RIP Vernor Vinge [UPDATED]

Vernor Vinge 

Science fiction writer Vernor Vinge, a longtime star in the field, has died. He was 79, the science fiction news site File 770 reports.

Vince (1944-2024) won the Hugo Award multiple times: For the novels A Fire Upon the Deep, A Deepness in the Sky and Rainbows End, and for the novellas Fast Times at Fairmont High and The Cookie Monster.

He also won a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Libertarian Futurist Society, won the Prometheus Award for A Deepness in the Sky and Marooned in Realtime, and won the Prometheus Hall of Fame Award for “True Names” and “The Ungoverned.”

“True Names,” inducted in 2004 into the Hall of Fame, is often cited as the first work of science fiction to depict cyberspace.

Updates:

David Brin on Vernor Vinge.

Tribute from John Scalzi.  

 

Here is an excerpt from the Prometheus Blog Appreciation review-essay about Vinge’s story “True Names,” a 2007 Prometheus Hall of Fame winner for Best Classic Fiction.

“A landmark when it was published in 1981, Vernor Vinge’s now-classic story gave the public their first glimpse of cyberspace and showed how the struggle for control might penetrate the new medium.

One of the earliest works of fiction to present a fully detailed concept of cyberspace, the story also explores themes of anarchism and trans-humanism that are of great interest to libertarian futurists.

The story follows the progress of a group of computer hackers who keep their true identities secret while being among the first to adopt a new full-immersion virtual-reality technology. They do so out of curiosity or an entrepreneurial desire to profit – both respectable and even laudable motivations from the libertarian perspective that appreciates the crucial role of innovation and free markets in advancing human progress, prosperity, well-being and knowledge.

The central adversary in the story is the U.S. government, which can threaten these “warlocks” by finding out their true names and forcing them to work for the government. Vinge depicts the government as corrupt, bureaucratic, incompetent in many areas, and a danger to freedom and privacy.

Vernor Vinge in 2001 (Creative Commons license)

Vinge was one of the first observers of the nascent computer scene to realize that protecting one’s identity on-line would turn out to be crucial for many people, whether to protect one’s right to speak freely, to explore various identities, or to explore or exploit hidden computer resources. We continue to see the dangers of exposed identity with modern doxing and other ways that online fights can follow people to their real lives.”

Besides his innovative, mind-expanding and enduring fiction, Vinge also was notable for his non-fiction 1993 essay “The Coming Technological Singularity”, in which he argues that the creation of superhuman artificial intelligence will mark the point at which “the human era will be ended”, and that no current models of reality are sufficient to predict beyond it.

IF YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THE PROMETHEUS AWARDS:

* Prometheus winners: For the full list of Prometheus winners, finalists and nominees – including the annual Best Novel and Best Classic Fiction (Hall of Fame) categories and occasional Special Awards – visit the enhanced Prometheus Awards page on the LFS website, which now includes convenient links to all published essay-reviews in our Appreciation series explaining why each of more than 100 past winners since 1979 fits the awards’ distinctive dual focus.

* Read “The Libertarian History of Science Fiction,”an essay in the international magazine Quillette that favorably highlights the Prometheus Awards, the Libertarian Futurist Society and the significant element of libertarian sf/fantasy in the evolution of the modern genre.

Watch videos of past Prometheus Awards ceremonies (including the recent 2023 ceremony with inspiring and amusing speeches by Prometheus-winning authors Dave Freer and Sarah Hoyt),Libertarian Futurist Society panel discussions with noted sf authors and leading libertarian writers, and other LFS programs on the Prometheus Blog’s Video page.

* Check out the Libertarian Futurist Society’s Facebook page  for periodic updates and links to Prometheus Blog posts.

Join us! To help sustain the Prometheus Awards and support a cultural and literary strategy to appreciate and honor freedom-loving fiction,join  the Libertarian Futurist Society, a non-profit all-volunteer association of freedom-loving sf/fantasy fans.

 

 

 

 

3 thoughts on “RIP Vernor Vinge [UPDATED]”

  1. I just reread A Deepness in the Sky, and I was struck by a passage in the middle, recounting an earlier episode in Pham Nuwen’s life:

    “Now every embedded computing system, down to a child’s rattle, was a governance utility. It was the most extreme form of social control ever invented. ‘So now they have to run everything.’ The notion was terribly seductive to the authoritarian mind. . . . Not even planet-wrecker bombs had as dire a reputation for eliminating civilizations.”

    I’m both impressed by Vinge’s prescience and chilled by how close we’ve already come to the ubiquitous law enforcement he cautioned against.

  2. VERY sorry to hear that, but we’re all getting toward the top of the escalator. Vinge was one of my (many!) “favorite” authors.

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