This is the last blog entry from Sri Lanka.

By far not the last chapter in the Clarke chronicles but rather a well-deserved respite from the battles until after the New Year. With the support of several media companies I am confident we will be able to return to the negotiation table with the UK and NY agents cooing with eagerness. The signs are there and the die is cast. One way or another we will make a Clarke film. Not so much because I’ve decided so but because Clarke deserves it.  

I spent most of the day literally sneaking around Sir Arthur’s mansion. It wasn’t that we were banned from the place as much as I didn’t want to provoke a war I wasn’t prepared to finish. And besides, It’s not a war until war is declared and for all I can tell we might be back in Colombo before spring to finish what we started.  

One thing can be said for the Israeli approach: you quickly become best friends with the tuk-tuk drivers, fortune tellers, Cobra tamers, monkey gypsies, mango peddlers, and gate watchers that populate every neighborhood in Colombo and beyond. You get a first hand sense of the vibe and pulse of the area and a reliable litmus test of the climate ahead. In a district of the city where satellite dishes tower over every fence like proud mechanical palm trees it was reassuring to know that everyone knew and loved Arthur C. Clarke and saluted our brave attempts to reach him.  

After it became clear that we would get no more face time with Clarke, I took the afternoon off to write and fax dear Archie a personal telegram. I am hopeful that at least this piece of correspondence will get to him and that we will hear back. After all, stranger things have happened.  

Finally, we drove up to the front of the old Parliament house and waited by the cannon battery for the sun to set and for Clarke’s red Mercedes-Benz to roll up to its usual contemplation point where, we were told, Clarke likes to watch the ocean and chase the single wave that was his life as it breaks on the sand dunes below.  

It was good to be here. As bitter as the road may have seemed, for every nay-sayer there was always a yes-sayer that pushed us onward, a greeter for every dissenter, and a free thinker for every penny pusher. As Clarke himself put it in his little known fourth law: for every expert, there is an equal and opposite expert.  

The blog lives. Pictures will flow. Movies will be made. Moons will be conquered. That much I can be sure of.       

There comes a time when one must admit defeat. For me that time has not yet come.

But it is time to make some tough decisions. I came here to try and interview Arthur C. Clarke as a basis for a documentary film about his life and about our future. I got an interview. More accurately, I got an interrogation. I am trying to be nice to everyone and play the game and anyone who knows me will agree that it is not an easy job for me. But out of respect for Clarke I tried. I wanted to make a film about clairvoyance but instead I am reduced to bureaucracy. 

I didn’t want to start a fight but two agents and several secretaries seem to do everything in their power to drag me into one. I believe Clarke deserves a film about his life and more than that, he deserves to play a role in our destiny. So now, the question is simple: Should I make this film about an innocent wide-eyed kid trying to reach a dead star whose fading light is the only thing left OR am I to abandon this battle with 14 minutes of sunset and try to do the best damn documentary about one of the greatest thinkers of the 20th century?        

No news yet from anyone. Not even a “kindly drop dead” for Xmass.

Clarke’s secretary didn’t even respond to my courtesy email. Clarke’s UK agent didn’t reply to my plea for clearance. if I didn’t know better I would swear everyone is working together to prevent the world from hearing Clarke’s final prophecy. 

I wish it were so dramatic. I guess the reality is that too many people have a function to fill around Arthur and their “job” is more important than ensuring that this great man is documented on every second that he can breath. And he can barely even do that. 

Yesterday we arrived at Sri Pada (Adam’s Peak). This powerful mountain is lodged like a crisp dark triangle between chains of green ridges. It is a sacred site for Buddhists, Muslims, and Christians, and it became quite momentous for a couple of Jews as well. People come from all over to climb this mountain in a religious experience equal to the Muslim Hajj. We are not religious and can barely believe half the things we can’t see but after about three thousand steps you are bound to get a little holy. Holy shit that is. When we set out at 3am we couldn’t even see the top of the mountain we were scaling. We knew the trail was about 7km long and roughly 1.1km tall but nothing could prepare us for the actual scaling. Well, that’s not exactly true since anyone who had read Clarke’s Rendezvous with Rama knows that the insane staircase and ladders that led from the center of the flying cylinder to the flat world inside it was modeled, rightfully, after Adam’s peak. I’m not sure Clarke has even scaled it but he is not likely to any time soon since they are still working on the handicapped parking place below and the cable car will not make an appearance before the end of this century. It took us about 3 hours of straight climbing. If you’re not a spiritual man when you leave, you become one around the 4500th step, just before you can make out the final plateau at the top. Shaped like an ominous flattop pyramid, the tiny platform at the apex houses two small temples. One contains the footprint of Adam or of a Hindu God—depending on who you ask.The other structure houses a bell that climbers can tall while making a wish. I wished for a blanket and hot tea. No luck. Marvelous sunrise nonetheless.

