Book recommendation

[fabrisse]

I've mentioned this before, but I strongly recommend everyone read Hieroglyphs. The book is a science fiction short story anthology which came from a challenge to Neal Stephenson. He'd asked about new technology and Michael Crow, president of Arizona State University, said, "You're the ones who've been slacking off." The writers were asked to focus on near-future tech and to concentrate on the benefits rather than the problems. The latter part of the challenge wasn't entirely successful; some people just don't want to give up their dystopias.

The reason this came up, is there's an article at BBC America about why a space elevator probably wouldn't work. The first story in the anthology, Stephenson's Atmospaera Incognita deals with the practicalities, and issues, of building one.

I know some of my friends are engineers. Can we build one? And, please go buy and read the book. Even the stories I didn't like made me think, and who can ask for more than that from their sci-fi?

Comments

[davesmusictank.livejournal.com]

I shall check this book out. Another to add to my wants list !

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

I went to an event structured around the ideas in this book and came away with a better understanding of
a. How writers work
b. How science is done

I also got to meet my favorite living sci-fi writer (Kathleen Ann Goonan) who has a social science based story in the book.