Rainbows End
A Novel With One Foot In The Future
by Vernor Vinge · first published 2006
47% recommend47% neutral6% critical
Why HN recommends it
Near-future sci-fi about a world of pervasive augmented reality and wearable interfaces; praised for a plausible, thoughtful look at where AR, digital libraries and social control could go, and for poetic writing.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
From the back cover: World famous poet Robert Gu missed twenty years of progress while he nearly died from Alzheimer's. Now, when he awakens in San Diego, in the year 2025, with his mind and health restored, reality's a shock. Books are just about gone. Computers are old news, replaced by "smart" contact lenses that connect him to the Internet via his clothes and wireless nodes just about everywhere. Buildings look low rent -- unless you're wearing. Then, they look like whatever you want. Even he is different. He's seventy-five, but his treatment has made him look almost a teen. And
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The application of augmented reality using contact lenses and other types of head up displays was explored in the wonderful science fiction novel "Rainbows End", which was written by none other than "Vernor Vinge".
on “Augmented Reality in a Contact Lens” ↗By far the best novel I've seen that looks at a near future (2025) world where most people spend most of their time using augmented reality is Vernor Vinge's Rainbows End: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbows_End
on “How Magic Leap Is Creating an Alternate Reality” ↗Since you are primed on the question. You should read Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge. It's a near-future sci-fi book that tackles these sorts of questions. As a bit of a "spoiler" his solution is a covenant with the citizens. The government will hack all of our computers,…
on “Dropgangs, or the future of darknet markets” ↗I haven't read "Halting State" yet, but Stross's "Accelerando" is pretty good. You might also try Vinge's "Rainbows End".
on “Has sci-fi run out of steam?” ↗I nominate Vernor Vinge's Rainbows End. In particular, his theme of ubiquitous connectivity and access to information struck me as remarkable realistic. Of course, Vinge is a Comp Sci professor, so I would expect his treatment of related concepts…
on “Six scientists tell us about the most accurate science fiction in their fields” ↗we really don't have anything like that these days Check out Halting State by Charles Stross and Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge.
on “First Demonstration Of Time Cloaking” ↗Vinge's _Rainbows End_ (note that's the correct punctuation) is excellent and much more relevant to near-future than his Deepness series.
on “Ghost in the Shell remains our most challenging film about technology” ↗Oh boy. Legislating government control of all computational resources is not a path we want to go down. Read Vernor Vinge's "Rainbows End" for some fun ideas on how this screws everyone over. Watch Cory Doctorow's talk about the war on general-purpose computing for some more immediate concerns. I wonder if nebulous fears about AI soon…
on “Where will artificial general intelligence come from?” ↗…come to mind. The Baroque Cycle is a fiction series about the beginnings of computation and cryptography. He does have a propensity to navel-gaze though. Vernor Vinge was a computer science professor. Rainbow's End and The Peace War are worth reading. Anything else he writes is worth reading too, actually. Anything else by Stross, not just Accelerando, will have a bit of a tech bent to it, but is often not very…
…I read Vinge's essay in college and it was a critical factor in affecting my career choices and transhumanist views. His sci-fi Fire Upon the Deep/Deepness in the Sky and Fast Times at Fairmont High/Rainbows End were also critical in affecting my career path into AR/VR. I highly recommend reading this essay and any of his other sci-fi. He work could be classified as "hard computer science fiction" because it…
on “The Coming Technological Singularity: How to Survive in the Post-Human Era” ↗Vernor Vinge - Rainbows End ReputationDefender.com/MyPrivacy It appears to be very cheap. I have no connection with this company or anyone who works for it, ttbomk. MyPrivacy protects you from stalkers, scam artists and direct…
on “Y Combinator presents 26 new startups ” ↗That's one purpose. My own suggestion elsewhere in this thread, Rainbows End, fits into this category. On the other hand, I'm pretty sure that George Lucas never meant to tell us that we'd be playing with light sabers. Frequently, the futuristic technology of sci-fi is nothing…
on “Six scientists tell us about the most accurate science fiction in their fields” ↗…understandable. Few books have the idea density of Accelerando. Charlie Stross hangs out on HN as well! Personally, I think the best idea of what it might be like in the run up to a singularity is Vernor Vinge's Rainbows End - the settings and technology are plausible and as a parent the idea of young kids augmented with information technology being fundamentally more capable than the previous generation is fascinating.
on “The Star Trek Computer Is Stupid” ↗Vinge is, in my opinion, the preeminent hacker SF writer. He was a CS professor at SDSU and both the two ZoT novels and Rainbows End show that he really grasps the end-to-end nature of technology and how hackers interact with the world. I also thought that Rainbows End was a great story about how hackers age, and it's just as well…
on “A Deepness In The Sky” ↗Rainbows End, Vernor Vinge, 2007 Random review - http://boingboing.net/2007/11/28/vinges-brilliant-rai.html Fiction, near future. Not a biggie but an easy read and changed my opinion on possible futures.
on “Ask HN: What book changed your life in 2013?” ↗