5 ms·

The Shockwave Rider: A sci-fi classic, whose future we live in (2018)

98 points by ecliptik 6y ago

doopy1 6y ago
Truly ahead of its time. I believe it coined the term "worm" to mean a self-replicating malicious software.
- silvester23 6y ago
  Yes, that is mentioned in the second paragraph of the article.
  - doopy1 6y ago
    You caught me - I'm just here for the comments :)
pmoriarty 6y ago
Not to take anything away from John Brunner's 1975 classic, but EM Forster's The Machine Stops[1][2] was even more prescient. Written in 1909, it predicted (in very rough, general form) something like the Internet, Internet addiction, video chat rooms, and virtual reality. He also wrote another short story which I consider to be even better than The Machine Stops. It's called The Other Side of the Hedge[3], and while it's not as prescient it's one of my favorite short stories and I would highly recommend it to everyone. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Machine_Stops https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Machine_Stops [2] - https://www.ele.uri.edu/faculty/vetter/Other-stuff/The-Machine-Stops.pdf https://www.ele.uri.edu/faculty/vetter/Other-stuff/The-Machi... [3] - http://www.101bananas.com/library2/otherside.html http://www.101bananas.com/library2/otherside.html
- inquirerofsorts 6y ago
  Wernher Von Braun wrote a fictional book about his non-fictional Mars proposal, with a character named Elon in it. https://www.reddit.com/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/7wqnk4/werhern_von_brauns_prediction_about_elon/ https://www.reddit.com/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/7wqnk4/werher...
  - JPLeRouzic 6y ago
    I quickly read the page where it is mentioned and it seems that "Elon" is a title, not a name. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5sULaqBIp0QVXJCLWdRYjZZNGc/view https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5sULaqBIp0QVXJCLWdRYjZZNGc... "The Martian government was directed by ten men, the leader of whom was elected by universal suffrage for five years and entitled "Elon." Two houses of Parliament enacted the laws to be administered by the Elon and his cabinet. The Upper House was called the Council of the Elders and was limited to a membership of 60 persons, each being appointed for life by the Elon as vacancies occurred by death. In principle, the method was not unlike that by which the College of Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church is appointed. Usually the Elon chose historians, churchmen, former cabinet members or successful economic leaders who could offer lifetimes of valuable experience."
- mikequinlan 6y ago
  [2] might be https://www.ele.uri.edu/faculty/vetter/Other-stuff/The-Machine-Stops.pdf https://www.ele.uri.edu/faculty/vetter/Other-stuff/The-Machi... instead.
  - pmoriarty 6y ago
    Sorry about that. Broken link fixed.
- jacobush 6y ago
  The Machine Stops also has basically Spotify in it. Also a pretty prescient detail given radio was rather new in 1909. But the whole premise is incredible, so spot on.
- 082349872349872 6y ago
  As I read The Other Side of the Hedge (which I agree is better) just after having read Fratelli Tutti[1], the ambiguity of its final possessive is striking. It's so striking that I've attempted to actively use a second language[2] to reinterpret the final sentence: Demang me ta finyish leta-kom biya im, im ta du terash ruserux mi fo shelaf fo mi finyish sensa seping biya, unte detim im du ting, mi ta vide im demang beratna mi. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24684152 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24684152 [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24675256 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24675256
- amelius 6y ago
  So, if Bill Gates had read more sci-fi, he could have had a better vision about the significance of the internet ...
berkes 6y ago
I found the societal impact of rapid change and the datanet supporting that, eery for being so spot-on. More so than the actual tech involved.
leoc 6y ago
Gregory Benford's The Scarred Man supposedly has priority for a SF description of a computer virus (I haven't read it): http://www.gregorybenford.com/extra/the-scarred-man-returns/ http://www.gregorybenford.com/extra/the-scarred-man-returns/ . The original Westworld came between The Scarred Man and The Shockwave Rider. Pasting my earlier comment https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10095511 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10095511 : > This is a chance to bring up my favourite Westworld scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_jW-C_G6Pk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_jW-C_G6Pk . As a depiction of computer worms causing industrial chaos this is pretty prescient, because it's from 1973, two years before The Shockwave Rider and predating all but the very first signs of self-replicating mischief in the real world or CS research https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_virus#Historical_development https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_virus#Historical_deve... . (It's clear that Crichton the doctor had an analogy to human disease and medicine in mind https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7Dq7vqpGCM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7Dq7vqpGCM .) But it's also a great example of how real life is stranger than science fiction (as William Gibson likes to discuss). In the 1973 future the Chief Supervisor of Delos suggests that the resort is being attacked by a software worm and his fellow engineers find the very concept hard to take seriously; in the present day they'd just groan and ask "do you think it's the Chinese [government]?" > Also, the Gunslinger vision https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jCDQvNh85Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jCDQvNh85Y mentioned in the article isn't just the first use of CGI in a feature film, it's surely also a very early, for all I know maybe the first, attempt to show the "first-person view" Umwelt of an artificially intelligent robot.
sbisson 6y ago
Perhaps it's better to think of us living in a mash-up of all four of his Club of Rome Quartet futurist SF novels. The Sheep Look Up: pollution-driven ecological collapse and climate change The Jagged Orbit: corporate capture of legislation and societal violence Stand On Zanzibar: overpopulation and media saturation The Shockwave Rider: rapid technological change Brunner was a fascinating man; I only got to meet him a couple of times before his sadly early death, but his work has influenced many across more than just genre fiction. His role in late 1960s and early 1970s activist politics in the UK is often ignored, along with his autobiographical novel of the founding of CND, The Days Of The March.
corbet 6y ago
This is the book that pulled me into the computing field...my 1970's self wanted to be Nick Haflinger, I guess...
nottorp 6y ago
Actually, if you read more Brunner, it looks like we live more in Stand on Zanzibar...

