What are you reading? All New / All Improved Dec 2017 Edition.

[Nellisir]

Cool. I’m looking forward to reading it. I somehow missed its entire existence until recently. I kinda feel like cyberpunk literature just doesn’t work as well past the 80s. There’s something about the vision of the future from that particular timeframe.

I reread Snowcrash a few years ago and thought it had actually aged pretty well. I don't recall any glaring issues with When Gravity Fails. The sequels are a little harder to get a hold of.

Recommendation: River of Gods, by Ian McDonald. Also Cyberbad Days (same author, same world). For a REAL treat, read Neuromancer, River of Gods, and The Windup Girl.

 

[Kramodlog]

I finally finished Capital in the 21st Century. I just looked it up and I owe $8.75 in library late fees on it. Which, given it was due back in ~September is probably not a bad deal.

Libraries are rent seekers!

 

[Zaukrie]

I did enjoy the pleistocene cycle when it came out....

Currently reading the Red Rising books. Just finished book two. I am quite enjoying these books.

 

[Blue]

I did enjoy the pleistocene cycle when it came out....

My absolute best find ever, and completely accidental. I live close enough to New York City to got here occasionally. I was there for work about 20 years ago, and while walking to their client's office I passed bya sidewalk bookseller who has lots of magazines - a five book hardcover of the Pleistocene Sage in a cardboard set holder. (Last book is a almanac/travel guide/technical appendix.)

I ask how much, they say $10. I only had the first, a present from my girlfriend of the time. I fork it over and keep moving, I'm running late to the client.

During lunch I finally got a chance to look at it, and while it was far from mint, it was a signed, limited edition (of 50?) edition.

WOO!

 

[Blue]

Cool. I’m looking forward to reading it. I somehow missed its entire existence until recently. I kinda feel like cyberpunk literature just doesn’t work as well past the 80s. There’s something about the vision of the future from that particular timeframe.

So what's today's vibe for the fantastic near future? We've passed rayguns and jetpacks, passed cyberpunk. Is there anything that grabs the collective imagination enough?

 

[Random Bystander]

So what's today's vibe for the fantastic near future? We've passed rayguns and jetpacks, passed cyberpunk. Is there anything that grabs the collective imagination enough?

Scattered evidence suggests the "Holodeck" or "Headjack"; "Tron".

Edit: The LitRPG genre may be considered in some ways a sub-set of that; or perhaps an inverse. Instead of bringing a real person into a "game reality", reality instead uses "game statistics".

Edited Post-Script #1: Cyberpunk is also making a partial comeback. Cybernetics and bio-engineering in general are slowly being seen, in the more science-oriented areas of the internet, as something of an inevitability. The "Transhuman" genre supposes that these advances will make us better by making us something other than human. The "Horror" section of the "Transhuman" genre supposes otherwise.

This poster is unsure how brain-machine interfaced wireless internet access, for an example, would make him "other than human". One supposes, though, that there is a difference between an enhanced ability to browse lolcats and becoming a processing node in a hive-mind.

One thinks, however, that Brazil having an opinion on one's level of "Cuteness" does not detract from the humanity of the citizens of Mars.

 

[KahlessNestor]

I'm currently reading Brandon Sanderson's Oathbringer.

Sent from my SM-G900P using EN World mobile app

 

[Jhaelen]

So what's today's vibe for the fantastic near future? We've passed rayguns and jetpacks, passed cyberpunk. Is there anything that grabs the collective imagination enough?

Depends on the 'nearness' of the future.

William Gibson of former cyberpunk fame has written several novels that are set in the present (or in the very near future) and illustrate how current technologies could impact our lives if they were more widely used or just a tiny bit more advanced, e.g. "Pattern Recognition", "Spook Country", "Zero History", and "The Peripheral". The novels feature drones, augmented reality eye-wear, 3d-printing, telerobotics, and sometimes novel but forgotten technologies that could make a triumphal return some day.

The transhumanist novel genre is one of my favorite sci-fi topics, but it'll be a long time before it arrives for real. Today's implanting of chips is child's play compared to what fiction makes of the topic.
Most of the suggested authors listed on the website for the Eclipse Phase RPG have contributed great novels about this.

But the most captivating idea, imho, is a rather old one: alternate realities, parallel universes, etc. Philip K. Dick has written many excellent stories featuring this kind of thing in some way or other. But since then, the idea has grown to a point where even some serious scientists believe in their existence. A quite recent excellent treatment on this is Neal Stephenson's "Anathem". (William Gibson's 'the Peripheral' also touches on this subject, btw.)

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Hmmm...genetic modification seems to be showing up a lot. AI and Cloning, too (both present in the Imperial Radch series). Oh, and VR (Ready Player One, for example).

So what's today's vibe for the fantastic near future? We've passed rayguns and jetpacks, passed cyberpunk. Is there anything that grabs the collective imagination enough?

 

[Kramodlog]

So what's today's vibe for the fantastic near future? We've passed rayguns and jetpacks, passed cyberpunk. Is there anything that grabs the collective imagination enough?

The singularity. In our day and age of dematerialization, hyperconnectiveness, mass information and burgening AIs, the singularity is part of the zeitgeist.