Neal Stephenson | |
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![]() Neal Stephenson in 2019 | |
Born | Neal Town Stephenson October 31, 1959 Fort Meade, Maryland, U.S. |
Pen name | Stephen Bury (with J. Frederick George) |
Occupation |
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Education | Ames High School Boston University (BA) |
Period | 1984–present |
Genre | Science fiction, speculative fiction, historical fiction, essays |
Notable awards | Hugo Prometheus Locus Clarke |
Website | |
nealstephenson |
Neal Town Stephenson (born October 31, 1959) is an American writer known for his works of speculative fiction. His novels have been categorized as science fiction, historical fiction, cyberpunk and baroque.
Stephenson's work explores mathematics, cryptography, linguistics, philosophy, currency, and the history of science. He also writes non-fiction articles about technology in publications such as Wired . He has written novels with his uncle, George Jewsbury ("J. Frederick George"), under the collective pseudonym Stephen Bury.
Stephenson has worked part-time as an advisor for Blue Origin, a company (founded by Jeff Bezos) developing a spacecraft and a space launch system, [1] and is also a cofounder of Subutai Corporation, whose first offering is the interactive fiction project The Mongoliad . He was Magic Leap's Chief Futurist from 2014 to 2020. [2]
Born on October 31, 1959, in Fort Meade, Maryland, [3] Stephenson came from a family of engineers and scientists; his father is a professor of electrical engineering while his paternal grandfather was a physics professor. His mother worked in a biochemistry laboratory, and her father was a biochemistry professor. Stephenson's family moved to Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, in 1960, and then in 1966 to Ames, Iowa. He graduated from Ames High School in 1977. [4]
Stephenson studied at Boston University, [4] first specializing in physics, then switching to geography after he found that it would allow him to spend more time on the university mainframe. [5] He graduated in 1981 with a B.A. in geography and a minor in physics. [4] Since 1984, Stephenson has lived mostly in the Pacific Northwest and currently[ vague ] lives in Seattle with his family. [4]
Stephenson's first novel, The Big U , published in 1984, is a satirical take on life at American Megaversity, a vast, bland, and alienating research university beset by chaotic riots. [6] [7] His next novel, Zodiac (1988), is a thriller following a radical environmentalist in his struggle against corporate polluters. [6] Neither novel attracted much critical attention on first publication, but both showcased concerns that Stephenson would further develop in his later work. [6]
Stephenson's breakthrough came in 1992 with Snow Crash , a cyberpunk or postcyberpunk novel fusing memetics, computer viruses, and other high-tech themes with Sumerian mythology, along with a sociological extrapolation of extreme laissez-faire capitalism and collectivism. [7] [8] Stephenson at this time would later be described by Mike Godwin as "a slight, unassuming grad-student type whose soft-spoken demeanor gave no obvious indication that he had written the manic apotheosis of cyberpunk science fiction." [9] In 1994, Stephenson joined with his uncle, J. Frederick George, to publish a political thriller, Interface , under the pen name "Stephen Bury"; [10] they followed this in 1996 with The Cobweb .
Stephenson's next solo novel, published in 1995, was The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer . The plot involves a weapon implanted in a character's skull, near-limitless replicators for everything from mattresses to foods, smartpaper, and air and blood-sanitizing nanobots. It is set in a world with a neo-Victorian social structure.
This was followed by Cryptonomicon in 1999, a novel including concepts ranging from Alan Turing's research into codebreaking and cryptography during the Second World War, to a modern attempt to set up a data haven. In 2013, Cryptonomicon won the Prometheus Hall of Fame Award.
The Baroque Cycle is a series of historical novels set in the 17th and 18th centuries, and is in some respects a prequel to Cryptonomicon. It was originally published in three volumes of two or three books each – Quicksilver (2003), The Confusion , (2004) and The System of the World (2004) – but was subsequently republished as eight separate books: Quicksilver, King of the Vagabonds, Odalisque, Bonanza, Juncto, Solomon's Gold, Currency, and System of the World. (The titles and exact breakdown vary in different markets.) The System of the World won the Prometheus Award in 2005.
