The father of2001: A Space OdysseyHe has just published in Spain, by the hand of the Plaza & Janés publishing house, the latest product of his imagination:3001: Final Odyssey. At 80, Arthur C. Clarke, one of the most famous visionaries of the twentieth century, lives in retirement in his technooasis in Colombo (Sri Lanka), from where he attends the day-to-day scientific news via the Internet. He arrived at his paradise exile by chance, when he was looking for the best waters to practice scuba diving, without suspecting that it would become his definitive residence. Now, he continues to display an irrepressible optimism about the future of science and his ability to imagine worlds that only fit, today, in the minds of the most avant-garde scientists on the planet.
Although he has written dozens of science fiction books, his name can never be separated from the 2001 title, the work made into a film by Stanley Kubrick, with which he inaugurated a new popular iconography on space travel.
–I would like to speak with you, precisely, about your ideas about space travel …
-I’ve already written dozens of books on that subject and honestly I’m pretty tired of talking about it. I don’t really have anything new to add, except that I am more and more convinced that the new space age (and the new age of anything) has to go through an inevitable energy revolution.
–What exactly do you mean by the energy revolution?
-To the creation of a new source of energy that could be related to cold fusion. It is incredible what is happening with this line of research on the search for a safe nuclear fusion at room temperature, it is talked about all over the world; there are hundreds of laboratories working with it spread all over the planet and, even, several patents have already been registered. The prototypes of cold fusion generators are already on sale, in Russia there are 7,000 units … And yet, in the United States it seems that nobody pays attention to it.
–What would the practical application of energies based on cold fusion mean for space exploration?
-One of the sectors that would benefit the most would be propulsion. I no longer have an interest in rockets and all that old stuff. Rockets will be to the aerospace industry what balloons were to aeronautics.
–I mean, little.
-Well, they were the first step. Unfortunately, in the case of cold fusion, we are still a long way from second. But there are other forms of energy …
–For example, the quantum fluctuation that you mention in your novel 3001.
-Yes. It is what some scientists call Zero Point Field energy or vacuum energy. Some scientists believe that an incredible amount of energy could be extracted from a vacuum if we were able to play with the structure of space, to take advantage of the quantum fluctuations that occur there. Richard Feynman has even said that the energy contained in the volume of a cup of coffee is enough to boil all the Earth’s oceans.
–If we could put this type of energy into practice, what applications would it have for space exploration?
-It would take a long time for it to be applied, because there are too many conflicting interests in this matter: the defenders of “hot fusion”, the engineers in charge of making rockets … all would be unemployed. Despite this, I believe that at the end of this decade people will accept the existence of this type of energy and many heads will roll in the US Department of Energy.
–Yes, but he has not yet told us what steps we will follow until we reach that dream moment, the day when energy from the void can be achieved.
-The first thing to do is convince yourself that this type of energy exists and start designing prototypes that allow us to extract and control it. And then start exploring the most promising lines of research. There is currently very speculative but interesting work around what scientists call gravity control. Have you heard that curious news from Iceland?
–Are you referring to the research of Icelandic scientists who claim to have reduced gravity in the vicinity of a superconducting material?
-Yes. Is it a fraud or what?
–Do you think that is not true?
-Well, I don’t know. The truth is that the effect they have achieved is quite poor. Although the first nuclear reactions were too. In any case, if true, the finding would erase the borders of the Solar System, in the same way that the plane erased the borders of the planet for us. If we can control gravity and inertia, reduce them even just a little, we will be opening the doors to a new propulsion system. If, in the absence of gravity, someone gave us a slight push, we would instantly disappear at thousands of kilometers per hour until we bounced across the room: it would be the first step to teleportation.
–In his books he has advanced some discoveries that later have taken place. Can you tell us about any findings that you think will jump, in the future, from science fiction to reality?
-Well, I can tell you some things that I predicted and that are starting to come true. For example, in one of my books I predicted that they would find ice on the Moon, and they have. Now I just learned that MIT has invented a system of electronic communication through a simple handshake that I had already envisioned.
–What does it consist of?
-It is a device that is implanted in the palm of the hand and allows data to be transmitted to another person who has the same device.
–Any other surprises for the future?
-I think we will also be able to create space elevators suspended from a cable, linking the Earth with a geostationary satellite. The matter in the wire could be carbon-60 nanotubes that have just been discovered at Rice University. We can still only generate carbon 60 in trace amounts, but we will soon get enough material to create space elevators. At that time, the cost of space travel could be lowered dramatically. In the future, a round trip to space will cost 1,500 pesetas, because 90% of the energy consumed to go can also be used to return.
–What do you think about the possibility that the famous Martian rock found in Antarctica contains remains of life?
-I would love it, of course. But I wouldn’t bet more than 80 cents on it.
–You must also be delighted with the images of Europa (Jupiter’s moon) captured by the Galileo spacecraft …
-Yeah right. But I hope there are other approaches. At the moment the data is not final, there is nothing really new in it.
–Do you think that one day we will be able to study the subsoil of Europa and check for remains of life?
– I believe that we will be able to do what we want in Europe, but not in the next two decades.
–Time is running out. Do you mind if we follow the interview via email?
-Ah, no please. I have too much email. I’ve actually hired eight secretaries just to run it for me. So I’d rather end here
Fred Guterl
This interview was published in September 1997, in number 196 of VERY Interesting.
(Arthur C. Clarke passed away on March 19, 2008 at the age of 91 in Colombo, Sri Lanka)
