Old book is old. This has been a free e-book since its publication. Singularity scifi is pretty cliche at this point. Stross, by his own admission, hasn't done

Old book is old. This has been a free e-book since its publication. Singularity scifi is pretty cliche at this point. Stross, by his own admission, hasn't done any serious thinking on the topic since the mid-00's. His more recent work of near-future scifi (Halting State) is much more interesting (and disturbing) in terms of what it portends for our lives. Rainbows End is another good read along those lines. The term "nerd rapture" pretty much sums of whats wrong with the singularity sub-genre when taken to its logical conclusion. Giving Stross credit, though, he does some pretty clever things in this book, especially in his discussions of economics/business ("My board of directors is a perl script", The Corporate Instrument, etc).