亞瑟·克拉克爵士（Arthur Charles Clarke）是20世紀享譽世界的英國科幻小說家，其科幻作品多以科學為依據，代表作《2001：太空漫遊》（2001: A Space Odyssey）於1968年被導演斯坦利·庫布里克拍攝成同名電影。
由亞瑟·克拉克基金會設立的克拉克獎，每年度會評選出終身成就獎（Award for Lifetime Achievement）、想象力服務社會獎（Award for Imagination in Service to Society ）、創新者獎（Innovator Award）三大獎項，以表彰世界上最卓越並最富創造力的思想家、科學家、作家、技術專家、商業領袖以及創新者（The Clarke Awards recognize and celebrate the world's most illustrious and creative thinkers, scientists, writers, technologists, business leaders and innovators）。
英國物理學家、宇宙學家霍金（Stephen Hawking）曾於2017年獲得過克拉克終身成就獎。
2012年，克拉克想象力服務社會獎首次設立，獲得過該獎項的作者包括《使女的故事》作者、加拿大小說家瑪格麗特·阿特伍德（Margaret Atwood）；多次獲得雨果獎和星雲獎、代表作有《火星三部曲》的美國科幻小說家金·斯坦利·羅賓森（Kim Stanley Robinson）等。
劉慈欣曾獲得過雨果獎、全球華語科幻星雲獎等重量級獎項，但這次的克拉克獎，對他來說意義非凡。
因為阿瑟·克拉克是劉慈欣非常崇拜的科幻小說家，每次做閱讀書籍推薦，他也總會推薦克拉克的作品。
劉慈欣曾在央視《朗讀者》節目中談道：“我所有的一切作品都是對阿瑟·克拉克最拙劣的模仿。”
在頒獎禮致答謝詞時，劉慈欣還表示，正是克拉克將自己引進了科幻閱讀和寫作之門。
It's an honor for Liu that he got the award under the name of his favorite sci-fi master. Liu said in his reception speech that Clarke was the one that led him into sci-fi world and ignited his imagination ever since the 1980s.
值得一提的是，劉慈欣這次的獲獎演講全部用英文完成。
他的英文有多好呢？中國日報記者此前問過《球狀閃電》和《三體2》的譯者周華（Joel Martinsen），得知，書的英譯本大劉是全文看過的。
而這篇英文演講稿也非常精彩，劉慈欣用詩意和深沉的文字表達了自己對於“想象力”（imagination ）的理解，以及對宇宙和星辰大海的嚮往。
劉慈欣在演講中說，自己在上世紀80年代首次接觸到克拉克的著作，想象力第一次“被激活”（These two books, for the first time, brought my imagination to life）。
他回憶起讀完《2001：太空漫遊》的那天深夜，他走出家門仰望星空，第一次真正看到了宇宙：
For the first time in my life, I was awed by the magnitude and mystery of our universe, the feeling which you only get facing religion. 我第一次對宇宙的宏大與神秘產生了敬畏感，這是一種宗教般的感覺。
如今，科技的發達使得世界越來越像科幻小說了，但劉慈欣不無遺憾地表示，在IT所營造的舒適安樂窩中，人們對太空漸漸失去了興趣。
The imagination of science fiction is abandoning the vastness and profoundness that Arthur Clarke once opened up, instead people are now embracing the narrowness and introversion of cyberpunk.科幻的想象力由克拉克的廣闊和深遠，變成賽博朋克的狹窄和內向。
但劉慈欣仍然一直在努力延續著克拉克的想象，一直在描寫宇宙的宏大神奇，描寫遙遠世界中的生命和文明，他相信：
The vast ocean of stars can always carry our infinite imagination.浩瀚的星空永遠能夠承載我們無窮的想象力。
Ladies and Gentleman,
女士們，先生們：
Good evening!
晚上好！
It’s my great honor to receive the Clarke Award for Imagination in Service to Society. Thank you.
很榮幸獲得克拉克想象力服務社會獎。
This award is a reward for imagination. Imagination is a capability that should have exclusive belonged to God but we, as human beings, luckily have this too. It is far beyond our imagination to grasp the meaning of the existence of imagination. A historian used to say that the main reason why human beings have been able to surpass other species on earth and to build civilizations is that we are able to create something in our heads that does not exist in reality. In the future, when artificial intelligence becomes smarter than us, imagination may be the only advantage we have over AI.
這個獎項是對想象力的獎勵，而想象力是人類所擁有的一種似乎只應屬於神的能力，它存在的意義也遠超出我們的想象。有歷史學家說過，人類之所以能夠超越地球上的其他物種建立文明，主要是因為他們能夠在自己的大腦中創造出現實中不存在的東西。在未來，當人工智能擁有超過人類的智力時，想象力也許是我們所擁有的惟一優勢。
Science fiction is a literary genre based on imagination. And the first sci-fi works that impressed me were those by Arthur C. Clarke. Together with Jules Verne and George Wells, Arthur Clarke was among the first Western modern sci-fi writers to enter China. In the early 1980s, the two novels 2001: A Space Odyssey and Rendezvous With Rama were published in my country. At that time, the Cultural Revolution just ended. While the old life and faith had collapsed, the new ones had not yet been established. Like other young people, I felt lost during that period. These two books, for the first time, however, brought my imagination to life. My mind opened up like it has never before. I felt like a narrow stream finally embracing the sea.
