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Dec 15, 2007 6:58 PM

Video Message from Arthur C. Clarke Just Before his 90th Birthday

Just before his 90th birthday, science fiction writer Sir Arthur C. Clarke recorded a video message to the world. Confined to a wheelchair and suffering from post-polio syndrome, the visionary author answered questions from his home in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Today, he will celebrate the end of another orbit around the sun.

Just before his 90th birthday, science fiction writer Sir Arthur C. Clarke recorded a video message to the world.

Confined to a wheelchair and suffering from post-polio syndrome, the visionary author answered questions from his home in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Today, he will celebrate the end of another orbit around the sun.

His address, which was recently uploaded to YouTube earlier this week, makes it clear that Clarke is as optimistic as ever about space exploration.

The golden age of space is only just beginning… Space travel and space tourism will one day become almost as commonplace as flying to exotic destinations on our own planet.

Peace is high on his mind as well.

I hope that we have learned something from the most barbaric century in history — the twentieth. I would like to see us overcome our tribal factions, and begin to think and act as if we were one family. That would be real globalization.

Clarke said that if he was granted three wishes, he would want: proof of extra terrestrial life, freedom from dependence on oil, and an end to the civil war in Sri Lanka. Although he has had a diverse career in underwater exploration, space and science promotion, and communications technology the aging legend said that he would most like to be remembered as a writer.

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