(no subject)

[coalescent]

An interview with Ken Macleod.

(1) Charlie Stross has a walk-on part in Cosmonaut Keep that I completely missed. Not surprising, since at the time I read it I'd never heard of the man.
(2) Ken's favourite of his novels is The Stone Canal.
(3) His next novel (called Newton's Wake) jumps on the singularity bandwagon.

Reading interviews like this, it strikes me that scottish SF is in a situation not dissimilar to that of global SF in the 'golden age': Everyone knows each other, and there's a lot of cross-pollination of ideas. And in Spectrum SF, it's almost even got its own magazine.

Comments

Stross? In Cosmonaut Keep?

[mattia.livejournal.com]

OK, missed that one. Where? Anyone know? I knew of the guy when I read it, but it was before I'd read 'Toast', like..

Re: Stross? In Cosmonaut Keep?

[(Anonymous)]

nutty (http://www.nuttyxander.com/blog2) here :)

Page 39.

And right on Niall, btw, Simon Logan's I-O is rather good too ISBN: 189481505X

Given that I've met Charlie a few times, and Ken too, I might as well start writing a cash in book ...

[snowking.livejournal.com]

I knew that. I met Charlie just before I read CK, so the hairy, mad programmer banging on about alien maths and government secrets seemed familiar.

Interesting to note how Ken is jumping on Singlarity bandwagon despite having a full blown one in his 2nd book.

Re: Stross? In Cosmonaut Keep?

[snowking.livejournal.com]

Excellent. Then I can write one about you. Yak does one on me and Tef gets to do the mad, drugged up visionary thing.

[malenfant.livejournal.com]

full blown one in his 2nd book.

Erm. It's a bit muted, isn't it? If memory serves, the Macros retreat into their virtual worlds and don't bother humanity much. If anything, it seems more like an attempt to have AI without invoking singularity.

Disclaimer: I haven't read it for, ooh, over four years, so I may be forgetting something.

[snowking.livejournal.com]

They take over Jupiter turn Ganymede? into spare parts and set up a wormhole tot he end of time, they then proceed to crack any electronic computers withi radio distance frocing the rest of humanity to turn to nano-tech computers.

Yeah. Muted.

[malenfant.livejournal.com]

But the point of a singularity is that it changes the rules. In the case of an AI singularity, the reason you can't project beyond it is supposed to be that the AIs are driving historical progress, so humans can't understand any more. That doesn't happen in The Stone Canal. Humans are still driving their own progress; the future isn't fundamentally incomprehensible. It's just that they have to deal with a competing intelligence.

Re: Stross? In Cosmonaut Keep?

[malenfant.livejournal.com]

Not p39 in my edition (hardback) - unless it's the one line about information wanting to be free that's meant to pick the guy out as Stross. But I think that's unlikely, since I'm assuming Stross is in one of the near-future segments, and p39 isn't a near-future segment in my edition.

Dang. Guess I'll have to do some re-reading. :)

[snowking.livejournal.com]

I guess our definitions of Singularity differ.

[malenfant.livejournal.com]

Apparently so. What's your definition? I thought the fundamental thing about a singularity was the not-being-able-to-see-past-it part.