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Arthur C. Clarke Interview

There is a brilliant interview with Arthur C. Clarke at the Onion AV website. I’ve decided to post some of my favorite excerpts here, as well as some supplemental information:

O: How did you first get started with Time's Eye?

ACC: Well, I'm not quite sure. It's quite a while ago. I'm now in the middle of... I've dug into another book, called The Last Theorem.

The book is based on Fermat’s last theorem, which basically states that the equation xⁿ + yⁿ = zⁿ cannot be solved when n > 2. While we all know that the equation x² + y² = z² is the Pythagorean theorem, and is indeed solvable, the equation x³ + y³ = z³ is not. The final theorem states:

“Cubem autem in duos cubos, aut quadratoquadratum in duos quadratoquadratos, et generaliter nullam in infinitum ultra quadratum potestatem in duos eiusdem nominis fas est dividere…”

or

“It is impossible for a cube to be written as a sum of two cubes, or a fouth power to be written as the sum of two forth powers, or, in general, for any number which is a power greater than the second to be written as the sum of two like powers…”

...and only about 10 years ago, a young British mathematician named Andrew Wiles did manage to prove it. But here's the mystery: Wiles' proof goes about 100 pages, right over my head.

O: Do you have any particular hopes for what they'll find in this round of exploration?

ACC: Well, I think they've already found life. There's some pictures from the laboratories which seem to me to be unmistakably vegetation—leaves and stems and things. I don't see what else it could possibly be. And where there's vegetation, you can bet there'll be something nibbling on it.

O: Do you intentionally write your books around morals?

ACC: Not intentionally. I'm quite fond of the writer who told a beginning author, "If you've got a message, use Western Union."

"Religion is the most malevolent of all mind viruses." It's adapted from a phrase by the British writer and scientist Richard Dawkins, who said that religion was a mind virus, an idea that infected the mind. He said that not all mind-viruses are malignant; some may even be beneficial. But many are harmful—racist theories, for instance.

O: With that quote, are you talking about religion's harm to the individual, or harm to society?

ACC: Well, look at history: religious wars, the Inquisition, the Crusades. What more do you need? It could be both, though.

Incidentally, have you heard about the discovery of the largest living creature on Earth? Would you believe it's two or three miles across, and probably several thousand years old, and still growing? It's this fungus that's eating Oregon. It's a single creature. I'm not quite sure how that's determined.

-m