Accelerando
by Charles Stross · first published 1900
56% recommend42% neutral3% critical
Why HN recommends it
Idea-dense singularity fiction in nine linked stories, with inventive takes on sentient corporations, AI-run DAOs and mind uploading. Suits programmers and hard-SF fans; it is free to read online.
Common criticism: Some find it too frantic and weaker than the author's other books
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
The Singularity. It is the era of the posthuman. Artificial intelligences have surpassed the limits of human intellect. Biotechnological beings have rendered people all but extinct. Molecular nanotechnology runs rampant, replicating and reprogramming at will. Contact with extraterrestrial life grows more imminent with each new day. Struggling to survive and thrive in this accelerated world are three generations of the Macx clan: Manfred, an entrepreneur dealing in intelligence amplification technology whose mind is divided between his physical environment and the Internet; his daughter, Amber
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Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
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…last year and pretty much stuck to it throughout 2018. Perhaps the usual suspects given the crowd here but in any case below are my highlights. Completely blew me away: - Anathem by Neal Stephenson - Accelerando by Charles Stross - Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy by Liu Cixin Great Reads: - Seveneves by Neal Stephenson - Glasshouse, Neptunes Brood & Saturns Children by Charles Stross - Rendezvous with…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?” ↗Charles Stross is a very intelligent individual. If anyone here hasn't read Accelerando I highly recommend it.
on “The Internet is made out of meat” ↗My favorite use of shell corporations in fiction so far is in Accelerando [1] - corporations start out as python scripts: [1] - http://www.amazon.com/Accelerando-Singularity-Charles-Stross...
on “2000 shell companies at one address in Wyoming” ↗I'm sorry not to see Accelerando by Charles Stross (cstross on HN) on the list. One of the best singularity stories I have read, if not the best. For those of you interested, it's available as a free ebook here: http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/fiction/accelera...
on “The Best Science Fiction Books (According to Reddit)” ↗Accelerando, by Charles Stross (a HN'er actually!) Features asteroid mining, expansion through the solar system in the quest to find more matter to turn into computronium, and some people becoming obscenely rich…
on “A $20 Trillion Rock That Could Turn a Startup Into Earth’s Richest Company” ↗I'd never heard of Charlie Stross or his Accelerando book. Thanks for mentioning that, it looks right up my hard-sci-fi alley.
on “Sandsifter: find undocumented instructions and bugs on x86 CPU” ↗Books I like that contain things that are kinda computer-sciency: Permutation City, by Greg Egan -- a bit of a mind-uploady brain-simluation story. Fairly philosophical, but not impenetrable. Accelerando, by Charles Stross -- Focused on the technical singularity brought about by increasing computing power. Somewhat cheeky, a little frenetic. Three Body Problem, by Liu Cixin -- Algorithms and game theory…
Check out the book "Accelerando" by Charles Stross, he has a great section about sentient corporations. Free to download, even: http://www.accelerando.org On topic, this is really great news, the current regulations for this stuff…
on “Vermont OKs the Creation of Virtual Corporations” ↗You might be interested in the book "Accelerando" < http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0441014151/charlieswe... >, as one of its plot points is that the basic unit of exchange in the economy changes from money to reputation.
on “The Dollhouse Mafia, or "Don't Display Negative Karma"” ↗Accelerando - Charles Stross. Has the fast speed feel of "the flow" coding throughout half the book. Really good for keeping motivated.
on “Ask HN: Please name two of your most favorite books.” ↗…modifying variables until you get a world with a copy of Sagan who fits exactly all the historical information available with him. Something like this is implied to be happening towards the end of Stross's Accelerando, which I highly recommend (there's a free ebook edition). However, note my use of the term "god-like". Anything capable of doing this is so close to being a god that it makes very little difference from…
on “Cosmos Will Get a Sequel” ↗…this one by Charles Stross. You can find more "Futures" stories from Nature at http://www.concatenation.org/futuresindex.html If you find this story amusing, you might also enjoy Charles Stross's novel Accelerando, which explores similar themes as a subplot. Stross released the book under a Creative Commons license at the same time it was published in hardcover: http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/fiction/accelera...
on “MAXO signals - A new and unfortunate solution to the Fermi paradox” ↗…very good and very bad things that could happen once us chunks of meat start co-existing with much more powerful artificial intelligences. Edit: I'd add Charlie Stross to that list as well - his book Accelerando does a splendid job of showing how profoundly weird our medium term future might be: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerando Edit2: Personally, I'd be jolly pleased if our future looks anything at…
on “Why 'Her' will dominate UI design even more than 'Minority Report'” ↗I have two ultimate faves:- Accelerando (Charlie Stross) - truly epic, hard-scifi, from near to far future, truly hardcore Diamond Age (Neal Stephenson) - awesome tale, plenty of nanotech, almost fairy-tale-esque [Edit: formatting]
on “Ask HN: What's your favourite sci-fi/fantasy book?” ↗Accelerando by Charles Stross is also a fun book. Stross recently commented, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8939946 "My opinions have shifted in the past 10-15 years and I now think that permitting autonomous…
on “Replacing Middle Management with APIs” ↗