I am not sure but I am beginning to see a pattern. it seems that anywhere you turn, religious experience is always associated with pain and suffering. Why is that? Why can’t we have a little bit of pain to remind us that we are human and then a nice escalator to a higher level of existence? Kierkegaard said the aesthetic stage begins and ends with despair but that a true leap of faith is done with fear and trembling. Yesterday I felt a little bit of both. Our host at the lodge below the trail said that the mountain had cured him of diabetes. He showed us his foot, which was scheduled to be amputated a few years ago. I don’t know if science helped him out or what, but after climbing the mountain over a hundred times I guess it finally took pity on him. Which is more than you could say for the thousands of butterflies that fly to the top to die. 

If there is a connection between western manipulation of matter and eastern transcendence of time - we haven’t found it yet. But we are looking. I’m sorry I can’t write more often but Internet service here is as much spiritual as it is scientific. More from Colombo after Xmass, which, for a Buddhist country is quite sickeningly pervasive. 

Well, gotta be merry.            

So we’re playing the waiting game. Waiting for the UK agent to get back to us. Waiting for Clarke’s secretary to get back to us. Waiting for the wheel to turn around. We’re taking a few days off to explore the countryside and the myriad of cosmographic areas around Sri Lanka. These are places that are said to be gateways to another world.

In1962 the Prime minister of India said that the time for war and politics is over and now is the time for Intelligence and Spirituality. It’s been over 40 years and it seems that we are still barely scratching the surface. If Clarke won’t speak, maybe he’ll write to us and answer some of our questions. Otherwise, we’ll have to start looking elsewhere for answers. 

Fax to Mr. Clarke, Wednesday, December 28, 2005 

From Lio Spiegler

   Dear Mr. Clarke, This is a fax from Lio Spiegler, the Israeli with the “crazyspace hair” that came to see you with his friend less than 2 weeks ago. Your secretary suggested that the best way to receive answers from you is via fax. 

Me: how are you sir?

Clarke: ok, ok. 

Me:Do you remember us from yesterday? 

Clarke: speak up please. 

Me:Can you hear me? 

Clarke: yes, yes. 

Me: You said that you don’t believe in God but that you are very interested in him. 

Clarke (smiling broadly): or Her… 

Me: …or Her. What have you found?

That’s how started and almost ended my entire interview. Let’s rewind. The tuk-tuk dropped us in front of 25c Barnes Place, next door to the Iraqi Embassy. And on this particular morning I could swear it would’ve been easier for me to get an interview with the Iraqi ambassador than with Mr. Clarke but I quickly shook that thought out of my sleepless head. The night before was a ball of nervewrecking anticipation spiked with the local Arrack, which the Sri Lankans distill from coconut juice to an inflammable golden spirit reminiscent of Scotch and Rum with a hint of Tequila.

Soren Kierkegard talks of three stages in the individual’s development. The Aesthetic, which begins and ends in despair but which is full of pure indulgence, absolute free choice and no commitment. We all go through that stage and some of us, like Cosmo Kramer, never actually leave it. Then there’s the Ethical stage, which is marked by a loss of individuality in favor of the universal rules of society and a commitment to making the right global choice regardless of the individual’s desires—to which the working family man is a living epitome. The final stage is the Religious, which is marked by a paradox that states that the individual rises above himself and above society’s rules and goes through life in leaps of faith-quite unlike going to church every Sunday or keeping kosher on Shabat. Our journey has compelled us to become religious. We HAVE to believe that we are doing the right thing. We had to believe that Clarke will talk to us or he simply wouldn’t have. Believe that the old recluse would emerge from his shell one last time. On the surface everything was saying no. But just beneath the waves an entire cosmos was saying maybe. 