科幻小說是基於想象力的文學，而最早給我留下深刻印象的是亞瑟·克拉克的作品。除了儒勒·凡爾納（Jules Verne）和赫伯特·喬治·威爾斯（Herbert George Wells）外，克拉克的作品是最早進入中國的西方現代科幻小說。在上世紀80年代初，中國出版了他的《2001：太空漫遊》和《與拉瑪相會》。當時文革剛剛結束，舊的生活和信仰已經崩塌，新的還沒有建立起來，我和其他年輕人一樣，心中一片迷茫。這兩本書第一次激活了我的想象力，思想豁然開闊許多，有小溪流進大海的感覺。
At midnight when I finished reading 2001: A Space Odyssey, I walked out of the house and stared at the starry sky. I was able to see the galaxy, thanks to the unpolluted sky of China back then. That night, I noticed that the starry sky looked nothing like before. For the first time in my life, I was awed by the magnitude and mystery of our universe, the feeling which you only get facing religion. Later on, the novel Rendezvous With Rama stunned me by showing how imagination could build a lifelike, fantastic world. It was Arthur Clarke who opened up this world of feelings to me, and who paved my way to become a sci-fi writer.
讀完《2001：太空漫遊》的那天深夜，我走出家門仰望星空，那時的中國的天空還沒有太多的汙染，能夠看到銀河，在我的眼中，星空與過去完全不一樣了，我第一次對宇宙的宏大與神秘產生了敬畏感，這是一種宗教般的感覺。而後來讀到的《與拉瑪相會》，也讓我驚歎想象力是如何構造出一個栩栩如生的想象世界的。正是克拉克帶給我的這些感受，讓我後來成為一名科幻作家。
Today, more than 30 years later, it gradually dawns on me that people like me, who were born in the 1960s in China, are probably the luckiest people in human history. No generation is like us, no generation has been able to witness such tremendous changes in the world around us. The world we are living in today is completely different from that of our childhood. And such changes are taking place with even greater speed.
現在，三十多年過去了，我漸漸發現，我們這一代在上世紀60年代出生於中國的人，很可能是人類歷史上最幸運的人。因為之前沒有任何一代人，像我們這樣目睹周圍的世界發生瞭如此巨大的變化。我們現在生活的世界，與我們童年的世界已經完全是兩個不同的世界，而這種變化還在加速發生著。
China is a highly futuristic country. It is true that the future of China may be full of challenges and risks, but never has this country been so attractive like today. This reality provides fertile soil for the growth of science fiction, and it is enjoying unprecedented attention in the country. As a Chinese sci-fi author, who was born in the 1960s, I’m the luckiest from the luckiest generation.
中國是一個充滿著未來感的國度，中國的未來可能充滿著挑戰和危機，但從來沒有像現在這樣具有吸引力，這就給科幻小說提供了肥沃的土壤，使其在中國受到了空前的關注。作為一個在60年代出生在中國的科幻小說家，我則是幸運中的幸運。
I started writing sci-fi because I looked for a way to escape the dull life, and to reach out, with imagination, to the mysterious time and space that I could never truly reach. But then I realized that the world around me became more and more like science fiction, and this process is speeding up. Future is like pouring rain. It reaches us even before we have time to open the umbrella. Meanwhile, when sci-fi becomes reality, it loses all its magic, and that frustrates me. Sci-fi will soon become part of our lives. The only thing I can do, is to push my imagination further to even more distant time and space to hunt for the mysteries of sci-fi. As a sci-fi author, I think my job is to write things down before they get really boring.
我最初創作科幻小說的目的，是為了逃離平淡的生活，用想象力去接觸那些我永遠無法到達的神奇時空。但後來我發現，周圍的世界變得越來越像科幻小說了。這種進程還在飛快地加速，未來像盛夏的大雨，在我們還不及撐開傘時就撲面而來。同時我也沮喪地發現，當科幻變為現實時，沒人會感到神奇，它們很快會成為生活中的一部分。所以我只有讓想象力前進到更為遙遠的時間和空間中去尋找科幻的神奇，科幻小說將以越來越快的速度變成平淡生活的一部分，作為一名科幻作家，我想我們的責任就是在事情變得平淡之前把它們寫出來。
精彩！劉慈欣首次英文演講，文稿深情優美，看完想背誦全文
This being said, the world is moving in the direction opposite to Clarke’s predictions. In 2001: A Space Odyssey, in the year of 2001, which has already passed, human beings have built magnificent cities in space, and established permanent colonies on the moon, and huge nuclear-powered spacecraft have sailed to Saturn. However, today, in 2018, the walk on the moon has become a distant memory. And the furthest reach of our manned space flights is just as long as the two-hour mileage of a high-speed train passing through my city.
