Blue remembered Earth
by Alastair Reynolds · first published 2012
56% recommend44% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Near-future science fiction with a richly developed society, extensive augmented reality, and a prologue built around a buried AI relic. A good pick for readers who enjoy big-idea sci-fi.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
One-hundred-and-fifty years from now, the moon and Mars are settled, and colonies stretch all the way out to the edge of the solar system. But something has come to light on the Moon--secrets that could change everything--or tear this near utopia apar
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…think he does a better job of addressing the social issues of technology than most of the other recommendations here. Halting State, Rule 34, and Glasshouse by Stross might also be up your alley. And Blue Remembered Earth by Alistair Reynolds but probably not the sequels. Oh, and Nexus by Ramez Naam. I'd certainly recommend Ken MacLeod in general but I'm not sure he's exactly what you're asking for unless you're also…
on “Ghost in the Shell remains our most challenging film about technology” ↗I've yet to read "Seveneves", but I felt the prologue to Alastair Reynolds' "Blue Remembered Earth" was very moving too. It involves our protagonists coming across a left-over AI tank, long buried. A sort of futuristic take on land-mines disguised as toys. There's also some rather nightmarish scenarios…
on “The Day the Moon Blew Up” ↗You would probably enjoy the Blue Remembered Earth sci-fi trilogy by Alistair Reynolds. It has quite a lot of enhanced-elephant drama. (I had a time Googling the real title because in my head it was just called "Elephants In Spaaaaaaace").
on “Musth” ↗…(e.g a virtual computer screen) and my world is a little bit better. Wire it together so people can share the augment, and possibilities become limitless. Alastair Reynolds wrote a good series of books (Blue Remembered Earth) where AR was envisioned rather extensively and it was compelling. As such I view AR as the future of all computing and the market correspondingly huge.
on “Facebook loses users for the first time” ↗…French translation is bad but it felt really subpar. I get the feeling 3 body problem is considered one of the best sci-fi books only by people who don't read sci-fi. Not really recent but I'd recommend Blue Remembered Earth by Alastair Reynolds (but I'm partial to Reynolds after the Revelation Space series and House of Suns) or if you like military sci-fi Marko Kloos' Frontline series.
on “Nobody Wants to Buy the Future: Why Science Fiction Literature Is Vanishing” ↗…Meaning of Life - Best science book I've read in a while! Shows why mitochondria matter, the fundamental limits of prochariotic life, and several important ways mitochondria influence again and evolution. Blue Remembered Earth - Awesome near futureish book that does well at imagining a future that isn't just a linear extrapolation but is still believable. A Key, an Egg, an Unfortunate Remark - Not enough pacifist badass grandmothers…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?” ↗Constellation Games, The Martian, Too Like the Lightning, Moving Mars, Nexus, Blue Remembered Earth,and The Caryatids are some hopeful SF that's come out recently that I recommend.
on “The Expanse UI Design” ↗I've been listening to Alastair Reynolds Blue Remembered Earth and On the Steel Breeze. The notion of ubiquitous surveillance is an underlying concept, affecting how characters can behave as the plot moves forward. While it is an underlying concept, I'd love pointers…
on “EFF to Supreme Court: The Fourth Amendment Covers DNA Collection” ↗IIRC, Alastair Reynolds describes something very much like this in his novel Blue Remembered Earth, which is set on a future Earth about 140 years from now.
on “SpinLaunch completes first test flight with rocket-flinging launch system” ↗…is obviously very science-positive. I have slightly mixed feelings about Alastair Reynolds' work (I thought Revelation Space petered out a bit, but that Zima Blue is profoundly beautiful etc) but his Blue Remembered Earth trilogy is a very deliberate (dare I say heavy handed) attempt at a more optimistic universe. Going back a little, obviously there's the Culture series which definitely does examine some of the complexity…
on “Who Killed the World?” ↗…itself and other minds. [^1]: YMMV, depending on where you draw the line between fine intelligence and stochastic parrots. [^2]: Not the dictionary meaning, but the term as used by Alastair Reynolds in "Blue Remembered Earth (2012)" [^3]: We may not use the term "LLM", because of the stochastic parrot crowd, because LLMs become one of many ingredients, or simply (but unlikely) because we find a completely different tool…
on “Speculations Concerning the First Ultraintelligent Machine (1965) [pdf]” ↗