Reading A Fire Upon the Deep was literally life-changing for me. How many Everett branches had someone like Vernor Vinge to draw people’s attention to the possibility of a technological Singularity with such skillful writing, and to exhort us, at such an early date, to think about how to approach it strategically on a societal level or affect it positively on an individual level. Alas, the world has largely squandered the opportunity he gave us, and is rapidly approaching the Singularity with little forethought or preparation. I don’t know which I feel sadder about, what this implies about our world and others, or the news of his passing.
Reading A Fire Upon the Deep was literally life-changing for me. How many Everett branches had someone like Vernor Vinge to draw people’s attention to the possibility of a technological Singularity with such skillful writing, and to exhort us, at such an early date, to think about how to approach it strategically on a societal level or affect it positively on an individual level. Alas, the world has largely squandered the opportunity he gave us, and is rapidly approaching the Singularity with little forethought or preparation. I don’t know which I feel sadder about, what this implies about our world and others, or the news of his passing.