Clarke"s Believe It or Not

Arthur Clarke is known for spinning elaborate, visionary tales of futures that might be, none more famous than 2001: A Space Odyssey. But according to Clarke, the real 2001 has some pretty unbelievable things to offer. "I'm fairly convinced that we have discovered life on Mars," Clarke told SPACE.com Sunday as Buzz Aldrin listened. "There are some incredible photographs from [the Jet Propulsion Laboratory], which to me are pretty convincing proof of the existence of large forms of life on Mars! Have a look at them. I don't see any other interpretation." Aldrin did not comment, but responded by referring to another remarkable topic, so-called zero-point energy, theorized by some physicists as being a powerful energy source that exists in the vacuum of space. Aldrin said, "To put this into a perspective where Arthur and I agree: It may take 200, 300 or 400 years, but it's going to take zero-point energy to get us to Alpha Centauri." Turning to Clarke, he added, "Correct?"

"I'm glad that Buzz has raised this rather controversial question," Clarke said. "A lot of my scientist friends are crazy to believe there's anything in this. It started with this so-called cold fusion business, which everybody laughed out of court. But I'm now convinced that there are new forms of energy, which we are tapping, and they make even nuclear energy look trivial in comparison. And when we control those energy sources, the universe will open up."
And then Clarke took an opportunity to rebut those who refuse to believe even well documented events, specifically, the Apollo moon missions. Responding to a recent television program claiming the Apollo landings were faked, Clarke said, "I can't imagine anybody being stupid enough to think that a program involving hundreds of thousands of people, carried out over a period of [more than a decade], in a blaze of publicity, could possibly be faked. Ben Franklin said, 'A conspiracy of three people can be kept secret, if two of them are dead!'"