Following this, Stephenson wrote Anathem (2008), a long and detailed novel of speculative fiction. It is set in an Earthlike world, deals with metaphysics, and refers heavily to Ancient Greek philosophy. Anathem won the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel in 2009.
In May 2010, the Subutai Corporation, of which Stephenson was named chairman, announced the production of an experimental multimedia fiction project called The Mongoliad , which centered upon a narrative written by Stephenson and other speculative fiction authors. [11] [12]
Stephenson's novel Reamde was released on September 20, 2011. [13] The title is a play on the common filename README. This thriller, set in the present, centers around a group of MMORPG developers caught in the middle of Chinese cyber-criminals, Islamic terrorists, and Russian mafia. [14]
On August 7, 2012, Stephenson released a collection of essays and other previously published fiction entitled Some Remarks: Essays and Other Writing. [15] This collection also includes a new essay and a short story created specifically for this volume.
In late 2013, Stephenson stated that he was working on a multi-volume work of historical novels that would "have a lot to do with scientific and technological themes and how those interact with the characters and civilisation during a particular span of history". He expected the first two volumes to be released in mid-to-late 2014. [16] However, at about the same time, he shifted his attention to a science fiction novel, Seveneves , which was completed about a year later and was published in May 2015. [17] On June 8, 2016, plans were announced to adapt Seveneves for the screen. [18]
In May 2016, as part of a video discussion with Bill Gates, Stephenson revealed that he had just submitted the manuscript for a new historical novel—"a time travel book"—co-written with Nicole Galland, one of his Mongoliad coauthors. [19] This was released as The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. on June 13, 2017. [20]
In June 2019, his novel Fall; or, Dodge in Hell was published. It is a near-future novel that explores mind uploading into the cloud, and contains characters from 2011's Reamde , 1999's Cryptonomicon , and other books. [21]
Termination Shock , published in November 2021, is a climate fiction novel about solar geoengineering. [22]
Stephenson's books tend to have elaborate plots drawing on numerous technological and sociological ideas at the same time. The discursive nature of his writing, together with significant plot and character complexity and an abundance of detail suggests a baroque writing style, which Stephenson brought fully to bear in the three-volume Baroque Cycle. [23]
Stephenson worked at Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos' spaceflight company, for seven years in the early 2000s while its focus was on "novel alternate approaches to space, alternate propulsion systems, and business models." He left after Blue became a more standard aerospace company. [24]
In 2012, Stephenson launched a Kickstarter campaign for CLANG, a realistic sword-fighting fantasy game. The concept was to use motion control to provide an immersive experience. The campaign's funding goal of $500,000 was reached by the target date of July 9, 2012, on Kickstarter, but funding options remained open and the project continued to accept contributions on its official site. [25] The project ran out of money in September 2013. [26] This, and the circumstances around it, angered some backers [27] with some threatening a class action lawsuit. [28] The CLANG project ended in September 2014 without being completed. Stephenson took part of the responsibility for the project's failure, stating, "I probably focused too much on historical accuracy and not enough on making it sufficiently fun to attract additional investment". [29]
In 2014, Stephenson was hired as Chief Futurist by the Florida-based augmented reality company Magic Leap. [30] Stephenson left the company in April 2020 as part of a layoff. [2] In June 2021, Stephenson and colleagues Sean Stewart and Austin Grossman released New Found Land: The Long Haul, an Audible audio drama based on the intellectual property they developed at Magic Leap. [31]
In 2022, Stephenson launched Lamina1 to build an open source metaverse that would use smart contracts [32] on a blockchain. [33]
Stephenson's writing is influential in technology circles. Bill Gates, Sergey Brin, John Carmack, and Peter Thiel are all fans of his work. [34] In Snow Crash Stephenson coined the term Metaverse [35] and popularized the term avatar in a computing context. [36] The Metaverse inspired the inventors of Google Earth [34] and Snow Crash was required reading on the Xbox development team under Microsoft executive J Allard. [16] According to academic Paul Youngquist, Snow Crash also dealt the cyberpunk genre a "killer blow". [37] According to Publishers Weekly , Cryptonomicon is "often credited with sketching the basis for cryptocurrency." [38]
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: date and year (link)Cryptonomicon is a 1999 novel by American author Neal Stephenson, set in two different time periods. One group of characters are World War II–era Allied codebreakers and tactical-deception operatives affiliated with the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park (UK), and disillusioned Axis military and intelligence figures. The second narrative is set in the late 1990s, with characters that are descendants of those of the earlier time period, who employ cryptologic, telecom, and computer technology to build an underground data haven in the fictional Sultanate of Kinakuta. Their goal is to facilitate anonymous Internet banking using electronic money and (later) digital gold currency, with a long-term objective to distribute Holocaust Education and Avoidance Pod (HEAP) media for instructing genocide-target populations on defensive warfare.
