2001 + 7

Arthur C. Clarke, the remaining member of the science fiction "Big Three" (the other two having been Isaac Asimov & Robert A. Heinlein) died early this a. m. If not for him there might not be any satellite communication.

A radar pioneer in the Royal Air Force during World War II, Clarke wrote a 1945 article in Wireless World magazine in which he outlined a worldwide communications network based on fixed satellites orbiting Earth at an altitude of 22,300 miles -- an orbital area now often referred to as the Clarke Orbit. Clarke's seminal article, for which he received $40, was published two decades before Syncom II became the world's first communications satellite put into geosynchronous orbit in 1963.

Well, someone had to come up w/ the concept, but he was the first. Thus, DirecTV, satellite 'phones, that delay between the anchor person & international correspondents (they call it "instantaneous" communication) & many other ills of the modern age:

Deemed a scientific prophet, Clarke foretold an array of technological notions in his works such as space stations, moon landings using a mother ship and a landing pod, cellular phones and the Internet. "Nobody has done more in the way of enlightened prediction," science-fiction author Isaac Asimov once wrote.

Oddly enough, in our desire to escape the grim reality that surrounds us, we've recently been reading anthologies of early or "classic" sci-fi short stories from both the L. A. & S. M. Public Libraries. Clarke had a few early classics. Guess that $40.00 for the satellite concept wasn't enough to keep him going, so he had to keep writing.