The Albatross is now coming along nicely, with the first molt, which will give it bright new feathers, scheduled for late October. However, I am having trouble tracking down one quote: the famous quote by science-fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke that has become known as”Clarke’s Third Law.” Clarke is supposed to have said this:

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

The one above is the most famous of the three “laws,” and you’ve probably seen it used as arguments against the coherence of any “god” concept. If, for example, Jesus returned to Chicago on the wings of supportive angels, walked over to the University hospital and proceeded to cure all the patients, including the eyeless and limbless, and then ascended to heaven as the skies opened and trumpets sounded, the petulant atheist would claim, “Well, that could only be a magic trick played on us by space aliens with unfathomable technological abilities.” Any supposed evidence for god can always be dismissed in this way using Clarke’s Third Law. I deal with this issue in The Albatross, but you’ll have to wait until it comes out. Right now I need help.

I’m sure you know the quote, and perhaps also that it’s one of Clarke’s three laws, with the other two given here. That’s Wikipedia, which gives the source of the quote, one that coincides with other reports. And that source is supposed to be a chapter called “Hazards of prophecy: the failure of imagination”, pp. 12-21 in the 1962 edition of Clarke’s science book Profiles of the Future: An Enquiry into the Limits of the Possible (Harper and Row, New York).  Well, I did what all good researchers do: tried to verify the quote.

I schlepped over to the library in 90• (F) heat, and got the book. Reading quickly through that chapter, I didn’t find the quote. True, the chapter was about exactly that topic: how some advances in technology would have completely mystified earlier scientists, who would regard them as almost magical (nuclear fusion reactors are one example). But the quote wasn’t there. Another source says it’s in the 1973 revised edition, but the library doesn’t have that one.

So, if you have that book, or can absolutely give the source of the quote, please post it below or drop me a line.  Remember, I need accuracy (including complete chapter pagination and the page containing the quote), for the faithful will be gunning for me, and they will glom on to any mistake in an attempt to discredit a nonbeliever.