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No, they should have done their test in a manner that doesn't put more junk into occupied orbital planes, which were pretty effin empty when the US was doing their testing.

This is a well know problem, and may result in a chain reaction of destruction that could disable most satellites in LEO

Read Seveneves for a dramatization of the situation.

Obviously he was with Dodo

by Neal Stephenson. And maybe Expanse #5 -- erm, Nemesis Games.

I started Seveneves a week or two ago, and am maybe 25% through. It's the first Stephenson I've read (I know, I know) and is quite good. So far, highly recommended. I was hooked by the first line:

The moon blew up without warning and for no apparent reason.

Read the first chapter here.

Agreed. The novel SEVENEVES comes to mind. It's a great read. Can you hear me, Major Tom? -PCP

The book came out in 2008. If you still haven't read it in 2016, you can not continue posting on Slashdot...

For a quick introduction to this concept, pick up a copy of Neal Stephanson's Confusion.

The similarities are so close that this is actually a direct copy, not original work. And in the absence of any kind of credit or mention of Neal Stephenson's name, the word plagarism leaps to mind.

No at all, Stephenson in fact does properly assign credit. I'd consider him entirely in the clear.

Ok - so the US gov has a budget again, and is betting heavily on "Commercial Space" picking up the debris of NASA's epic failure to develop a new crew launcher. But does this hope have any basis in reality or is NewSpace just a bunch of scifi boys playing with toys? Neal Stephenson works at Blue Origin, Gary Hudson of Roton Rocket fame recently channeled Star Wars' Admiral Ackbar, and SpaceX seems to have picked up a scifi scribe of their own in Ralph Ewig. Are these really the nation's best last hope, or are they a bunch of dreamers who can't separate the "science" from the "fiction"?

With the right wording, we can hack into your brain!

Obligatory Snow Crash link.

Stephenson wrote his Baroque cycle on paper long-hand. Most of the early additions had pictures of the reams of paper stacked up next to him. Something like 3 feet tall. Pictures Here.

so they stop physical devices and all that changes is that people choose to download PDFs(etc) and build there own.
In fact I see a good business opportunity "will build anything from PDF(etc), no questions asked, good rates".
reminds me of http://www.nealstephenson.com/diamond/

Gardan's Steelyard is not so much a new idea as a reframing of Occam's Razor. Most of the ideas in the book come from elsewhere, Stephenson's genius is in weaving them so well into the plot of his story. You can read what he has to say about the ideas in the story at the book's acknowledgements page.

I found the first quarter of the book a little slow...but after that, I couldn't read it fast enough to keep up. I obsessed about the book and ended up getting the audio book as well so I could listen to it in the car to and from work!

It is an epic book, and it is a memetic masterpiece, since many people are big fans of this book have slowly been infiltrating it's words into the english language...

Don't overlook the Anathem WIKI at http://anathem.wikia.com/wiki/Anathem_Wiki

And if you like the music, you can get it via Neal's site: http://www.nealstephenson.com/anathem/music.htm

ttyl
          Farrell

Reminds me of the story of the ants in Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age : "'There's only zero of you,' said the Queen of the Ants (to the King of the Shrews). In ant arithmetic, there are only two numbers: Zero, which means anything less than a million, and Some."

Seriously Mr. Stephenson, isn't it time you registered for a Slashdot account?

You know... I might have to re-read this book soon.

You know... I might have to re-read this book soon.

should read Nanosystems by K. Eric Drexler. Roughly speaking, Drexler is the father of nanomanufacturing. I bought it on a whim when I read about him in the Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson (of Cryptonomicon, Baroque Cycle, In the the Beginning was the Command Line, and Snow Crash fame). Interesting times ahead.

should read Nanosystems by K. Eric Drexler. Roughly speaking, Drexler is the father of nanomanufacturing. I bought it on a whim when I read about him in the Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson (of Cryptonomicon, Baroque Cycle, In the the Beginning was the Command Line, and Snow Crash fame). Interesting times ahead.

should read Nanosystems by K. Eric Drexler. Roughly speaking, Drexler is the father of nanomanufacturing. I bought it on a whim when I read about him in the Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson (of Cryptonomicon, Baroque Cycle, In the the Beginning was the Command Line, and Snow Crash fame). Interesting times ahead.

should read Nanosystems by K. Eric Drexler. Roughly speaking, Drexler is the father of nanomanufacturing. I bought it on a whim when I read about him in the Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson (of Cryptonomicon, Baroque Cycle, In the the Beginning was the Command Line, and Snow Crash fame). Interesting times ahead.

should read Nanosystems by K. Eric Drexler. Roughly speaking, Drexler is the father of nanomanufacturing. I bought it on a whim when I read about him in the Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson (of Cryptonomicon, Baroque Cycle, In the the Beginning was the Command Line, and Snow Crash fame). Interesting times ahead.

Microsoft is in the "software" business, and they're getting pissed because of the spread of opensource. Neal Stephenson has an interesting essay on the subject of command line interface, linux, and what Gates and Jobs have spent their efforts doing in the computing world. Microsoft knows that it can no longer compete with a "collective" greater than their own, except in the capital arena. If we would like for computers to become less popular and for hardware prices to go up (because capitalism has certainly been driving many hardware advances) then we could just bankrupt Microsoft by creating an infinite number of distros =). Someone commented earlier on the smart pill that Ballmer has to take in the morning to just get by, and I think he's right, Microsoft may not lose their OS users and people who default to their software, but they can't just throw money at linux and make it go away. Sad to say, Microsoft is good for the little guy, even if their software is buggy and expensive. Who wants cheaper faster more reliable hardware?! raise your hand! Then we can all go frolic and fret and flee to LinuxLand. I hear a themepark!

