Arthur C Clarke
Arthur Charles Clarke (16 December 1917 - 19 March 2008) was an English science fiction writer. He was notable as one of the "Big Three" authors of science fiction, along with Isaac Asimov and Robert A. Heinlein, both of whom he regarded as friends. Clarke's most famous work is probably 2001: A Space Odyssey.
He invented the concept of the communications satellite[1] and co-wrote the screenplay for the 1968 Stanley Kubrick movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. Both the movie and the book were based on "The Sentinel", a short story written by Clark in 1948. He lived in Sri Lanka.
Clarke subscribed to the idea of panspermia to account for the origin of life on earth. He claimed that he was unable to decide if creationists are "really mad, or only pretending to be mad. He was a self-proclaimed atheist and left written instructions that his funeral have "no religious rites of any kind."