98 points by ecliptik 6y ago

doopy1 6y ago

Truly ahead of its time. I believe it coined the term "worm" to mean a self-replicating malicious software.

silvester23 6y ago
Yes, that is mentioned in the second paragraph of the article.
- doopy1 6y ago
  You caught me - I'm just here for the comments :)

pmoriarty 6y ago

Not to take anything away from John Brunner's 1975 classic, but EM Forster's The Machine Stops[1][2] was even more prescient. Written in 1909, it predicted (in very rough, general form) something like the Internet, Internet addiction, video chat rooms, and virtual reality. He also wrote another short story which I consider to be even better than The Machine Stops. It's called The Other Side of the Hedge[3], and while it's not as prescient it's one of my favorite short stories and I would highly recommend it to everyone. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Machine_Stops https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Machine_Stops [2] - https://www.ele.uri.edu/faculty/vetter/Other-stuff/The-Machine-Stops.pdf https://www.ele.uri.edu/faculty/vetter/Other-stuff/The-Machi... [3] - http://www.101bananas.com/library2/otherside.html http://www.101bananas.com/library2/otherside.html

inquirerofsorts 6y ago
Wernher Von Braun wrote a fictional book about his non-fictional Mars proposal, with a character named Elon in it. https://www.reddit.com/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/7wqnk4/werhern_von_brauns_prediction_about_elon/ https://www.reddit.com/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/7wqnk4/werher...
- JPLeRouzic 6y ago
  I quickly read the page where it is mentioned and it seems that "Elon" is a title, not a name. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5sULaqBIp0QVXJCLWdRYjZZNGc/view https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5sULaqBIp0QVXJCLWdRYjZZNGc... "The Martian government was directed by ten men, the leader of whom was elected by universal suffrage for five years and entitled "Elon." Two houses of Parliament enacted the laws to be administered by the Elon and his cabinet. The Upper House was called the Council of the Elders and was limited to a membership of 60 persons, each being appointed for life by the Elon as vacancies occurred by death. In principle, the method was not unlike that by which the College of Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church is appointed. Usually the Elon chose historians, churchmen, former cabinet members or successful economic leaders who could offer lifetimes of valuable experience."
mikequinlan 6y ago
[2] might be https://www.ele.uri.edu/faculty/vetter/Other-stuff/The-Machine-Stops.pdf https://www.ele.uri.edu/faculty/vetter/Other-stuff/The-Machi... instead.
- pmoriarty 6y ago
  Sorry about that. Broken link fixed.
jacobush 6y ago
The Machine Stops also has basically Spotify in it. Also a pretty prescient detail given radio was rather new in 1909. But the whole premise is incredible, so spot on.
082349872349872 6y ago
As I read The Other Side of the Hedge (which I agree is better) just after having read Fratelli Tutti[1], the ambiguity of its final possessive is striking. It's so striking that I've attempted to actively use a second language[2] to reinterpret the final sentence: Demang me ta finyish leta-kom biya im, im ta du terash ruserux mi fo shelaf fo mi finyish sensa seping biya, unte detim im du ting, mi ta vide im demang beratna mi. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24684152 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24684152 [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24675256 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24675256
amelius 6y ago
So, if Bill Gates had read more sci-fi, he could have had a better vision about the significance of the internet ...

berkes 6y ago

I found the societal impact of rapid change and the datanet supporting that, eery for being so spot-on. More so than the actual tech involved.

leoc 6y ago

Gregory Benford's The Scarred Man supposedly has priority for a SF description of a computer virus (I haven't read it): http://www.gregorybenford.com/extra/the-scarred-man-returns/ http://www.gregorybenford.com/extra/the-scarred-man-returns/ . The original Westworld came between The Scarred Man and The Shockwave Rider. Pasting my earlier comment https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10095511 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10095511 : > This is a chance to bring up my favourite Westworld scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_jW-C_G6Pk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_jW-C_G6Pk . As a depiction of computer worms causing industrial chaos this is pretty prescient, because it's from 1973, two years before The Shockwave Rider and predating all but the very first signs of self-replicating mischief in the real world or CS research https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_virus#Historical_development https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_virus#Historical_deve... . (It's clear that Crichton the doctor had an analogy to human disease and medicine in mind https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7Dq7vqpGCM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7Dq7vqpGCM .) But it's also a great example of how real life is stranger than science fiction (as William Gibson likes to discuss). In the 1973 future the Chief Supervisor of Delos suggests that the resort is being attacked by a software worm and his fellow engineers find the very concept hard to take seriously; in the present day they'd just groan and ask "do you think it's the Chinese [government]?" > Also, the Gunslinger vision https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jCDQvNh85Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jCDQvNh85Y mentioned in the article isn't just the first use of CGI in a feature film, it's surely also a very early, for all I know maybe the first, attempt to show the "first-person view" Umwelt of an artificially intelligent robot.

sbisson 6y ago

Perhaps it's better to think of us living in a mash-up of all four of his Club of Rome Quartet futurist SF novels. The Sheep Look Up: pollution-driven ecological collapse and climate change The Jagged Orbit: corporate capture of legislation and societal violence Stand On Zanzibar: overpopulation and media saturation The Shockwave Rider: rapid technological change Brunner was a fascinating man; I only got to meet him a couple of times before his sadly early death, but his work has influenced many across more than just genre fiction. His role in late 1960s and early 1970s activist politics in the UK is often ignored, along with his autobiographical novel of the founding of CND, The Days Of The March.

corbet 6y ago

This is the book that pulled me into the computing field...my 1970's self wanted to be Nick Haflinger, I guess...

nottorp 6y ago

Actually, if you read more Brunner, it looks like we live more in Stand on Zanzibar...