Sneak Preview Of Vernor Vinge's Next Book 186
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."
Amazing (Score:5, Interesting)
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 [cmu.edu], he's got a book and a number of papers on the topic.
We haven't had real privacy for a while... (Score:5, Interesting)
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?" (Score:5, Interesting)
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 [illclan.com]
And now we know... (Score:5, Interesting)
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..." (Score:5, Interesting)
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 (Score:5, Interesting)
"illegal Mexicans? I wish" (Score:4, Interesting)
If only they were "illegals" where I live. Unfortunatly, here, they are red-neck nuts. Check it out: Freedom County [exordia.net]. These people are the tin-foil hat and automatic weapon crowd.
Sensors and Sensibility (Score:3, Interesting)
This seems very consistent with current politics, where Presidents (and their VPs) testify before committees unable to take notes, and public documents are supressed, then released only for in-person public review, barring recording. Has amnesia become the required state for modern people? Is Anderson/Enron record shredding the default in the info age? Who's looking at you, kid? And will you ever remember that night on Bourbon Street until the video appears on BitTorrent during your Congressional campaign?
grammar nazis? (Score:3, Interesting)
I assume this would be correct if the "end" in question pertained to the termination of multiple rainbows (i.e. they went away) and in fact seems to imply that all rainbows are ending. More likely it is a play on the phrase "end of the rainbow", a mythical place where a pot of gold can be located. Using the plural of rainbow would imply that this single place is in fact common to all rainbows everywhere, in which case there must be one huge pot of gold there. How seemingly disconnected rainbows all terminate at a single place is left as an excercise for the reader. Perhaps they have more than 3 dimensions?
yeah, right; everybody is doing it... (Score:3, Interesting)
This is a ridiculous statement. If they feel so comfortable, why don't they place webcams in their bedroom and toilets? After all, everyone is doing it...
And a small price? Has it ever accured to those people that the abuse is gigantic, and that there is a good reason to regard privacy as a right? If they really think no1 has anything to fear if our personal data is for grabs, they are idiotic ninkenpoops. Just imagine what would happen, say, if a medical insurance-compagny would know you have some diseaese or gentic make-up that makes you sensitive and have a high risk for cancer or something? How do you think they will react? "We know you're a high-risk case, but that doesn't matter for us and we'll grant you the same as everyone else, because everyone is doing it?"
Apart from the obvious economic issues for an individual, there are also the sociological ones. Has it ever occured to them that people don't WANT that others know about something, whether they do it or not? Does a woman want it to be known that she had an abortion? Does a person automatically wants his sex-life (or lack thereof)to be known to all, even if he knows others are doing it? Do they honestly believe that I (and I'm guessing Im' not the only one) would want my personal feelings and emotions be known, because everyone is sharing them?
Well, I have seen Springer and Opera a few times, and it NEVER made me want to do the same, on the contrary.
No, it does not follow that, because 'all do it', you should be happy with 'life as an eternal peepshow'. And what's more, anyone with a grasp of human nature would realise that will never come. It's like saying 'if everyone were peacefull (or rational, or whatever), the world would be a better place'. Even if true, it's a nonsensical statement in any practical sense. Human nature involves good and evil, as well as the drive for meddling in someone elses' business and wanting to keep things private.
While they maybe right in the development of future privacy-invading technologies, they make the same error many 'futurologists' do; they extrapolate from the current conditions, and think they can predict what is going to happen. What folly.
If history teaches us anything, it's that it's comprised of forces and counter-forces: if at one time it swings to much in one direction, you can be sure there will be a counter-reaction. If privacy is being abused en masse, it will not lead to a broad acceptance of that abuse, but rather to a counter-reaction.
And I also do not think there is some sort of causal relationship between 'having unrestricted acces to the internet' and privacy abuse. You can have acces to data, yet remain anonymous, as is proven even today on the internet, let alone with systems as Freenet. As long as you are and remain anonymous (or at least pseudonymous), one can not deduce your rl where-abouts and make your private dealings public.
Re:I remain: Unafraid, Undeterred. (Score:2, Interesting)
They also do the jobs that no one else wants to do, at a tiny rate of pay. My guess would be that if a US citizen had to do that sort of job, they would require more than minimum wage.
As for not paying taxes. Well, they are earning such a small amount the taxes collected would be negligable. They still have to buy things though, and the state collects sales tax on purchases, so the government still gets its cut.
All in all, it's a trade off. I'm personally disgusted that these people are paid so poorly, and can't complain about the abuses for fear of deportation. IMO, it creates a type of slave trade. But if Americans don't want illegal immigrants working in their country they have to be prepared to pay the price for that decision.
But when it isn't accurate it still can affect you (Score:2, Interesting)
My name is Paul David Salcido. Now go out to google and look up Frank Salcido. He's on the FBI's most wanted list. He used the name David Salcido or Salcedo once or twice.
Now, the media isn't allowed to have the list. If they did, I would have been contacted earlier. I missed a key state vote, but otherwise, I'm fine. I'll make the next presidential election (but now I'm moving to Ohio, another Matrix member, so I wonder if I'll have to do this again).
Inaccurate informatino is as bad as accurate information.
Re:We haven't had real privacy for a while... (Score:3, Interesting)
What planet are you referring to? It can't be the same Earth I grew up on.
Those dumb, panicky, dangerous animals are your friends and neighbors, and they will never be as tolerant as you wish. American society oscillates between tolerance and puritanism, but while the amplitude of the oscillation has grown, the centerline hasn't shifted. There will come a puritan backlash to the current tolerance, and the tools of 24x7 monitoring will serve the puritans much better than they will serve the tolerant.
That's what *I* expect will happen in the future.
Re:Alastair Reynolds is terrible (Score:4, Interesting)
And yet ... his technology/science is first rate, as already mentioned. But more than that, I find his vision of future history and culture to be quite compelling. And I would disagree that he has pacing problems, I find them to be very tightly plotted and exciting to read. And, as John Clute said [scifi.com] about Revelation Space, he is good at evoking "the thrilled melancholy of the abyss" which I would agree is part of the appeal of space opera.
All in all though, having just read Absolution Gap I am disappointed that Reynolds hasn't overcome these sorts of problems after four novels. Perhaps he is just better at the short forms of fiction (Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days was excellent). His next novel is not tied to his previous ones, and he has also taken the plunge into writing full-time, so maybe he will take this opportunity to became the great writer that he easily could be.
Oh, and my other suggestions for where to go after Vinge: Greg Egan, Iain M. Banks, Ken MacLeod, Gregory Benford (especially the Galactic Center books), David Brin (Uplift).