The Prometheus Award is an award for libertarian science fiction given annually by the Libertarian Futurist Society. American author and activist L. Neil Smith established the Best Novel category for the award in 1979, but it was not awarded regularly until the newly founded Libertarian Futurist Society revived it in 1982. The Society created a Prometheus Hall of Fame Award in 1983, and also presents occasional one-off Special Awards.
Vernor Steffen Vinge was an American science fiction author and professor. He taught mathematics and computer science at San Diego State University. He was the first wide-scale popularizer of the technological singularity concept and among the first authors to present a fictional "cyberspace". He won the Hugo Award for his novels A Fire Upon the Deep (1992), A Deepness in the Sky (1999), and Rainbows End (2006), and novellas Fast Times at Fairmont High (2001) and The Cookie Monster (2004).
Gregory Dale Bear was an American writer and illustrator best known for science fiction. His work covered themes of galactic conflict, parallel universes, consciousness and cultural practices, and accelerated evolution. His last work was the 2021 novel The Unfinished Land. Greg Bear wrote over 50 books in total.
Glen David Brin is an American science fiction author. He has won the Hugo, Locus, Campbell and Nebula Awards. His novel The Postman was adapted into a 1997 feature film starring Kevin Costner.
Snow Crash is a science fiction novel by the American writer Neal Stephenson, published in 1992. Like many of Stephenson's novels, its themes include history, linguistics, anthropology, archaeology, religion, computer science, politics, cryptography, memetics, and philosophy.
Joe William Haldeman is an American science fiction author.
Michael Swanwick is an American fantasy and science fiction author who began publishing in the early 1980s.
Quicksilver is a historical novel by Neal Stephenson, published in 2003. It is the first volume of The Baroque Cycle, his late Baroque historical fiction series, succeeded by The Confusion and The System of the World. Quicksilver won the Arthur C. Clarke Award and was nominated for the Locus Award in 2004. Stephenson organized the structure of Quicksilver such that chapters have been incorporated into three internal books titled "Quicksilver", "The King of the Vagabonds", and "Odalisque". In 2006, each internal book was released in separate paperback editions, to make the 900 pages more approachable for readers. These internal books were originally independent novels within the greater cycle during composition.
Neal Asher is an English science fiction writer. He lives near Chelmsford.
The Baroque Cycle is a series of novels by American writer Neal Stephenson. It was published in three volumes containing eight books in 2003 and 2004. The story follows the adventures of a sizable cast of characters living amidst some of the central events of the late 17th and early 18th centuries in Europe, Africa, Asia, and Central America. Despite featuring a literary treatment consistent with historical fiction, Stephenson has characterized the work as science fiction, because of the presence of some anomalous occurrences and the work's particular emphasis on themes relating to science and technology. The sciences of cryptology and numismatics feature heavily in the series, as they do in some of Stephenson's other works.