但另一方面，世界卻向著與克拉克的預言相反的方向發展。在《2001：太空漫遊》中，在已經過去的2001年，人類已經在太空中建立起壯麗的城市，在月球上建立起永久性的殖民地，巨大的核動力飛船已經航行到土星。而在現實中的2018年，再也沒有人登上月球，人類的太空中航行的最遠的距離，也就是途經我所在的城市的高速列車兩個小時的里程。
At the same time, information technology is developing at an unimaginable speed. The entire world is connected via the internet and people have gradually lost their interest in space, as they find themselves increasingly comfortable in the space created by IT. Instead of an exploration of the real space, which is full of difficulties, people now just prefer to experiencing virtual space through VR. Just like someone said, “You promised me an ocean of stars, but you actually gave me Facebook.”
與此同時，信息技術卻以超乎想象的速度發展，網絡覆蓋了整個世界。在IT所營造的越來越舒適的安樂窩中，人們對太空漸漸失去了興趣。相對於充滿艱險的真實的太空探索，他們更願意在VR中體驗虛擬的太空。這像有一句話說的：“說好的星辰大海，你卻只給了我Facebook。”
This reality is also reflected in science fiction. Arthur Clarke’s magnificent imagination about space has gradually faded away. People stopped looking at starry skies. In the sci-fi works today, there are more imagination about how we live in cyber utopia or dystopia. Writers focus more on various problems we encounter in reality. The imagination of science fiction is abandoning the vastness and profoundness that Arthur Clarke once opened up, instead people are now embracing the narrowness and introversion of cyberpunk.
這樣的現實也反映在科幻小說中，克拉克對太空的瑰麗想象已經漸漸遠去，人們的目光從星空收回。現在的科幻小說，更多地想象人類在網絡烏托邦或反烏托邦中的生活，更多地關注現實中所遇到的各種問題，科幻的想象力由克拉克的廣闊和深遠，變成賽博朋克的狹窄和內向。
As a sci-fi writer, I have been striving to continue Arthur Clarke’s imagination. I believe that the boundless space is still the best direction and destination for human imagination. I have always written about the magnitude and mysteries of the universe, interstellar expeditions, and the lives and civilizations happening in distant worlds. This remains today, although this may seem childish or even outdated. It says on Arthur Clarke’s epitaph, “He never grew up, but he never stopped growing.”
作為科幻作家，我一直在努力延續著克拉克的想象，我相信，無垠的太空仍然是人類想象力最好的去向和歸宿，我一直在描寫宇宙的宏大神奇，描寫星際探險，描寫遙遠世界中的生命和文明，儘管在現在的科幻作家中，這樣會顯得有些幼稚，甚至顯得跟不上時代。正如克拉克的墓誌銘所說：“他從未長大，但從未停止成長。”
精彩！劉慈欣首次英文演講，文稿深情優美，看完想背誦全文
Many people misunderstand sci-fi as trying to predict the future, but this is not true. It just makes a list of possibilities of what may happen in the future, like displaying a pile of cobblestones for people to see and play with. Science fiction can never tell which scenario of the future will actually become the real future. This is not its job. It’s also beyond its capabilities.
與人們常有的誤解不同，科幻小說並不是在預測未來，它只是把未來的各種可能性排列出來，就像一堆想象力的鵝卵石，擺在那裡供人們欣賞和把玩。這無數個可能的未來哪一個會成為現實，科幻小說並不能告訴我們，這不是它的任務，也超出了它的能力。
But one thing is certain: in the long run, for all these countless possible futures, any future without space travel is gloomy, no matter how prosperous our own planet becomes.
但有一點可以確定：從長遠的時間尺度來看，在這無數可能的未來中，不管地球達到了怎樣的繁榮，那些沒有太空航行的未來都是暗淡的。
Sci-fi was writing about the age of digital information and it eventually became true. I now look forward to the time when space travel finally becomes the ordinary. By then, Mars and the asteroid belts will be boring places and countless people are building a home over there. Jupiter and its many satellites will be tourist attractions. The only obstacle preventing people from going there for good, will be the crazy price.
我期待有那麼一天，像那些曾經描寫過信息時代的科幻小說一樣，描寫太空航行的科幻小說也變得平淡無奇了，那時的火星和小行星帶都是乏味的地方，有無數人在那裡謀生；木星和它眾多的衛星已成為旅遊勝地，阻止人們去那裡的唯一障礙就是昂貴的價格。
But even at that time, the universe is still unimaginably big that even our wildest imagination fails to catch its edge. And even the closest star remains out of reach. The vast ocean of stars can always carry our infinite imagination.
但即使在這個時候，宇宙仍是一個大得無法想象的存在，距我們最近的恆星仍然遙不可及。浩瀚的星空永遠能夠承載我們無窮的想象力。
Thank you all.
謝謝大家。
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