A new short video, capturing the 90th birthday reflections of Sir Arthur C Clarke, has just been published on TVEAP Films' YouTube channel.   

In the 9 minute video, the renowned science fiction writer, underwater explorer and science populariser looks back at his illustrious career spanning nearly 70 years. He also offers glimpses of what lies in store for humanity in the coming decades.

Clarke chose to release his video on this online media platform instead of conventional broadcast channels – indicating his faith in the new media.

Scientific, literary and media communities around the world would mark the 90th birthday of Sir Arthur C Clarke on 16 December 2007. The government of Sri Lanka, where Clarke has lived since 1956, has organised an official ceremony to felicitate its best known foreign resident.

The video was filmed in early December 2007 by the Colombo-based production company Video Image (Private) Limited, in collaboration with TVE Asia Pacific (TVEAP). Both organisations donated their services to this effort.

Arthur C. Clarke is the son of an English farming family, born in the seaside town of Minehead, Somerset, in England on 15 December 1917. He spent several years in the British civil service and the Royal Air Force before turning full time author in 1950.

Author of over 100 books and more than 1,000 short stories or essays, he has shown remarkable foresight in anticipating technological advancements, especially in relation to space travel, computers and communications.

In the birthday video, he offers a quick assessment of space travel and communications technology. Ever the optimist, he believes that the best is yet to come in both areas.

"In my time I’ve been very fortunate to see many of my dreams come true," Clarke says in the birthday video. "Growing up in the 1920s and 1930s, I never expected to see so much happen in the span of a few decades."
 
He adds: "We 'space cadets' of the British Interplanetary Society spent all our spare time discussing space travel – but we didn’t imagine that it lay in our own near future…"

Referring to the 50th anniversary of the Space Age observed on 4 October 2007, Clarke remarks: "We've accomplished a great deal in that time, but the 'Golden Age of Space' is only just beginning."

After half a century of government-sponsored efforts, commercial space flight is finally emerging to bring space travel within the reach of many.

Clarke predicts: "Over the next 50 years, thousands of people will travel to Earth orbit – and then, to the Moon and beyond. Space travel – and space tourism – will one day become almost as commonplace as flying to exotic destinations on our own planet."

Read Sir Arthur Clarke's interview on 50 years of the Space Age

Read separate story on Clarke's ideas on communication technologies and human progress.

He ends the message indicating his preferred legacy: "I want to be remembered most as a writer one who entertained readers, and, hopefully, stretched their imagination as well." 

In a technical paper written in 1945, Clarke was the first to propose the idea of communications satellites, which have today become a global industry supporting broadcast and telecommunications needs. One of his short stories inspired the World Wide Web, while another was later expanded to make the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, which he co-wrote with director Stanley Kubrick. He has lived in Sri Lanka since 1956.

Read full transcript of the video

Photographs by Shahidul Alam of Drik