Sri Lanka’s old name is Serendib, and serendipity played a big part in our pilgrimage. The day before the interview, in the middle of the worst looking and smelling place in Colombo’s market district, we ran into Ajid, a Muslim clerk in the old SriLankan municipality. Ajid had a poetic take on life which was summed up in “eating, sleeping, and fucking” but, sure enough, he told us that while jogging a few nights earlier he saw Clarke in his red Mercedes admiring the sunset on the Galle beachfront.

So we climbed again into the side office and met with Nalaka, Clarke’s personal secretary. His courtesy didn’t hide the fact that he was amazed that we got this far without going through the formal channels of rejection. I recounted the story so far and impressed on him the notion that we came out of respect, passion and genuine concern but he maintained that since he didn’t know us and since the UK agent didn’t know of us, then logically we didn’t exist and therefore had to disappear and come back when we have proper clearance. Icouldn’t blame him but I wanted to. I couldn’t understand why a man like Clarke wasn’t documented around the clock in the hope that, perchance, he will have an enlightening piece of wisdom to share with the world. Quite frankly, I wasn’t ready to accept the simple fact that perhaps Clarke felt that he was done with the world. I wasn’t ready to give up on him. 

In the midst of all the excitement we realized that we had no formal credentials on us. No business cards, no bios, no show reel, no references on demand or recommendations upon request. Nothing. We were aliens. Worse, we were suspected terrorists.On the secretary’s insistence Peddy went back to the hotel to get our passports leaving me to slowly stew in the cozy one hundred five degrees office under the secretary’s fiery gaze. I felt that at any moment he would turn to me and call the whole thing off. Peddy, in the meantime, didn’t exactly have it easy. The tuk-tuk that drove him to the hotel ran out of gas half way there. Then the room door wouldn’t open. Then the room safe wouldn’t open. Finally, on the way back, a train pulled into the station but unlike a normal train it protruded into the road so no one could go through until it finished unloading and loading its passengers. A stupid train stood between Clarke and us and as time was running I knew Clarke’s alertness was fading away toward his afternoon nap. I should have listened to the Tao. 

As if that wasn’t bad enough, Hector Ekanayake came up while I was waiting. I couldn’t tell if he remembered me from the day before but he seemed tense and almost angry as he stormed past me into the wing that housed Clarke. He came out five minutes later announcing that Clarke didn’t really like to be filmed and that I could only ask him 4 questions! That’s it. No do-overs. No second takes. No “10 minutes today, 10 minutes tomorrow”. Nada mas. I couldn’t believe that I came this far from so far to be faced with such an ultimatum. I was angry and hurt and selfish. And now I’m speculating, but how can it be that the people who wanted nothing but the best for Arthur would completely miss my intentions and refuse to cooperate until I got cleared by an agent, half way across the globe, who’s never met me? Clarke didn’t send a man to the moon by going with the grain. Why shouldn’t I do the same? Granted, Clarke did send out a clear directive to refuse all media offers. But why then did he agree to see us? If the answer is always a positive no then why did his secretary let us in? And then why only 4 questions?

But insane as it was it was the best offer I got so far. I grabbed it. Peddy arrived shortly after and as our passports smiled for the photocopy machine we went to set up in the study. Mr. Clarke was wheeled in and 15 minutes later we got ourselves an interview and a snapshot.

And noweverybody is dying to know what was asked and what he said.

Let me say that we got much less than we wanted but much more than anyone will ever get. Not to infringe on any rights, I will hold off on the final tally of Q&A until I know for sure what is happening next or until the movie comes out. Don’t hate me. Work with me here.

As a fanI can safely say that I’m glad I was able to see Sir Arthur C. Clarke on his birthday under a full moon, make him laugh with a “I invented the satellite and all I got was this lousy T-shirt” T-shirt, make him cry with breath taking images from here to the edge of the universe in the “What’s out there?” picturebook, and make him think about life and everything.

As afilmmaker, I’ve much to do to bridge the gap between intelligence and spirituality. Slim as it may be, there is still a chance that we will meet him again. I am talking to the UK agent. I am trying. I don’t even know if Clarke will want it, if his family will allow it, or if he will have the time and energy for another fifteen minutes of filming. But God knows the world needs it. 

