Greetings, Carbon-Based Bipeds! [Hardcover]

Arthur C. Clarke (Author, Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1999

In the definitive work of his brilliant career, Arthur C. Clarke has collected his most prophetic nonfiction essays, lucidly demonstrating that he not only anticipated many of the 20th century's greatest scientific innovations, but he in fact helped to shape the path to come.

From predicting the future role of geosynchronous satellites in his early pieces in the 1940s, to his groundbreaking reporting from The Kennedy Space Center in the 1960s, to anticipating the Internet literally decades before it happened, Clarke has acted as both technological prophet and cultural conscience.

Arranged chronologically by decade, Greetings, Carbon-Based Bipeds! is inarguably the crowning achievement of an unrivalled personal odyssey.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"Nobody has done more in the way of enlightened prediction than Arthur C. Clarke," wrote Isaac Asimov, no slouch in that department himself. And indeed, this collection of Clarke's essays contains an astonishing amount of prophecy, in everything from space exploration to computer technology. Clarke, probably best known as the author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, is one of the most prolific science authors of the 20th century, even though his science fiction works got all the glory. His expertise in tracking scientific innovation and his predilection for far-flung adventure are well represented here. Reading these articles illuminates the enormous amount of research that good science fiction writers do in the course of learning their craft. The collection spans more than 60 years of Clarke's musings. Highlights include essays on undersea and lunar living, working with Stanley Kubrick on the movie version of 2001, and tributes to his favorite authors--Lord Dunsany, Robert Bloch, and Isaac Asimov, especially. Clarke gives each essay a context, and he good-naturedly points out his old errors and failed predictions. Clarke is a fascinating person, a man of great depth and passion, and fans of his science fiction will be pleasantly surprised that his straightforward, bemused style comes through in his nonfiction as well. --Therese Littleton

From Publishers Weekly

Though best known as the author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Clarke has been a scientist and writer of nonfiction for almost two-thirds of a century. This collection is organized chronologically by decade, affording the reader insights into Clarke's odyssey from gifted amateur to cultural icon. In his essays, Clarke promotes the notion that science fiction's role should be inspirational rather than informative, but that science itself is merely a tool to serve the higher ends of humankind. Clarke retains uncommon sense regarding scientific pursuits: "We must not mistake ever-increasing scientific knowledge with 'progress,' however that is defined." Part of the Clarke legend springs from how much of our technology and its cultural effects he has foreseen. Included here is a 1945 paper that Clarke calls "the most important thing I ever wrote," in which he invented the idea of geosynchronous satellites for telecommunications. Despite the length of Clarke's career, his language, like his thinking, is always fresh, even contemporary. When he critiques New Age believers, he does so because "their New Age is exactly the opposite, a thousand years past its sale date." As a whole, this collection provides an island of promise for those who fear technological disaster in their future, and a look into the mind of one of the leading intellectual lights of this half century. (Aug.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 544 pages
• Publisher: St Martins Pr; 1st edition (August 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312198930
• ISBN-13: 978-0312198930
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,360,043 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

"SIR ARTHUR C. CLARKE (1917-2008) wrote the novel and co-authored the screenplay for 2001: A Space Odyssey. He has been knighted by Queen Elizabeth II, and he is the only science-fiction writer to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. His fiction and nonfiction have sold more than one hundred million copies in print worldwide.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential, March 15, 2002

By 

Bill R. Moore (New York, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Greetings, Carbon-Based Bipeds! (Hardcover)

