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The importance of science fiction to entrepreneurship
- Phithagoras 10y agoGood article. Anyone here a fan of Greg Egan? I found "Schild's Ladder" the best piece of Sci-Fi I ever read. Can anyone suggest similar authors?
- nine_k 10y agoDid you read Blindsight by Peter Watts? It has, among other things, a 100-item scientific bibliography in the end.
- diego898 10y agoI love Egan and have read most of his stuff. Two of my favorites are Diaspora and Permutation City.
- jobigoud 10y agoI'd like to know this as well. I've never found anything quite like Greg Egan. Some works of Vernor Vinge maybe.
- elorant 10y agoHave you tried Alastair Reynolds? One of the best hard sci-fi writers I’ve come across.
- SnakePlissken 10y agoWould you recommend someone new to Reynolds start with Revelation Space or the Poseidon's Children trilogy?
- throwaway7645 10y agoI haven't read Poseidon's Children, but Revelation Space was amazing despite the fact that I'm a bigger fan of more optimistic and less gritty SciFi. The first book is really good and I read several others as well. Fantastic world-building.
- infectoid 10y agoPushing Ice. It's a one-off and excellent taste test in case you don't want to commit to a series.
- triplesec 10y agoThe Three Body Problem is reasonably good, and comes from a Chinese author Link to NPR article about it because I'd rather you chose your own bookshop. http://www.npr.org/2014/11/13/363123510/three-body-problem-asks-a-classic-sci-fi-question-in-chinese http://www.npr.org/2014/11/13/363123510/three-body-problem-a...
- navbaker 10y agoI can't recommend this book and it's follow up enough! The description of a machine made of a single particle unfolding into higher dimensions is one of my favorite passages in recent sci-fi. I think the last book in the trilogy is out, but haven't had time to read it yet.
- sapphireblue 10y agoHannu Rajaniemi, Ted Chiang and Neal Stephenson come to mind as hard sci-fi authors worthy of comparison to Greg Egan.
- hodgesrm 10y agoSchild's Ladder looks really cool. Thanks for the reference. Meanwhile, any William Gibson fans out there? The description of cyberspace in the Sprawl Trilogy is still one of the most compelling visions of the future of humanity and computers I have ever read. We're still only a fraction of the way down that path.
- oska 10y agoThis question has been put to /r/printsf a couple of times [1], [2] with a decent range of answers. [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/printSF/comments/33mjz9/looking_for_recommendations_for_scifi_books/ https://www.reddit.com/r/printSF/comments/33mjz9/looking_for... [2] https://www.reddit.com/r/printSF/comments/29o35b/who_are_some_sf_authors_with_similar_styles_to/ https://www.reddit.com/r/printSF/comments/29o35b/who_are_som...
- gaius 10y agoA must watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjlF_iSo1Og https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjlF_iSo1Og William Shatner presents a light-hearted look at how the "Star Trek" TV series have influenced and inspired today's technologies, including: cell phones, medical imaging, computers and software, SETI, MP3 players and iPods, virtual reality, and spaceship propulsion.
- zengid 10y agoI'm reading Neal Stephenson's Anathem now. I feel like it's a book that will stay relevant in the future, partly because of how cultural persistence is an element of the story. edit: I spelled the title incorrectly.
- Ar-Curunir 10y agoAnathem was Stephenson's first book that I read; I was absolutely mind blown. It's a slow burn (like most of his books), but the ending is more than worth it. Later I picked up Cryptonomicon, and it's a big reason why I'm doing a PhD in crypto now.
- andars 10y agoDoes Anathem have an ending or just sort of ends like the rest of Stephenson's books? Just curious.
- zengid 10y agoStephenson seems to think it does: https://youtu.be/lnq-2BJwatE?t=10m53s https://youtu.be/lnq-2BJwatE?t=10m53s
- waterphone 10y agoIts ending is a bit more traditional, as well as explicitly making fun of the fact that people criticize him for his endings.
- triplesec 10y agoIt's the least bad of his endings, and quite big. Worth going to the end.
- rojobuffalo 10y agoAs someone who has read several dozen sci-fi books, that one stands out as one of the absolute best. It's definitely an inspiration for the startup I'm working on now.
- cardmagic 10y agoI'd also point you to Eliot Peper, William Hertling, and Nick Thacker
- tsaprailis 10y agoVery interesting read. It would be interesting to know if there are people here that can point to a particular book that gave them an idea for a startup or even a side project.
- karimdag 10y ago+1
- crdb 10y agoThe article makes the case for the world descriptions and concepts introduced in SF being an inspiration to real world entrepreneurs, such as Stephenson inspiring the PayPal co-founders and a series of portal companies. But science fiction has a greater impact in being one of the few forms in 20th century arts that dared to present an optimistic view of the future and of values that led to a better world, be it Picard's exemplary leadership in Star Trek TNG, or Heinlein's "normal person finding their courage and values has an impact" novels. Apocalypse Now or Brazil may be "great" movies but they are incredibly depressing. "Resign yourself to the brokenness of the world, people. The state/realpolitik will crush you." "No", says Asimov, "your actions matter and have an impact. Courage and reason are great qualities, go build the world you want." How many other mainstream movies, books or artworks have this message, outside of science fiction?
- Iv 10y agoI was surprised to agree a lot on what Disney's Tomorrowland stated on that exact matter.
- bbctol 10y agoWell... I'd say by definition, only science fiction can present any view of the future, optimistic or not. There are tons of great movies and books about the present and past that are uplifting and optimistic, and certainly plenty of incredibly depressing science fiction novels. I do agree that it's the inspirational character of science fiction that's more important than the particular facts, though.