If He or She is listening, now will be a good time to do something.         

Clarke definitely made a joke about my hair… but the real joke was that amidst the fear and exhilaration neither of us (Peddy nor I) had any means of recording with us. No video camera, no stills camera, no tape recorder, no cellphone—all of it was back at the hotel. Thus my first lesson in making documentaries was never to leave the room without a camera as that is exactly when all the good stuff happens. And for those who don’t know what I look like let me just say that Clarke and I differ dramatically in our stylistic choices. My long bleached dreadlocks and titanium hoop earrings stand in clear contrast to his thinning British hairline and rimless spectacles. We may share the same taste in sarongs but I couldn’t tell from the long blanket that covered his legs. Despite the searing Sri Lankan heat Clarke was very comfortable bundled under his duvet with no AC and nothing but a slow ceiling fan to stir the air.

Before I go on allow me to explain something. I didn’t say that Clarke was unreachable in the sense that he was being held in an unknown underground black bunker somewhere. Certainly, if you are able to afford the cost and sustain the 10 to 20 hour flight (depending on where you come from) you will be able to walk up to his house, knock on the door and probably get a quick handshake and a nice picture for your family album. What I meant is that a passionate armada of assistants and agents surrounds him constantly and—under his guidance—ensure that the outside world is parceled based on importance and relevance. Being that I am two generations and several continents removed from Clarke and at least an entire generation below his closest staff member I certainly had the feeling that my honest desire to present his story to people my age would be politely ignored. Or as Clarke put it in his latest Egogram,”Every offer, however reasonable, should be responded to with a ‘kindly drop dead’.” 

Clarke smiled at us from behind his large mahogany desk. Rows of books and a myriad ofautographed photos completely covered the wall behind him and to our left side.We walked past a small seating area and were invited to sit down. The unexpected turn of events certainly didn’t put us at ease, but imagine our surprise when all of a sudden Clarke declared that he knows me, that we’ve met somewhere, and that he absolutely knew Peddy, and that we spoke before. We assured him that while we thought about him long and hard in the past few months we never actually occupied the same space and time. He laughed; attributing his confusion either to my “crazy space hair” or the fact that it was a full moon outside… he said that he dreams a lot and that he isn’t sure anybody’s interested in it. 

The first thing I realized when I saw this wonderful mind sitting in front of me is that the carbon based body it was encased in was certainly not immune to the ravages of that elusive of dimensions—time. It’s strange, when you study a person for as long as I did, to finally meet him face to face. The symbol he becomes tends to be larger than the actual two-point-six cubic feet he actually occupies. I briefly explained to him that we came all the way from Israel,especially for his birthday, to present him with some gifts and get the most up-to-date snapshot of the human species. I said that while I had questions on anything from extra dimensions to extra-terrestrial intelligence, I was particularly interested in his view vis-à-vis the illogical affair of faith and reason. This seemed to have “switched him on” and he proceeded to deride religion as “a cruel evil invented by the “devil” to obscure “god”.” It was certainly one of the better explanations I heard considering the fact that usually most of them seem to fall into the standard formula of RELIGION equals POWER HUNGRY INTELLIGENTSCIA plus TRULY HUNGRY MASSES times THE AVERAGE HUMAN’S INABILITY TO EXPLAIN EVERYTHING divided by AN INSANE FEAR OF DEATH. 

Finally he was getting a little tired so we said we’d love to return tomorrow if possible. Clarke checked his calendar and said he could squeeze us in between his morning nap and his afternoon schlaaffstunde. I asked him how he felt and he said that he is being taken care of by his family and that for an ex-diver and Polio survivor he was doing pretty well for himself. I was never a sentimental person and quite frankly, until recently, I was certain I am the best thing that ever happened to me. But shaking the hand that shook hands with every astronaut that ever went to space, that operated the first RADAR, that penned all those marvelous lines, that sent man to the stars, had had a mystic effect on me. Or it could simply be the close proximity to kanyakumari-India’s southernmost tip said to be a gateway between this world and several possible others. Clarke asked that we try to come early because that’s when he’s sharpest. Then he bellowed a loud “shalom” and we were out the door. As we quietly walked back to our hotel I was lost in thought. I could only hope that we will be able to tap into the man’s awesome power of extrapolation one more time and I’d like to think that our Mediterranean naiveté will prove the right way to go. Either way we are one step closer.         

