From: Michael Nielsen (mnielsen@theory.caltech.edu)
Date: Wed Jun 09 1999 - 23:27:55 MDT
(Mild spoilers for Neal Stephenson's "Cryptonomicon. Delete this if
you're fanatical about spoilers and intend to read the book.)
Neal Stephenson's newly released best-seller "Cryptonomicon" contains
references to a group that appears to be at least loosely based on the
extropians and transhumanists.
Without spoiling the book much, here's an excerpt from p252:
"But the basic premise of Eutropianism is that technology has made us
post-human. That Homo Sapiens plus technology is effectively a whole new
species: immortal, omnipresent because of the Net, and headed towards
omnipotence. Now, the first people to talk that way were libertarians."
I'm about a third of the way through the book at present. It's showing
considerable promise as a novel, less as a hard science fiction story ---
not many new ideas, but an interesting human side.
Michael
Michael Nielsen
Ph: 626 395 8431 Email: mnielsen@theory.caltech.edu
Fax: 626 793 9506 Web: http://www.theory.caltech.edu/~mnielsen/index.html
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