After all, he explains, the departure point for all his journeys, planet Earth, has only a 51 per cent chance of surviving the new millennium. That's the problem with science fiction.
Smashing things is more interesting.
Sir Arthur is more fascinated by the pace of mankind's rush towards self-destruction than its future in space. Since 1956 he has lived on this tropical island in a house that bears the tributes to his work on every wall. From his wheelchair he keeps in touch with the world through the satellite communications he envisaged in the 1950s. The future, he feels, was not supposed to happen so quickly. His prediction about communications satellites, and a moon landing he envisaged for 1978, happened faster than he had expected.