The day started with a simple enough tour to the Buddha temple in the middle of Colombo. We played the tourist part and let ourselves fall victim to a local charlatan offering “cheap thrills, the safest tuk-tuk ride, and all the Buddhist festivities” we can take. It turned out that there were no festivities, the tuk-tuk was simply driven by the man’s cohort, and the would-be thrills turnedout to be expensive and pointless. By the time our driver dropped us off in the middle of Colombo’s largest park, we were $40 lighter and completely parched. We discovered that the Sri Lankan favorite pastime is making out in the park. No joke. I can only assume that being watched by other couples in the park offers more privacy than being hassled by fussy family members in your own house. We slowly made our way in a direction where we thought we might find some water when we realized that we are very close to Barnes Place-Clarke’s home. Our destination was nestled comfortably between the Swedish embassy and the Iraqi embassy. We decided to spontaneously storm the castle, which also housed the diving shop, and discuss a possible scuba lesson in the hope of meeting Hector and getting a feel for the challenge ahead. It was a funny feeling. After months of planning this meeting we were standing only a few meters from our destination. Our destination had absolutely no knowledge of our existence. No idea that across the globe a dedicated group of curious individuals was dying to meet him. The moment was upon us. We shyly rang the front gate bell and moments later we were escorted to the main office of Underwater Safaris, located on the ground floor of Barnes Place. Hector sat with his back to us and immediately rose to greet us.  

Hector is a seasoned Sri Lankan beach boy. Sporting a smooth tan and a white goatee. His eyes were kind but seemed to posses the ability to look at Peddy and me simultaneously. His office was simple but on the wall behind his desk was a large poster of planet earth seen from space-from three different angles and a huge picture of Arthur. As I examined the office more closely I noticed more and more Clarkian trinkets decorating the desk and the other wall. I could feel the man’s presence. We asked Hector about diving. When he said that diving conditions were not great due to the Tsunami, I confessed to him that we actually came to meet Clarke and while diving is very dear to us, it was Clarke whom we really wanted to see. Hector’s jovial response was short, “you want to meet Clarke? Come on upstairs.” Surely this was a weird dream sequence. Without too much fanfare we were rushed to Clarke’s office on the second floor of the east wing. Months of intricate contact strategies collapsed into a clear inevitability. We felt we were drawn into Clarke’s home and that whatever we planned was worth nothing in the face of such series of events. Rohan, Clarke’s personal assistant, seated us in the lower part of a two-level office. It was sparsely decorated but did have a majestic G5 in one corner that shared a small table with Clarke’s biography, several of his books, and “First on the Moon” book series by Neil Armstrong et al. on a far wall was a dedicated picture of the earth shot from the moon and underneath it a dedicated picture of NASA’s entire Voyager crew. Rohan said that Clarke was resting and that if we weren’t in a hurry they will wake him up and we could meet him. In the meantime, we surveyed the far walls of the upper office level that displayed an impressive array of certificates, letters and dedications. Clarke was important and almost ominous even without this overbearing wall of acknowledgements. If we needed another reassurance to the magnitude of our journey it was right there on that wall. Rohan let us read a printed bulletin that summed up Clarke’s views on religion. One axiom stood out in particular. It read, “The best definition of faith: believing what you know isn’t true.” Well, everything we knew wasn’t true. With that thought we were informed that Clarke was up and ready to see us in his study. As simple as that, two guys from the Fertile Crescent were about to meet the man who sent mankind to the moon…         

Peddy and I land safely in Colombo. Peddy is my partner in film. My editor, my good rock.

Checked into the Taj Samudra. While we get our bearings and figure out the best strategy, here’s a recap for those of you who don’t know the story-of-everything that happened so far and how we ended up on a small island20 hours away from NY.  