"Jipi and the Paranoid Chip" is a science fiction short story by Neal Stephenson that appeared in Forbes magazine's July 7, 1997 issue. It is part of the Baroque Cycle/Cryptonomicon universe.
Charles Chowkai Yu is an American writer. He is the author of the novels How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe and Interior Chinatown, as well as the short-story collections Third Class Superhero and Sorry Please Thank You. In 2007 he was named a "5 under 35" honoree by the National Book Foundation. In 2020, Interior Chinatown won the National Book Award for fiction.
The Fortunate Fall is the debut and only novel by Cameron Reed, published by Tor Books in 1996. The title comes from the Christian theological concept of felix culpa.
The Aurealis Awards are presented annually by the Australia-based Chimaera Publications and WASFF to published works to "recognise the achievements of Australian science fiction, fantasy, horror writers". To qualify, a work must have been first published by an Australian citizen or permanent resident between 1 January and 31 December of the corresponding year; the presentation ceremony is held the following year. It has grown from a small function of around 20 people to a two-day event attended by over 200 people.
The Aurealis Awards are presented annually by the Australia-based Chimaera Publications and WASFF to published works in order to "recognise the achievements of Australian science fiction, fantasy, horror writers". To qualify, a work must have been first published by an Australian citizen or permanent resident between 1 January and 31 December of the corresponding year; the presentation ceremony is held the following year. It has grown from a small function of around 20 people to a two-day event attended by over 200 people.
The Mongoliad is a collaborative work of transmedia historical adventure fiction by a group known as the Subutai Corporation which was founded by Neal Stephenson and others. Set in the Foreworld Saga, the story was originally released in a serialized format online, and via a series of iOS and Android apps from 2010 until 2012. It was restructured and re-edited for a definitive edition published by 47North in multiple volumes in 2012 as The Mongoliad. Fan-submitted Foreworld stories were published via Amazon's Kindle Worlds imprint starting in 2013.
Mark Teppo is an American author of contemporary fantasy and science fiction. His work is strongly peppered with references to occult concepts, most commonly those of Hermeticism and Alchemy. Prior to his current tenure as a fiction writer Teppo was a music journalist working both as a staff reviewer and editor for various publications such as Earpollution, Igloo Magazine, Earplug, and OPi8.com. Teppo is also Chief Creative Officer of Subutai Corporation, whose first offering is the interactive fiction project The Mongoliad.
Seveneves is a science fiction novel by Neal Stephenson published in 2015. The story tells of the desperate efforts to preserve Homo sapiens in the wake of apocalyptic events on Earth after the unexplained disintegration of the Moon and the remaking of human society as a space-based civilization after a severe genetic bottleneck.
He began his higher education as a physics major, then switched to geography when it appeared that this would enable him to scam more free time on his university's mainframe computer.
...a thriller written in collaboration with his uncle, George Jewsbury, under pseudonym Stephen Bury...
Neal Stephenson, Chairman
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: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)'For the first seven years or so, I worked there when it was in more of an exploratory stage of trying to figure out what the landscape looked like and what are some possibly novel alternate approaches to space, alternate propulsion systems and business models and so on,' [Stephenson] recalled. That lasted, he said, until the company became more focused on specific technologies (which feature propulsion systems not very alternate from what's been, and is being, done elsewhere.) 'Once it became a more kind of directed aerospace engineering entity, that's when I amicably peeled off,' he said.
A vocal contingent of Clang backers have seethed with anger after the Pause Button update, with some demanding their money back and others making threats of legal action. When I spoke with him earlier this week, he told me he understands where they're coming from, but wants everyone to know that the journey to making Clang a reality isn't over.
It was first used in the context of virtual worlds in the pioneering Habitat system of the mid 1980s (Morningstar and Farmer, 1991) and popularized by Stephenson's (1992) science-fiction novel Snow Crash.