Enterprise Technology By Phil Edholm

This blog posting is not about Nortel or technology, but rather more of a personal note. I hope you will tolerate a bit of divergence from me.

It was with great sadness that I noted that Arthur C. Clarke passed away on the 19th of March. While I never had the opportunity to meet him personally, his vision (2001 - the book and movie, defining the geostationary satellite, etc.) were significant contributors to forming both my views on society, but also igniting a passion for technology and the transformations it can create.

Along with Isaac Asimov, Clark developed nuanced views into futures that were driven by the inventiveness of humans and their capability to define and manipulate their environment. Through my youth and on to today, I have looked to their vision as a view into the possible and the potential of the future. While they may not have been 100% correct, their vision helped shape our thoughts of what could be and drive us forward. While the vision of human progression portrayed by Clarke in 2001 was driving my thoughts one way, a book on the Neutrino by Asimov led me in 8th grade to beginning studying particle physics. And then that led to reading the Foundation Trilogy and it's insights into both technology and society. Together these authors challenged my views of the possible and opened my mind to the potential of the future.

In some way the passing of both of these authors marks a close to the early period of my life where I was looking beyond the confines of my environment for that which could be beyond. Though they did not create the final products that embodied their vision, they will, for many years hence, have a guiding hand in defining our vision of the potentially attainable, and for that, we will be forever grateful.