It all started with a simple enough question, “Will man’s invention of “God” supersede man’s invention of the wheel?” Put another way, will religious fervor conquer the science of reason? Can you separate faith from organized religion and have it co-exist with rational thinking or must one destroy the other? And how, by the way, is our future looking like 10 to 50 years from now? On thinking of ways to settle this debate one name came immediately to mind. Unfortunately, when we tried to reach Sir Arthur C. Clarke by email we receiveda curious auto reply saying that due to an influx of information Mr. Clarke is regretting to announce that he has disconnected himself from the Internet and had stopped answering emails. The message said that all inquiries should be sent to his agent. Agent? The man is turning 88! by the time his agent will answer my email he could already be on his way to the stars… This will not do. Being the conquistador Israelis that we are, we immediately set out in (a vain) search of alternative ways to reach him online. The search mainly revealed a lot of interesting stories and the fact that very few filmed projects exist about the man. In the process we took the time to read all of the existing biographies and watch all existing documentaries. We decided that the story of Clarke deserves a better representation on film. It all started with a simple enough question. 

I wrote to the ACC Foundation. Wrote to the Clarkives. Wrote to my lawyer. Wrote to theagent. Gave 3 reasons to make the film: nobody knows him; his final prophecy may become a priceless legacy for mankind; nobody from Hollywood is knocking onyour door.
No game. Made a proposal: we’ll go to Sri Lanka. Spend three days with the manand get an interview. We’ll try to sell the film this way. If we fail you keep the tapes. If you succeed just reimburse us for the travel expenses. The bottom line was no.   

But Karma was already working with or without us.    

We met with documentarist Ilan Ziv. My wife works with him. He liked the idea:”art meets science meets religion go diving and find the answer to all of human kind’s questions.” We have a backer. Distribution on BBC and ARTE. Tsunami hits Sri Lanka, Clarke announces he is all right. Scary moment there. Later we feel that this particular backer might actually settle for something more “Fog ofWar” and less “Life and Death of Peter Sellers”. It had to be accessible to most not to some. It means we have to get the interview to get a shot at the big picture. 

Talked to Bobby J., a long time New York Comedian friend. Turns out he knows of Clarke and that they spoke over the phone in 1989 while a civil war was raging in Sri Lanka. Clarke had to cut it short because they were shooting all around him.   

Met Sunil R. in focus groups in Pheonix. He was born across the road form Clarke.Got Clarke’s home phone number. Apparently many of Sunil’s classmates used tohang out in Clarke’s pool and play table tennis. Will try to arrange an unofficial get together through Sunil’s brother who still lives on the island. Most likely we will need to get a diving lesson from Clarke’s life long partner Hector Ekanayake. 

Went to a party at Montezino’s, Fashion Photographer. Friend. Turns out he also spoke to Clarke after a lecture he delivered in Princeton. Weird. If you think it’s not, try this: my good friend Pavel offered to introduce me to his British neighbor upstate since he was born in Sri Lanka. Imagine our surprise when it turned out that said neighbor actually interviewed Clarke in 1978 for the first edition of Omni Magazine. What you may call a small world. 

Going to gothere on his birthday and pose him a series of fundamental questions. About religion and science, about transportation and water, about education and money, about medicine and politics, about earth and space, about communications and astral projections, about drugs and consciousness, about fatherhood and ourplace in the universe, about why he’s so damn hard to reach.        

2005-12-1322:42:07

The questions  

This is an unedited list of the questions I plan to ask Clarke over the course of the next several weeks.

On religion and spirituality

1. You said that you don’t believe in “God” but that you are very interested in him, or her. What have you found?
2. Intelligence and faith, reason and religion. Can they co-exist? Should they? What’s the alternative?
3. Can religion exist in an individual state or does it only work in a group? Can there be a substitution to institutionalized religion?
4. Do you think faith belongs only in the lab where conjectures are made or is it something to live by?
5. What is the importance of religious rituals in the future of mankind?
6. What have you learned from religion? From religious philosophies?
7. Olaf Stapledon’s “Last and first men” shows that the ONLY thing that survives the test of time is “religious experience”. Not necessarily in the way that we know it but still… would you agree?

On intelligence

1. Can all the advancements in science and art be directly attributed to intelligence?
2. Is intelligence genetic? If so, should we all become super intelligent through genetic modification?
3. What are the effects of videogames on intelligence? What role do they play in our evolution?
4. Can we seriously evolve as a species with so many of us still well below average intelligence? Is the Braincap the only solution in your mind?