There are several interesting links between the Royal Mint and Neal Stephenson's ( Slashdot Interview) Baroque Cycle , including references to Hooke and Newton, to whom the quotation "standing on the shoulders of giants", which is engraved around the edge of £2 coins, is ascribed. The Trial of the Pyx, which forms part of the plot, exists, and has been carried out ever since 1282.

Neal Stephenson (Snow Crash, The Diamond Age, The Baroque Cycle, etc.) has taken a part-time job as a consultant for Blue Origins.

In the Beginning was the Command Line is now badly obsolete and probably needs a thorough revision. For the last couple of years I have been a Mac OS X user almost exclusively.

Some readers, or so it would appear, have been dissatisfied with the endings of certain of my novels. These people often come to the reasonable-sounding but totally wrong hypothesis that I am trying, but failing, to write the sorts of endings that they would like to see.

This is not the case. In fact, I always write the endings that I want to, and am as satisfied with my endings as I am with any other aspect of my writing. I just have an opinion about what constitutes a good ending that is at variance with some of my readers.

I'd like to ask this question:

Okay, so you're satisfied with your endings...why? What about them appeals to you? What is it you're going for? What constitutes a good ending for you? What don't you like in an ending?

(And for the record, I like your books enough that I simply don't want them to end; I've never had the visceral reaction to your endings that some seem to have.)

Not to push the Neal Stephenson thing again on the heels of the recent link between WorldWind and the Earth program in "Snow Crash", but I believe he had some great ideas with respect to the future of storytelling in "The Diamond Age"... Anyone?

Neal Stephenson grew up in Iowa and graduated from Boston University in 1981 majoring in geography with a minor in physics. His first published novel The Big U, a college thriller with SF elements, appeared in 1984, followed by Zodiac: The Eco-Thriller (1988). Snow Crash (1992), a cyberpunk classic, made him a star in the SF field. He wrote two thrillers in collaboration with his uncle, George Jewsbury, under the name "Stephen Bury": Interface (1994) and Cobweb (1996), and published solo novel The Diamond Age, winner of the Hugo and Locus Awards, in 1995. Cryptonomicon followed in 1999; also a Locus Award winner, this massive, Pynchonesque novel of history and cryptography proved tremendously popular with SF fans. Later that year he
Photo by Charles N. Brown

www.nealstephenson.com published In the Beginning...Was the Command Line, a non-fiction commentary on computers and culture. The past seven years were spent on the vast three-volume "Baroque Cycle", beginning with Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning Quicksilver (2003) and followed by The Confusion (2004) and The System of the World (2004). These books, set in the 17th century and featuring historical characters like Leibniz and Newton along with the ancestors of characters from Cryptonomicon, are Stephenson's latest attempt to push the boundaries of SF. Stephenson lives in the Pacific Northwest with his wife (married 1985) and their two children.

Excerpts from the interview:

"One of the defining characteristics of SF is that it's about worlds. You create a world first, and then you tell one or more stories in that world. That's why so frequently in SF, people will go back again and again to the same world and tell additional tales. That's kind of what's going on here. The world of the 'Baroque Cycle' happens to be 99% factual history, or as close as I can come to it, but what readers of this kind of fiction are looking for is the ability to become immersed in a different world. That's why there is a big crossover between historical fiction and SF. For me, the world-building process is part and parcel of writing. It's the only way I really know how to play this game. I guess that's why I feel so firmly that I'm in the SF camp, no matter where my work is set.

"I had been working on a future storyline connected to Cryptonomicon, but in attempting to write it I realized I needed to go back instead. So I did that, and it ended up taking seven years! The 'Baroque Cycle' project was never envisioned to be as big and long as it turned out to be. There's a line from Tolkien where he says, 'This tale grew in the telling.' I'm reluctant to quote that directly because it sounds like I'm copping an attitude, but that's what happened with this: it started out smaller and got bigger. I never slogged. I enjoyed every minute of writing it. Of course, I badly wanted to get to the end, but when I did, I was sad it was over. At various points along the line, I tried various superstitious tactics; at one point I said, 'I'm not gonna cut my hair until this thing is done.' I finally wound up on Christmas Eve 2003. A couple of weeks later I felt this overpowering need to have short hair again, so I just kept whacking until there was nothing left. And I plan to keep it that way."

*

"People keep asking me why I think of the 'Cycle' as science fiction. When I was a kid I used to read these huge anthologies of science fiction stories, and there would always be some oddball stories that were set during the Crusades, or with cave men, or what have you. They weren't overtly science fiction, but there didn't seem to be any doubt in anyone's mind that they belonged. I ma

For those who, like me, hadn't heard of this guy, a quick Googling turned this, this book page and this interview up. Also, an author profile.

The topic reminds me of Neil Stephenson's Snow Crash character who works for the government and who's regularly probed for loyalty. When will corporations (or the government) start making this gene therapy mandatory to up productivity?

Your problem with Enoch Root's lifespan is tied up with the fact that that Rowling's book Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was published in the United States as 'Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone'. 'Sorcerer's Stone' is, of course, meaningless, but in the world of Quicksilver, the Philosopher's Stone has particular meaning, and particular properties.

It's often a good thing to know some history.

[No, of course I'm not saying that Harry Potter is literature of the same class as Quicksilver]

That was always one of the things I thought was the coolest about Neal Stephenson's book Snow Crash.

And in case you're one of the 10 people on this board who hasn't read it, it's a CyberPunk style novel where the interface to a computer/VR is handled by means of goggles that use low intensity lasers played across the retinas to give the ultimate wide-screen experience.

A somewhat more focused website than the link provided above (which essentially just recreates the wikipedia with references to the events of Stephenson's books).

This sounds a little like the robot dog from Neal Stephenson's book "Snow Crash".

I think science fiction is in its golden age today

No, no... it's in its Diamond Age !