Sir Arthur Charles Clarke
Auto-Scofflaw
Clarke's first law:
When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he/she is almost certainly right. When he/she states that something is impossible, he/she is very probably wrong.
I am proud to be a named victim of Clarke's first law, and the culprit is none other than Sir Arthur himself. One of the last acts of his life, when he was 90 years old.
Clarke's last novel, "The Last Theorem", was actually written by Frederik Pohl, based on a twelve(?) page extended outline written by Sir Arthur. On page 55:
- But there Dr. Vorhulst began to rein in the class’s speculation. “Fric¬ tion,” he said succinctly. “Don’t forget friction. Remember what reentry did to a lot of the early spacecraft. If you used a Lofstrom loop, you’d need to accelerate your capsule to that seven miles a second of escape velocity that I was talking about the other day before you let go of it, and then the air friction would bum it right up.”