Re: NEWS: neurochip; LIT: Egan and uploading

Bradley Graham Weslake (bgw03@uow.edu.au)
Fri, 28 Nov 1997 20:21:25 +1100 (EST)


[snip]

> Australia seems to be the world capital of hard extropian fiction: Greg
> Egan, plus Vinge lets it be a world power in a couple of short stories
> (although only because the North had nuked itself and the rest of the
> South had burned its libraries in panic.) And you perhaps, although I
> haven't read any of your books. Any basis for this in real life?

[snip]

I wrote an essay on the development of an information society and economy
in Australia which can be found at:

http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/Lab/3896/iactass1.htm

As a culture we have certainly been one of the fastest in the uptake and
application of information techonology, most likely due to our remote
geographic location and sparse demographic. This may help to explain
why Australian writers have a good turnout of Extropian fiction.

I am very new to Extropian ideas, and am in the process of gathering for
myself various books and essays to read. I assume you are referring to
Vernor Vinge above? I have read some of William Gibson's work, which I
thought was great, and am looking for some good non-fiction. Is Moravec a
good place to start? I have read some of his essays...they're excellent.

As an aside, when I first read the name Damien Broderick I was racking my
brain to try and remember where I had heard the name. When he posted to
this list I remembered (I think). Damien, you're the author of Spike
right? I heard the beginning of your interview on JJJ driving to work
earlier this year, and have been planning to get the book. So G'day from
a fellow Aussie!

--
transient@mindless.com