Before Carl Sagan (whom, one learns, was himself turned on to science through the words of Sir Arthur), Arthur C. Clarke, in addition to being one of the world's leading and best science fiction writers, was perhaps the most important, and most widely read, science writers of the 20th century. He published several books that are classics in the field of astronomy and physics, such as Interplanetary Flight (the volume that turned on Sagan), The Exploration of Space (the first English language boook to lay out the basic principles, and Clarke's first successful publication), The Promise of Space, Voices From The Sky, Profiles of The Future, and many, many others. Unfortunately, due to the somewhat ephermal nature of these works - as opposed to his science fiction - most of them have been out of print for many years. This is a shame, as Clarke's writing brilliance, smooth of prose, elegant wit, and wry sense of humor come through just as clearly in his non-fiction as in his fiction. He has that great talent of explaining difficult concepts in simple fashion, through analogy, metaphor, and other practible devices, while still remaining informative and literate, and without resorting to condescending. Thankfully, this book has solved much of our problems. Many of Sir Arthur's best and most invigorating essays, covering a nearly 60-year period, are reproduced here, in permanent form - and what a beautiful volume it is, too. A lot of the writing focuses on scientific topics, yes - particularly astronomy and physics - but a good deal of the book deals not with science, but with a variety of other subjects. These include Clarke's numerous postings to the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, Royal Astronomical Society, and various magazines; personal reminisces (including several documentary-style writings on his scuba diving adventures - unlike many reviewers, who have commented that these essays seemed boring to them, I found them quite a good and fun read, and they led me to decide to go back and read some of Clarke's entire books on this subject, long ignored by me for this same oversight); forwards to books by other people; reviews (it is interesting to see how Clarke views certain classic science fiction movies and books, as well as his fellow science fiction authors and scientific colleagues - many of whom are mentioned, and recounted in loving detail (the book includes tributes to Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Carl Sagan, Stanley Kubrick, Willy Ley, Jack Williamson, Robert Bloch, among others... in addition to many mentions of other such notables as Ray Bradbury, Stephen Hawking, Werner van Braun, and many others) speeches, television appearances, etc. Most all of these are informative, many of them entertaining, and all of them readable. Better selections could perhaps have been made, it is true: I would rather have seen more of his incredible 1960's essays from Voices From The Sky and Profiles of The Future (several of which, for instance, describe a future computer network - the internet - before Clarke could possibly have known...) in place of some of the earliest essays in this book, which mostly consist of Clarke's postings to the Journal, and are thus rather vengeful and out of character attacks on various peoples. Still, one cannot go wrong with this book. Of particular interest to ACC fans (who will already have much - though by no means all - of this material, it also includes a lot of autobiographical information on Clarke - and background on the essays - in the form of introductions the the various sections, quite a few pictures of the man (there's an insert in the middle of the book), afterwards, and an extensive About The Author section. In the final analysis, I would reccommend unceasingly this book to anyone who is into Clarke's factual writing, or science writing in general, as well as to anybody who loves his fiction and would like to try some of his non-fiction out. This is a good - though perhaps not the best (I would still reccommend Profiles of The Future as the best starting point for ACC's non-fiction works) - place to start, and a nice companion volume to his recently released collection of short fiction, The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke. It's a fine place to start for his non-fiction in general. However, don't take it as the final word on his science writing, as it doesn't focus specifically on that, and many of his best science articles were left out of this book. If you enjoy this book, and you want to read more of his scientifically oriented stuff, I unceasingly reccommend Profiles of The Future (recently re-published in a beautiful, lavish new updated volume) and The Promise of Space (if you can find it - an out of print masterpiece)... and perhaps Ascent To Orbit: A Scientific Autobiography if you want something a bit more technical.

This books comes highly reccommended from me to all carbon-based bipeds.

18 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars good collection of Clarke's essay's, August 30, 1999

By 

David N. Reiss (Haymarket, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Greetings, Carbon-Based Bipeds! (Hardcover)

This is a good collection of Arthur C. Clarkes essay's on several subjects from over the course of his career. Anybody who reads a lot of Science writing and/or Science Fiction would like to read this book.

Clarke is one of the best writers of Science fact and Science Fiction of the century. Great author. Great book.

14 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Clarke is the greatest among science-fiction writers, November 2, 1999

By 

Krishna R. Dronamraju ([e-mail]) (Houston, Texas, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Greetings, Carbon-Based Bipeds! (Hardcover)

In the range of topics and quality of writing, no one surpasses Clarke. What I like about Clarke's writings is that they contain as much science as fiction. As a prophet, he is incomparable. I recommend this book to everyone, especially all Clarke fans and non-fans alike.