16 ms·

I don't think Rainbow's End was supposed to be aspirational... it felt more dystopian than anything he's written, even the novels which are set (in whole or in

by floren 4y ago

I don't think Rainbow's End was supposed to be aspirational... it felt more dystopian than anything he's written, even the novels which are set (in whole or in part) in obviously/explicitly dystopian environments.

randallsquared 4y ago
Note, to your point, that it's called Rainbows End, rather than Rainbow's End. Noun-then-verb, not possessive-then-noun.
tialaramex 4y ago
IMO All of Vinge's stories may be Singularitarian Catastrophes, you just need to look close enough. Although Vinge claims to have no idea, in Rainbows End obviously Rabbit is an AI, which though it didn't deliberately harm our heroes in the story is obviously an immediate danger to all the survivors, it was attempting to purloin the YGBM weapon and even though that weapon isn't (apparently) exported in finished state, it would now be much easier to re-develop for all the involved parties - which is bad news even if Rabbit doesn't have it. It's pretty obvious what the catastrophe is in the Zones of Thought novels, and for Tatja Grimm well, to the extent Tatja herself isn't a catastrophe (she starts a major war just to get what she wants!) the whole reason Tatja is so different certainly counts. I don't know about The Peace War though, haven't read those.
- B1FF_PSUVM 4y ago
  > The Peace War though, haven't read those. The one with the stasis bobbles ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Peace_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Peace_War
- wging 4y ago
  The Peace War is ambiguous: it leads into Marooned in Realtime, where civilization has disappeared, and the remnants that were sent forward in time don’t know why. It could have been a civilization-ending catastrophe, but not necessarily.
- KineticLensman 4y ago
  I've read the two novels more than once and don't see them as particularly predictive or aspirational. The Peace War explores the effect of a takeover of society by the people who have just developed (and are the sole owners) of a radical new form of physics (the stasis fields, aka bobbles), and the ensuing counter-revolution (led by that society's equivalent of hackers). I don't think that Vinge was actually predicting that we would fight wars using stasis fields. Marooned in Realtime is set so far into the future that is doesn't appear to analogise modern society or technology. To me, it's basically a framework for some good character-led interactions.

by floren 4y ago

randallsquared 4y ago

Note, to your point, that it's called Rainbows End, rather than Rainbow's End. Noun-then-verb, not possessive-then-noun.

tialaramex 4y ago

IMO All of Vinge's stories may be Singularitarian Catastrophes, you just need to look close enough. Although Vinge claims to have no idea, in Rainbows End obviously Rabbit is an AI, which though it didn't deliberately harm our heroes in the story is obviously an immediate danger to all the survivors, it was attempting to purloin the YGBM weapon and even though that weapon isn't (apparently) exported in finished state, it would now be much easier to re-develop for all the involved parties - which is bad news even if Rabbit doesn't have it. It's pretty obvious what the catastrophe is in the Zones of Thought novels, and for Tatja Grimm well, to the extent Tatja herself isn't a catastrophe (she starts a major war just to get what she wants!) the whole reason Tatja is so different certainly counts. I don't know about The Peace War though, haven't read those.

B1FF_PSUVM 4y ago
> The Peace War though, haven't read those. The one with the stasis bobbles ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Peace_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Peace_War
wging 4y ago
The Peace War is ambiguous: it leads into Marooned in Realtime, where civilization has disappeared, and the remnants that were sent forward in time don’t know why. It could have been a civilization-ending catastrophe, but not necessarily.
KineticLensman 4y ago
I've read the two novels more than once and don't see them as particularly predictive or aspirational. The Peace War explores the effect of a takeover of society by the people who have just developed (and are the sole owners) of a radical new form of physics (the stasis fields, aka bobbles), and the ensuing counter-revolution (led by that society's equivalent of hackers). I don't think that Vinge was actually predicting that we would fight wars using stasis fields. Marooned in Realtime is set so far into the future that is doesn't appear to analogise modern society or technology. To me, it's basically a framework for some good character-led interactions.