On science and technology 

1. Will man’s invention of “God” supersede man’s invention of the wheel?
2. Technology, medication, education. What’s the connection?
3. Is advanced technology a necessary condition to our development as a species? Is it the only condition?
4. What is the difference between an average living creature and a super smart computer?
5. Will machines ever become a separate species?
6. Do clones have a soul? Are they merely clusters of information?
7. Is our emotional evolution up to speed with our technological?
8. Are we “destined” to die as determined in our genetic code or is it merely an inconvenience?

On dimensions

1. How do extra dimensions fit into the picture?
2. So far extra dimensions have only been mathematical probabilities. What are the chances of us discovering and communicating with extra dimensions? How do you think it will happen?
3. We can “grasp” a single, two, and three dimensions. Why are we having so much trouble with 4, 5 or more dimensions?
4. Does the problem have to do with the length of “now” we can perceive? Is it a matter of developing a proper vocabulary?
5. Does time exist in all dimensions?
6. Can the Internet be considered a new dimension? Is it a portal to another dimension?
7. Yogis are believed to have the ability to transcend time for an instant. What is the connection between spirituality and that extra dimension?

     On society and culture
 

1. Can marriage, as we know it, exist without religion? is it vital to our society? Can mini-societies become the alternative instead?
2. Will cyber societies eventually replace physical ones?
3. You said money would be abolished in the relatively near future. Can you describe one possible scenario in which it happens?
4. How will we resolve our disputes? Should the justice system change?
5. Waste management: what do we do with all of our garbage?
6. What will happen to the medium of film and story telling? Olfactory films? Virtual films?
7. Will we see an infallible truth machine?
8. New energy sources and politics. Do we need a catastrophe to change our ways?
9. Do you believe our folly to emanate purely from our struggle with our animalistic urges?
10. Will we ever rid ourselves of envy, greed, lying? Can we do without them?
11. What is the role of our emotions in our evolution?
12. Drugs and hallucinogenics have played an undeniable part in our evolution. What is your view on the subject? What role will they play in our future?
13. We are considered a type 0 civilization. Will we see our next civilization rising in our lifetime? What will have to change? At what price?
14. What are the fundamental differences between our civilization and the next?
15. After we’ve “won all the battles”, what’s left for mankind to do, to aspire to?
16. How plausible is the Overmind destiny you described in Childhood’s End?

On life in space

1. If we had to leave the Earth tomorrow how will we sustain life? Where will we go?
2. What do we need to take from earth, what will we need to create in space? What would you take?
3. How will our biology change? What is the future of love?
4. You sent mankind to Jupiter and its moons. Now pictures of Iapetus show unusual signs of artificial origins. Do you think our destiny is connected in any way to that particular satellite?

On Serendipity

1. Sri Lanka appears in your writings directly and indirectly many times. Besides being sacred to several world religions, Sri Lanka is also a destination for Yogis to come and transcend time through meditation. Is this a coincidence? What part will Sri Lanka play in mankind’s future?
2. In the first chapter of Rendezvous with Rama, why did you choose September the 11th as the day for the greatest meteorite tragedy in world history?
3. How did you “know” about Iapetus? How do you think H.G. Wells “guessed” the tetrahedron shape?
4. Do you believe nature is full of “accidents” and coincidences or purpose and reason? What have you experienced?

On your personal philosophy

1. What would you tell a 10-year-old Arthur Clarke if you could meet him today? 20, 40, 60?
2. Do you have a personal “God Theory”? Do you believe in a higher force? Do you pray?
3. Do you meditate? Have you had experiences with energy healing?
4. Western science is now able to manipulate matter while eastern meditation is said to be able to transcend time. What do you think about the gap between the two? Can they ever meet? “Quantum Yoga”?
5. A large portion of the world’s population is entering old age. What will people do with so much spare time? What are your feelings regarding the old? What is the place of the elderly in our society?
6. Olaf Stapledon says the purpose of mankind is “to acknowledge the world, admire it, and crown it with further beauties.” You said that you believe our purpose is to create god. How do you feel about that purpose today?
7. You said that we came from the sea and are heading toward the stars. Do you still feel this way today?
8. What would you tell your father if he were alive today?