Sneak Preview Of Vernor Vinge's Next Book

orac2 writes "The current issue of IEEE Spectrum Magazine is running a special report titled Sensor Nation, about the technology and social issues involved with the rising tide of ubiquitous surveillance and analysis. One of the articles is a short story by Vernor Vinge about what kind of future we could end up living in, titled Synthetic Serendipity. The story is actually adapted from the book Vinge is currently working on, called Rainbows End (and for the grammar nazis, that's right, there's no apostrophe at the end of 'Rainbows.') ObPlug: I'll be talking at The 5th HOPE in New York on Saturday at 4pm in Area B, and I'll bring along a few issues for any interested slashdotters."

Comments

Amazing

[SiliconEntity]

I've been fascinated by the concept of sensor networks ever since reading Vinge's earlier short story Fast Times at Fairmont High. From a review of that story:

So what is life like in Vinge's 2020?

The biggest technological change involves ubiquitous computing,
wearables, and augmented reality (although none of those terms are used).
Everyone wears contacts or glasses which mediate their view of the world.
This allows computer graphics to be superimposed on what they see.
The computers themselves are actually built into the clothing (apparently
because that is the cheapest way to do it) and everything communicates
wirelessly. Scientific American had an article about this in the April
issue, http://www.sciam.com/techbiz/0402feiner.html.

In Vinge's hands this is an astonishingly powerful technology.
Remember the mediatrons from Diamond Age, where any surface could be
turned into a display? You have the same thing here, except it's all in
the eye of the beholder, so to speak. If you want a computer display,
it can appear in thin air, or be attached to a wall or any other surface.
If people want to watch TV together they can agree on where the screen
should appear and what show they watch. When doing your work, you can
have screens on all your walls, menus attached here and there, however
you want to organize things. But none of it is "really" there.

It goes beyond this. Does your house need a new coat of paint? Don't
bother, just enter it into your public database and you have a nice
new mint green paint job that everyone will see. Want to redecorate?
Do it with computer graphics. You can have a birdbath in the front yard
inhabited by Disneyesque animals who frolic and play. Even indoors,
don't buy artwork, just download it from the net and have it appear
where you want. You can change your decor theme instantly.

These kids are teenagers. Got a zit? No need to cover up with Clearsil,
just erase it from your public face and people will see the improved
version. You can dress up your clothes and hairstyle as well.

Of course, anyone can turn off their enhancements and see the plain old
reality, but most people don't bother most of the time because things
are ugly that way.

Augmented reality automatically produces sight-and-sound virtual reality.
Some of the kids attending Fairmont Junior High do so remotely. They
appear as "ghosts" indistinguishable from the other kids except that
you can walk through them. They go to classes and raise their hands to
ask questions just like everyone else. They see the school and everyone
at the school sees them. Instead of visiting friends the kids can all
instantly appear at one another's locations.

They even have tactile VR systems but you have to buy special clothes with
"gaming stripes", whatever those are.

A related technology is the localizer network. These are small,
inexpensive network relay nodes that are scattered about, solar and
battery powered. Each one sets up connections to the local nodes and
provides for network access. They also have some sensors, sight and
sound apparently, which can enhance the augmented reality system.

The computer synthesizing visual imagery is able to call on the localizer
network for views beyond what the person is seeing. In this way you can
have 360 degree vision, or even see through walls. This is a transparent
society with a vengeance!

The cumulative effect of all this technology was absolutely amazing and
completely believable. It's as far beyond our current communications
media as the net is beyond the telephone. It's very exciting to imagine
this technology coming into existence.

I'm very much looking forward to the new novel.

And by the way for those interested in security issues in sensor networks, see the work by Adrian Perrig, he's got a book and a number of papers on the topic.

We haven't had real privacy for a while...

[TS020]

This article at least suggests that we'll be getting something back for it. The privacy and secrecy afforded to our government (US) is so ubiquitous that I would be able to accept my loss of privacy in order to get more information out of them.

The article suggests that this information will be available in the future and that we all will be willing to absolutely forgo anonymity to have information about anything at any given time. I do have to admit that I forsee one small problem here: if the government, your boss, your neighbor, know what you are reading through, then you will be more selective about what you study, and thus, it really isn't free access to information.

It's like the government knowing what you are checking out of the library. It makes you think again about trying to get a copy of the Anarchists Cookbook, you know, even if you feel that you have the right to read it. Even so, as I said, we no longer have privacy, so if we can end our governments' monopoly on privacy, then I believe that we will be better off for it.

Can you say, "augmented reality?"

[ILL Clinton]

It's about time Vinge has a new novel coming out. I have had a lot of trouble (and believe me I've tried) finding a science fiction writer that comes close. "A Fire upon the deep" remains my favorite sci-fi novel, and I have been toying with the idea of reading it again.

I've read a lot of good sci-fi writers, but so few are as good at character development AND hard core science fiction writing.

If Vinge didn't spend so much time teaching, he'd probably have time to write more novels.

Anyone have some suggestions of writers who come close to Vinge for great sci-fi? (I've already read most of Gibson, Stephenson, Simmons, Bear, Sagan, Haldeman)

ILL Clinton
The ILL Clan - Machinima Pioneers

And now we know...

[Mr. Neutron]

...the origins of the Borg.

Step one: Everything described in parent.

Step two: Neural interfaces, getting around all of those pesky "physical" operations (finger waving, eyeball cues, etc). One can participate in society completely as a "ghost," without lifting a single finger.

Step three: Network the neural interfaces. "Shared brainstorming" will be considered the fast-track method of advancing science and technology.

Step four: Reassign the "physical substrate" to menial tasks. If I can participate fully in society WITH MY MIND, why not rent out my body to work in the factories or operate the machinery? It's not like I actually need my body for anything else - might as well let it be a "drone."

Step five: Shared neural experience of human society slowly breaks down the boundaries between one human and another; a "hive mind" emerges.

Resistance is futile.

"If Everybody..."

[Merovign]

If everyone was really out to see that everyone does well, if everyone was really basically
decent, then it could work.

But if only 90% of people are like that, then "total information" could make your life annoying
as heck, one of the reasons why "total sharing" (communism) always fails so abysmally.

Which means that such a system has to find and harshly punish (reform, exile, or kill) anyone who
doesn't cooperate (assuming the enforcers are not corrupt), with near 100% effectiveness (i.e,
become totalitarian).

Even if you do that, natural inclinations are for the corrupt to seek power, and become the enforcers.

Any large-scale society needs significant privacy (even if not officially protected) simply so that
people can live near each other without constantly fighting. Small, relatively isolated communities
can do without much privacy because then can effectively exile or control the 10% or whatever
that don't fit in.

Ultimately we'll probably settle in at some level of surveillance that is survivable (I hope), with
more or less in various communities and individual or community measures to have some control (like
"community associations" that don't allow surveillance (or limit it), or EMP grenades for
that matter).

Unless of course someone develops really effective subliminal or broadcast mind control, in which
case it's pretty much over (for practical purposes). The advantage to that being that you
won't care if you have privacy (or anything else). :)

technological singularity

[S3D]

Vinge is an auther of the technological singularity concept. Technological singularity is a situation then pace of technological change increasing to such a degree that our ability to predict its consequences will diminish virtually to zero and a person who doesn't keep pace with it will rapidly find civilization to have become completely incomprehensible. For example transfer to usage of languadge instead of basic system of signal could be considered as a technological singularity for proto-human, though drawn in time.