Sorry about the borderline unintelligible obit for Arthur C. Clarke yesterday.
To rectify that, I will try again.
Arthur C. Clarke was one of the greatest authors I've read. His short stories are wonderful, optimistic and clever endeavors that just left me captivated. I think of any author, I have read more Arthur C. Clarke books/stories than anyone. He is one of those 20th/21st century people who still have that enthusiasm towards humans, learning and science that died out at the end of the Victorian era. Humanity had limitless potential and the universe was there to discover. I still (sometimes) believe that, even though the current state of the world makes it hard to believe sometimes, both politically and economically. However, the visions of Sir Clarke can still bring hope to my heart and mind that we are only at the tip of the iceberg - culturally, scientifically - and that human will one day figure out that there are many more important things in the universe beyond our petty squabbling.
Oh yeah, and Sir Clarke also introduced me to my favorite idea for political leadership (and it is downright communist), where he envisioned a world where the global leader was picked at random from the entire population. The rationale? "People who want to be a leader aren't qualified to be one". Beautiful.
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