Singular Vernor Vinge Fan Page
Created 9 March 1995. Last modified:22 April 2013
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Vinge's annotated version of his Singularity talk.
Talk by Vinge on What if the Singularity does NOT happen?
I consider Vernor Vinge to be one of the most visionary SF authors living today (it could be claimed this directly makes him one of the most visionary living authors, period, but I won't get into that.) His vision of technology is quite different from most SF, and on the surface seems quite fantastic, yet in fact feels the most realistic to me. His books have placed him in the extropian literary pantheon.
Technology in much of SF is simply an effector of the vision of the work. FTL, anti-gravity, artificial gravity, all working to build interstellar empires regardless of the physical obstacles. Social changes are often minimal. Vernor Vinge is at the other extreme; in looking at the potential of realistic technology, particularly computers/AI or cognitive science, he has come to the conclusion that we must run into a Singularity beyond which meaningful prediction (and fiction) is impossible. Idealized nanotechnology also has potential for creating a singularity, although not as drastic as the one causable by control over the nature of intelligence. Much of his fiction is based on skirting around the Singularity and is quite interesting thereby. It is also well written.
Legend:
s: promise of the Singularity. S: Existence of the
Singularity fairly prominent in some way. A: anarchist. L: libertarian
(coined for Deepness; it's political, but anarchist didn't seem to
fit.)
His essay on the Singularity.
An argument by me against the incomprehensibility of the Singularity.
Anders Sandberg Singularity page
Wikipedia entry on the Singularity; fairly good.
Vernor Vinge is in the Internet Top 100 SF books -- more than once!
Farsector interview Interview at sysopmind.
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