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Ask HN: Sci-Fi Books for Hackers?
Hiho, I just finished "Learn You a Haskell for Great Good!" now i need another good book to read. I'm in the mood for some Sci-Fi - but, not the kind that is about politics, light-saber wars, worm-drugs, a fascist regime masquerading as humanitarians, ... - it should be more like "The Robot and the Baby" (by J. McCarthy) but longer, with even more mind bending pseudo code.
Long question short: Are there Good Sci-Fi Books for Developers?
- read_wharf 15y agoNo code in these two, but lots of problem solving: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_34_%28novel%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_34_%28novel%29 I recently read Rule 34 by HNer Charles Stross. I liked it a lot. Thanks Charles. If you want to go old school, Rendezvous With Rama is great. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendezvous_with_Rama https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendezvous_with_Rama
- lsiebert 15y agohttp://textiplication.com/2009/07/13/hackers-and-hacking-in-science-fiction/ http://textiplication.com/2009/07/13/hackers-and-hacking-in-... has many of the recommendations I'd make. I especially recommend Cryptonomicon if you want some pseudocode. I'll add a few newer books: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ready_Player_One http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ready_Player_One http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daemon_(technothriller_series) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daemon_(technothriller_series) However, have you considered some free nonfiction? http://www.mit.edu/hacker/hacker.html http://www.mit.edu/hacker/hacker.html The Hacker Crackdown http://hermetic.com/bey/taz3.html#labelTAZ http://hermetic.com/bey/taz3.html#labelTAZ Temporary Autonomous Zones You might also like scifi short stories: http://www.flurb.net/ http://www.flurb.net/
- db48x 15y agoA Fire Upon the Deep, by Vernor Vinge. It's all about the nature of computation vs thought, usenet, and truly evocative aliens. Not much actual code though.
- latch 15y agoNon-developer specific good sci-fi books: -Dune -Hyperion + The Fall of Hyperion -The Book Of The New Sun -Ilium + Olympos -Takeshi Kovacs trilogy -The Culture Series (meh..) -The Demolished Man More dev-oriented: -Reamde (which I hated, but I seem to be in a minority) -Neuromancer I'll always have a special place in my heart for Calculating God (not science fiction), because its the book that got me into reading seriously.
- LarryMade 15y agoOne that has a lot of programming and hackerish humor is the Wizard's Bane series by Rick cook. Fantasy realm mixing programming and magic quite well.
- DanBC 15y agoTed Chiang - except this is short stories. Very good though. Greg Egan - hard science, mind bending.
- leeny 15y agoI'm surprised _Snow Crash_ (or other Neal Stephenson stuff) hasn't come up yet. It's a bit dated, as it envisions what teh internets will be like from a 1992 perspective, but still a very enjoyable/amusing read. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_Crash http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_Crash
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- ninjaweasel 15y agoSpace Operas: - The Reality Dysfunction (Peter Hamilton) - Gridlinked (Neal Asher) - Hidden Empire (Kevin J Anderson)
- ramblerman 15y agoAdding "for developers" to the end of a question doesn't automatically make it fitting for hackernews. I think reddit is a better place for these questions.
- franze 15y agoi don't do reddit - and it's a question to the HN community (not a question to anyone else) - because i value HNers opinion - they might answer, they might not.