You Need More Cyber in Your Life
Cyber Punk, that is.
This morning I saw a post by @kevinwong about the lack of #cyberpunk on Steemit. I had to post about one of my favorite authors. If you're just now hearing about Daniel Suarez, you can thank me later. I've read or listened to all of his books, some of them multiple times. The research that goes into his novels reminds me of Tom Clancy's attention to detail. His writing is gripping, entertaining, and educational, both technologically and philosophically.
All of his books can be found at http://thedaemon.com/
The Daemon is Daniel's first novel, and it's amazing. Imagine a massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) done in real life with augmented realty overlays all controlled by an artificial intelligence created by a now deceased genius. This book takes you on a wild ride where the start is completely normal and the end is so surreal, you still can't understand why you believe it all. But you do. I first found this book playing around with digital download options for my local library. I'm so glad I did. When I finished it, I immediately purchased his next book, which is a continuation of the story, and kept reading.
Freedom (tm) picks up right where the Daemon ends. The incredible world of gamified reality driven by 100's of thousands of people all over the world gives birth to new purpose, justice, and technological advancement. It's a truly incredible story I hope they turn into a blockbuster movie some day.
Kill Decision will scare the crap out of you. Imagine a swarm of completely autonomous killer drones who pattern their communication and destructiveness after weaver ant colonies. This book raises some really important questions about the future of autonomous warfare, one we should all be aware of.
Influx, IMO, takes it all to another level and involves Suarez's most generous use of artistic license. He creates a world where new technology is so dangerous, an elite group of people have to protect the world from itself by controlling or eliminating new discoveries. Or at least, that's their intention given the results of the planet-wide simulations they run and the existential risks involved. As with most attempts at centralized control, things don't always go to plan.
Let's see if we can get Daniel Suarez on Steemit!
As you can see, he's active on Twitter and replies often to his fans (even this one!):
Let's all send him a tweet to come checkout Steemit, the decentralized social media platform built on blockchain technology which pays content authors and curators directly. Here's mine.
If you haven't read his books yet, visit his home page at http://thedaemon.com/ and buy them today.
If you have, what did you think? Which one is your favorite and why?
This is exactly how posts where you are not the original creator should be done. You disn't simply post a book and say "This author is great" You turned us on to someone you appreciate and told us why. So you added valuable content. This is something people who simply copy youtube videos or news articles they didn't create, without any added content should learn from. You don't have to create an incredible long post. This does a great succinct job at what should be done. Appreciate it!
Yes, exactly. This is why @lukestokes is on my follow list, for what it's worth!
Thanks @jamtaylor. :)
Following is important as I'm sure the feed for all the people you follow will soon be made into a section where you can see all your favorite posters in one feed instead of constantly searching through and trying to remember names of people you enjoy reading
It's a little bit cumbersome, but you can use https://steemstats.com/#/ right now to see the feeds of the people you follow. Lots of great stuff in there. Once they make it part of the default system, my vote % will be hurting all the time.
Yeah even like being to see your steem power voting % without switching back and forth. I love how people are making different sites that offer valuable statistics, but I would hope the best of those will have their features added to the blockchain and the creators rewarded for improving the overall experience.
Thank you! There are a lot of people out there trying to get a quick buck instead of providing real value. The cool thing is, if we put in a little effort, we can actually do both. :)
Exactly! Id like to see great movie recommendations or reviews, music reviews etc. I would love to see a musician launch their successful career here. It's the perfect platform, because they can be supported financially and with comments that offer constructive criticism to further their passion instead of the garbage in YouTube content or the hope twenty people listento your heartfelt song on SoundCloud. There is so much content over the internet that people that weed out garbage and turn us on to great content is very valuable. Time is finite and spending it wisely on quality content is important, instead of wasting it on useless extraneous content or ads intruding on your experience.
Love these books!
I'm not sure if I'd call it cyberpunk, in the same vein as William Gibson's "Sprawl" trilogy, but I have to say that I've immensely enjoyed the books I've read so far. I'm actually in the middle of Influx right now.
Yeah, I was thinking about cyberpunk as a genre, and I tend to lean towards a more optimistic techno-future sci-fi with elements of artificial intelligence, power plays for centralized control, and such. Maybe my interpretation is a little lose, but at the end of the day, it's all about great content. Thanks for giving your input!
I forgot to say something about the books themselves. So far I liked "Freedom" the best, because of the interesting mix of new social structures and technology. "Thieves Emporium" (Max Hernandez) was a bit like that too, without the focus on technology. Underground shadow societies..
All Gibson's stuff are the bomb! Try Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash as well :)
@lukestokes seems like you'd like the Solarpunk genre, it's filled with grit, but with plenty of optimistic overtones (or undertones)!
Nice! I'll check it out.
Seems like I have to catchup with these new reads :D
Have you come across any cyberpunk stuff that has any mentions to technologies similar to blockchain tech?
I feel like I have, but I'm forgetting which book it was in. Diamond Age? Snow Crash? Ready Player One? Existence? Player of Games? I've listened to quite a few lately... if there isn't yet a blockchain-focused cyberpunk novel out there, there should be.
Back in April, some of us in the ethereum forum were thinking of etherpunk.. but it died down. Ready Player One is more than blockchain.. Hmm let's start turbocharging scifi - yes getting your fav author on board will be awesome.. Somehow I think Neal Stephenson will try out lol. Cyberpunk should get back into mainstream again... and actually I think the cyberpunk cycle is coming back again with VR inspiring writers and all.
Sounds good to me!
Speaking of VR, my friend Joel who works in that industry posted once to see what the response would be like, but I think he was underwhelmed. I hope in the future more people will fill out the various niches on Steemit, just like your great post talked about.
Just tweeted to my small followers!
Disclaimer: I am just a bot trying to be helpful.
I'm game for the tweet:) I'm an inspiring writer and need as many great authors writers as possible on this platform! Going to check out link thanks for share.
Very kind of you , keep on bringing more good author coming in .
love this. i've read a bunch of stephenson and need to check suarez out
Excellent! Let me know what you think of it. I've had many of my friends tell me they really appreciated the recommendation.
Thanks @lukestokes for the recommendations. Just heading out for a week on the beach and in need of some summer reading. I'll check out Suarez. #cyberpunk
Nice! I hope you enjoy them. Would love to hear what you think when you get back. Enjoy the beach!