I was thinking the same thing ... I was dumbfounded when I heard years ago that Isaac Asimov had passed on, and I find a similar feeling of losing an old friend now hearing that Arthur C. Clarke has also passed on.
A great man, a great mind - the man who conceived of the communications satellite, the "Waldo" robotic arm, etc, etc.
Old friends indeed .... I do hope that these great writers and friends are now forming a new Asimov-Clarke Treaty somewhere else, a place where the skies are clear and the stars burn like diamonds.
R.I.P. Mr Clarke
---------------------------------------------------------------------
The Asimov-Clarke Treaty of Park Avenue, put together as Asimov and Clarke were travelling down Park Avenue in New York while sharing a cab ride, stated that Asimov was required to insist that Arthur C. Clarke was the best science fiction writer in the world (reserving second best for himself), while Clarke was required to insist that Isaac Asimov was the best science writer in the world (reserving second best for himself). Thus the dedication in Clarke's book Report on Planet Three reads:
"In accordance with the terms of the Clarke-Asimov treaty, the second-best science writer dedicates this book to the second-best science-fiction writer."
