellular network was set up.
The mobile phone has revolutionized human
communications, and is turning humanity into an
endlessly chattering global family!
>
> What does this mean for us as a species?
>
> Communication technologies are necessary, but
not sufficient, for us humans to get along with each
other. This is why we still have many disputes and
conflicts in the world. Technology tools help us to
gather and disseminate information, but we also need
qualities like tolerance and compassion to achieve
greater understanding between peoples and nations.
>
> I have great faith in optimism as a guiding
principle, if only because it offers us the
opportunity of creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.
So I hope we've learnt something from the most
barbaric century in history - the 20th. I would like
to see us overcome our tribal divisions and begin to
think and act as if we were one family. That would
be real globalisation...
>
> As I complete 90 orbits, I have no regrets and
no more personal ambitions. But if I may be allowed
just three wishes, they would be these.
>
> Firstly, I would like to see some evidence of
extra-terrestrial life. I have always believed that
we are not alone in the universe. But we are still
waiting for ETs to call us - or give us some kind of
a sign. We have no way of guessing when this might
happen - I hope sooner rather than later!
>
>
>
> Secondly, I would like to see us kick our
current addiction to oil, and adopt clean energy
sources. For over a decade, I've been monitoring
various new energy experiments, but they have yet to
produce commercial scale results. Climate change has
now added a new sense of urgency. Our civilisation
depends on energy, but we can't allow oil and coal
to slowly bake our planet...
>
> The third wish is one closer to home. I've been
living in Sri Lanka for 50 years - and half that
time, I've been a sad witness to the bitter conflict
that divides my adopted country.
> I dearly wish to see lasting peace established
in Sri Lanka as soon as possible. But I'm aware that
peace cannot just be wished -- it requires a great
deal of hard work, courage and persistence.
> I'm sometimes asked how I would like to be
remembered. I've had a diverse career as a writer,
underwater explorer, space promoter and science
populariser. Of all these, I want to be remembered
most as a writer - one who entertained readers, and,
hopefully, stretched their imagination as well.
>
> I find that another English writer -- who,
coincidentally, also spent most of his life in the
East -- has expressed it very well. So let me end
with these words of Rudyard Kipling:
> If I have given you delight
> by aught that I have done.
> Let me lie quiet in that night
> which shall be yours anon;
>
> And for the little, little span
> the dead are borne in mind,
> seek not to question other than,
> the books I leave behind.
>
> This is Arthur Clarke, saying Thank You and
Good night from Sri Lanka