“Once you start to make machines that are rivalling and surpassing humans with intelligence, it’s going to be very difficult for us to survive. It’s just an inevitability.”
– Clive Sinclair
A man much ahead of his time, a trailblazer and pioneer in the sphere of technology passed away in London after a prolonged battle with Cancer. He gave us a few inventions that we use in our day to day life. His consumer electronics set the benchmark for other companies to create products. He produced the first slimline electronic calculator, called the Sinclair Executive in 1972. He went on to produce home computers in the 1980s. The Sinclair ZX80 came to be the UK’s first mass-market home computer under 100 pounds. His inventions, of the ZX81, ZX Spectrum had immense importance in the early days of the British and European home computer industry. This gave birth to the British gaming industry.
Here are nine facts about Clive Sinclair.
- He was born to a father and grandfather, who were both engineers. It was only natural for him to follow suit. As a matter of fact, his grandfather was a naval architect who made the minesweeping devices work.
- He was still in school when he wrote his first article for Practical Wireless, a British amateur radio magazine.
- He left school at the age of 18 and would sell his miniature electronic kits by mail order to the hobby market.
- Among his popular invention are the Sinclair Radionics Black Watch; an LED watch, the Sinclair Vehicles C5 battery electric vehicle, and the Sinclair Research TV80 Handheld television sets.
- He was knighted in 1983. Along with that, he was also made a fellow of the Imperial College of London.
- He chaired the British Mensa society from 1980 to 1997.
- He was widely recognised for his work and was awarded the Honorary Degrees of Doctor of Science by the University of Bath, Heriot-Watt University and the University of Warwick.
- Even though he was a pioneer in technology, he did not use computers himself. He did not even use the internet.
- His computers and programs gave birth to the British gaming industry.
Here’s to a British pioneer who paved the way for more future products. May his soul rest in peace. Would his inventions be more popular with today’s generation? We guess we’ll never find out now
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