Arthur C. Clarke, author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, died this morning.  Much more than just a visionary science fiction author--although he certainly was that--Clarke was a true futurist.  He gave us a glimpse of a brilliant future, one which undisputedly inspired some of the best scientists of our time.  Some people laugh at futurists, understanding them only as pseudo-scientists who waste our time with prophecies so impossible as to be all but meaningless.  What these people fail to grasp is that futurists hold scientific discovery in trust for us all.  It is they who give it its core, its heart, its moral compass.  Clarke, the best of the best, left us with a vision that not only inspired our minds but also shaped our future.

He created the concept of the communications satellite, he commented on the Apollo series of moonshots, he researched the dynamics of the Great Barrier Reef.  And, he did it all from a wheelchair.  Clarke battled Polio his entire life, first as a child and later as an adult.  He won his first battle with Polio as a child, but his enemy returned several years later in the form of Post Polio Syndrome, a debilitating chronic condition.  His physical trials, however, never dampened his optimistic spirit.  He continued to explore the world around him, from the deepest crevices of the ocean floor to the nether regions of space, sharing his observations as he went.