Clarke and I

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?