Science
fiction visionary Arthur C. Clarke, who died on Wednesday at 90, seized the
world's imagination with
his
best-known book "2001: A Space Odyssey" and visions of extra-terrestrial
civilisations. Drawn to Sri Lanka in 1956 by scuba diving, which the British
author said was as near as he could get to the weightlessness of space, he lived
in an "electronic cottage" from which he communicated with the world using
computers and radios. Clarke, born in Minehead, Somerset, on December 16, 1917
first attracted attention after the Second World War when he wrote an article
predicting satellites would make global broadcasts a reality -- years ahead of
their time. Clarke, who suffered from post-polio syndrome and was in later years
confined to a wheelchair, was paid just 15 pounds for the theory that led to a
satellite industry worth billions of dollars.