William Gibsons väg (William Gibson’s street)

In recent years (or at least since the end of the previous century) a new strain of Science Fiction has been propagating in the literary biotope. It is a new variant that appears to be written by comuter geeks for computer geeks.

The sub-genre is characterized by frequent use of concepts an terminology from the field of computer science, such as object oriented programming. One or more of the following themes are usually present:

• cryptography
• copyright and intellectual property
• artificial intelligence
• nanotechnology
• the Singularity

There is definitely an overlap with the sub-genre postcyberpunk, and many of the authors can have either tag. However, the level of technological understanding expected of the reader is usually higher.

Examples of works that fit this label are Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson, Accelerando by Charles Stross and many short stories by Cory Doctorow. Since copyleft, open source and free software are highly regarded in the geek community, many of these stories are available under Creative Commons licences. I’ll link to a few at the end of this post.

I guess it’s not surprising that there has evolved a genre that caters to the tastes and interests of compuer geeks. Classic science fiction, with robots and space ships, has always had a large following among engineers and scientists. This is simply the next logical step. And the target group is growing steadily.

There’s one thing I’m curious about, however: Would anyone who’s not a computer geek appreciate this type of literature?

Thankfully, at least Stross’ Accelerando has a technical manual written by its fans: Accelerando Technical Companion

Links:

• True Names by Cory Doctorow &  Benjamin Rosenbaum
• Accelerando by Charles Stross
• 0wnz0red by Cory Doctorow
• When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth by Cory Doctorow

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This is the place I post B-movie posters. One sheets, half sheets, daybills, locandines, quads – whatever I find. Also – some random movie stills. The resolution is usually good, but not perfect. Which means the quality is okay for an A4 quickie for your cubicle, but certainly not enough to reproduce the original poster.

Escape Pod SF podcast

EP 204: The Fifth Zhi

Episode 198: N-words

Episode 197: From Babel’s Fall’n Glory We Fled…

EP195: 26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss

EP192: Sumo21

EP187: Summer in Paris, Light from the Sky

StarShipSofa

Graves by Joe Haldeman (maybe not SF, but really well written!)

We See Things Differently by Bruce Sterling

Mars: A Traveler’s Guide by Ruth Nestvold

Gift Of Joy by Ian Whates

The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate by Ted Chiang

Stories by Cory Doctorow

When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth

The Things That Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away

DYSTOPIA

From Wikipedia:
A dystopia is the often futuristic vision of a society in which
conditions of life are miserable and characterized by poverty,
oppression, war, violence, disease, pollution, nuclear fallout
and/or the abridgement of human rights, resulting in widespread
unhappiness, suffering, and other kinds of pain.
More: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dystopia

In short, DYSTOPIA is a series of comic short stories about the dark
future that may be coming, or the one that is already here. These books
will contain science fiction, cyberpunk, horror, current political
subjects and other stories that fit into the concept.

We want these stories to move their readers and we want them to matter. To
warn us and help us chose a better future for ourselves.

SUBMISSIONS
We accept submissions from anyone who has something interesting to say on
the subject, after the following specifications:
-Each book can be one story (24 pgs max) or be done as a split, a flip
book between two artists if the stories are shorter.
-The format is 140x182mm.
-Both color and black & white is acceptable.
-DYSTOPIA will be made in two editions (Swedish and English). If you can’t
do both versions yourself, we can help you with the translation.
-Send digital material. Line art should be 1200dpi. Gray or color should
be at least 300dpi.
-.TIF is a good file format. .JPG is bad (don’t use if avoidable). If you
aren’t sure, ask us for advice.
-Questions, submissions or ideas for submissions to mattias @ elftorp .
com (delete the spaces).

Unfortunately, we can’t pay anyone for their contributions at this stage.
Participants will get 5 copies for a full book and 3 copies each for a
split. Language optional.

There are no deadlines. Simply send us stories and if we accept them we
will publish them as we go along, depending on our situation when it comes
to time and money.

PUBLISHER
DYSTOPIA is a cooperation between Wormgod and the Swedish Comics
Association. Editor is Mattias Elftorp.

http://www.wormgod.net
http://www.serieframjandet.se

Facebook-event:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=189666498883&ref=nf

Thanks to: Mattias Elftorp!

This is a sketch of a robod I drew quite some time ago…

Apparently the cult was strongly influenced by Isaac Asimovs science fiction classic, the Foundation series in its view of the world.

“The Empire will vanish and all its good with it. Its accumulated knowledge will decay and the order it has imposed will vanish.” It could be Shoko Asahara talking. But it is Hari Seldon, a science fiction figure 10,000 years in the future. Seldon is the key character in the Foundation series – Isaac Asimov’s classic sci-fi epic – and he would give Murai and Aum their high-tech blueprint for the millennium and beyond.

The Cult at the End of the World page 3

This kind of reminds me of the discussion about whether Al-Qaeda is inspired by the same series of books. The main reason for this claim seems to be the fact that the name of the organisation can be translated into “basis” or “foundation”.

A 2002 article in the Guardian sums up the debate well.

On the surface, the most improbable explanation of the name is that Bin Laden was somehow inspired by [ ... ] the world’s most prolific sci-fi novelist [ ... ] But the deeper you dig, the more plausible it seems that al-Qaida’s founders may have borrowed some rhetoric from Foundation [ ... ]

War of the worlds

The article also discusses other SF and Fantasy influences on terrorist organisations, which makes me wonder why there aren’t more groups that are inspred by William Gibson’s Panter Moderns. I guess that’s a good thing…

Also see: immanentization of the eschaton