The Last Theorem
The final work from the brightest star in science fiction’s galaxy. Arthur C Clarke, who predicted the advent of communication satellites and author of 2001: A Space Odyssey completes a lifetime career in science fiction with a masterwork.30 light years away, a race known simply as the One Point Fives are plotting a dangerous invasion plan, one that will wipe humankind off the face of the Earth…Meanwhile, in Sri Lanka, a young astronomy student, Ranjit Subramanian, becomes obsessed with a three-hundred-year-old theorem that promises to unlock the secrets of the universe. While Ranjit studies the problem, tensions grow between the nations of the world and a UN taskforce headed up by China, America and Russia code-named Silent Thunder begins bombing volatile regimes into submission.On the eve of the invasion of Earth a space elevator is completed, helped in part by Ranjit, which will herald a new type of Olympics to be held on the Moon. But when alien forces arrive Ranjit is forced to question his own actions, in a bid to save the lives of not just his own family but of all of humankind.Co-written with fellow grand master Frederik Pohl, The Last Theorem not only provides a fitting end to the career one of the most famous names in science fiction but also sets a new benchmark in contemporary prescient science fiction. It tackles with ease epic themes as diverse as third world poverty, the atrocities of modern warfare in a post-nuclear age, space elevators, pure mathematics and mankind’s first contact with extra-terrestrials.
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THE LAST THEOREM
Arthur C. Clarke & Frederik Pohl
Contents
The First PreambleThe Second PreambleThe Third Preamble: The Last TheoremChapter One: On Swami RockChapter Two: UniversityChapter Three: An Adventure In Code-CrackingChapter Four: Forty Days Of Data DownpourChapter Five: From Mercury To The OortChapter Six: Meanwhile, Back On EarthChapter Seven: Getting ThereChapter Eight: SummerChapter Nine: Lazy DaysChapter Ten: A New Life For The KanakaratnamsChapter Eleven: Pirate LifeChapter Twelve: JudgmentChapter Thirteen: A Convenient Place For QuestioningChapter Fourteen: Rendition To The Highest BidderChapter Fifteen: Introduction To One (Or More) Grand GalacticsChapter Sixteen: HomegoingChapter Seventeen: HeavenChapter Eighteen: CompanyChapter Nineteen: FameChapter Twenty: MarriageChapter Twenty One: Honeymoon, Part TwoChapter Twenty Two: The New WorldChapter Twenty Three: Farmer “Bill”Chapter Twenty Four: CaliforniaChapter Twenty Five: Silent ThunderChapter Twenty Six: On The Threshold Of PeaceChapter Twenty Seven: Pax Per FidemChapter Twenty Eight: Making A LifeChapter Twenty Nine: Burgeoning HopesChapter Thirty: Big NewsChapter Thirty One: Skyhook DaysChapter Thirty Two: Natasha’s GoldChapter Thirty Three: Private Pain In A Rejoicing WorldChapter Thirty Four: Pentominoes And CarsChapter Thirty Five: The Uses Of VaccinationChapter Thirty Six: Preparing For The RaceChapter Thirty Seven: The RaceChapter Thirty Eight: The Hunt For Natasha SubramanianChapter Thirty Nine: The InterrogationsChapter Forty: The Portrait GalleryChapter Forty One: Home AgainChapter Forty Two: A Great DepressionChapter Forty Three: Landed ImmigrantsChapter Forty Four: International DisagreementsChapter Forty Five: Searching For A SolutionChapter Forty Six: Deal-MakingChapter Forty Seven: PartingChapter Forty Eight: The Soul In The MachineThe First PostambleThe Second PostambleThe Third PostambleThe Fourth PostambleBy Arthur C. ClarkeBy Frederik PohlCopyrightAbout the Publisher
Arthur C. Clarke says:
The incidents at Pearl Harbor lay in the future and the United States was still at peace when a British warship steamed into Nantucket with what was later called “the most valuable cargo ever to reach American shores.” It was not very impressive, a metal cylinder about an inch high, fitted with connections and cooling fins. It could easily be carried in one hand. Yet this small object had a strong claim to being responsible for winning the war in Europe and Asia—though it did take the atom bomb to finish the last of the Axis powers off.
That just-invented object was the cavity magnetron.
The magnetron was not in principle a new idea. For some time it had been known that a powerful magnetic field could keep electrons racing in tight circles, thus generating radio waves. However, this fact remained little more than a laboratory curiosity until it was realized that those radio waves could be used for a military purpose.
When it had such a military use, it was called radar.
When the American scientists working at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology received that first device, they subjected it to many tests. They were surprised to find that the magnetron’s power output was so great that none of their laboratory instruments could measure it. A little later, powering the giant antennae that had quickly been erected along the Channel coast, that British radar did a fine job of spotting the Luftwaffe’s myriad warplanes as they formed up to attack England. Indeed, radar was responsible, more than any other one thing, for allowing the Royal Air Force to win the Battle of Britain.
It was soon realized that radar could be used not only to detect enemy aircraft in the sky, but to make electronic maps of the ground over which a plane was flying. That meant that, even in total darkness or complete overcast, the land below could be imaged in recognizable shape on a cathode-ray tube, thus helping navigation—and bombing missions. And as soon as the magnetron was available at MIT, a team headed by future Nobel Laureate Luis Alvarez asked the next question: “Can’t we use radar to land aircraft safely, as well as to shoot them down?”
So began GCA, or ground-controlled approach, the landing of aircraft in bad weather using precision approach radar.
The experimental Mark 1 GCA used two separate radars, one working at ten centimeters to locate the plane’s direction in azimuth, and the other—the world’s first three-centimeter radar—to measure height above ground. An operator seated before the two screens could then talk the aircraft down, telling the pilot when to fly right or left—or sometimes, more urgently, when to increase altitude—fast.
GCA was welcomed enthusiastically by the RAF Bomber Command, which every day was losing more aircraft over Europe through bad weather than through enemy action. In 1943 the Mark 1 and its crew were stationed at an airfield in St. Eval, Cornwall. An RAF crew headed by Flight Lieutenant Lavington was dispatched to join them. Lavington was assisted by the newly commissioned Pilot Officer Arthur C. Clarke.
