Arthur C. Clarke - The Visionary

Sixty years after Arthur C. Clarke predicted communications satellites, what lies inside the mind of the leading science fiction writer and science guru?

The heat and humidity knock you for six the moment you step off the plane. Then you hit downtown in a big way –it’s heaving, tatty and gridlocked. Welcome to Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Ironically, my mission in this earthy city is to track down a human being who, more than any other, has his sights set firmly off this planet. For Colombo is the home of science fiction writer and future-guru, Sir Arthur C. Clarke.

Exactly 60 years ago, Clarke published an article that changed the face of life on this planet. In an era when there were no space launchers, no satellites, and uncertain ideas about radio propagation, he predicted global communications, weather satellites and even satellite television.

The guru with a few of his books and his dinosaur phone CREDIT: Paul Parsons

Having alerted the BBC to this anniversary, they have commissioned me to present a programme on Radio 4 and on the World Service. I don’t sleep well that night… and I’m nervous as our driver pulls up outside ‘Leslie’s House’ (named after a Sri Lankan friend of Clarke’s who died in a motorbike accident). Arthur, in his adopted sarong, greets me in his book-lined study. It’s more like a library: a celebration of the hundreds of books and stories that Clarke has produced in his lifetime – not to mention photographs of the author with virtually every great person of the last few generations, plus awards, doctorates and a Tyrannosaurus Rex which roars when the telephone rings. .

Arthur is now 87, and suffering from the after-effects of polio. But the legendary Clarke sense of humour is still very much intact. I joke with him about the Web. For someone who has pioneered global communications, Arthur is notoriously Web-unfriendly. “Oh yes – The World-Wide Wait”, he quips. “Have I told you about my invention of the Spam-Bomb? It blows up your computer if you send messages that the other guy doesn’t want. Stand back, your computer is about to blow up – KABOOM!”

So – who is this man who has shaped the way we live our lives today – and whose futuristic predictions have turned out to be so uncannily accurate?