Schismatrix
by Bruce Sterling · first published 1985
56% recommend44% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Far-future space opera about posthumanism and humanity splitting into diverging factions, often cited as cyberpunk extended across centuries. Recommended to sci-fi readers interested in speciation and transhumanism.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
In the far future, in a solar system colonized by a strange aggregation of human cultures, Abelard Lindsay, a rogue diplomat from the Mare Serenitatis Circumlunar Corporate Republic, struggles for survival amidst powerful, advanced societies warring to control the shape of human destiny. In the complex hi tech environment known as Schismatrix, cybernetic humans (Mechanists) contend for domination against the psychologically and genetically altered Shapers, and as today's high technologies take bizarre new forms, and explosive advances in science shatter mankind into warring camps. Schismatr
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…whale" by Paul McAuley, "House of Suns" by Alistair Reynolds, "Diaspora" by Greg Egan,"The Collapsium" by Will McCarthy, "Signal to noise" by Eric S. Nylund, "Stations of the tide" by Michael Swanwick, "Schismatrix" by Bruce Sterling
on “The Culture War: Iain M. Banks’s Billionaire Fans” ↗I discovered a similar thought the first time in the amazing science fiction novel Schismatrix by Bruce Sterling: "Lindsay glanced at one wall and was paralyzed at the sight of his own clan's founder, Malcolm Lindsay. As a child, the dead pioneer's face, leering in ancestral wisdom from the tops…
on “Why do older individuals have greater control of their feelings?” ↗…bleak hopeless future theme is getting a bit long in the tooth, you know? If I want to feel depressed I can just turn on the daily news. Incidentally, can anyone recommend some hopeful science fiction? "Schismatrix" is probably my favorite.
on “The Expanse UI Design” ↗…James Burke's ("Connections") non-teleological view of progress [5] aka the speciation of humanity. I highly recommend Bruce Sterling's exploration of this type of "end result" for humanity in his novel Schismatrix[6]. (this is where my username ("pdkl95") comes from...) [6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schismatrix
on “New police radars can 'see' inside homes” ↗Depends what you mean by contemporary? The Culture is very optimistic, and features engineering on a scale that makes these concepts look like iron age coracles. A personal favourite of mine is Schismatrix though. It's set almost entirely in space habitats similar to the ones featured here. As Neuromancer's lesser known cyberpunk contemporary, in places it's very... 80s in tone politically. But it's still…
on “Space colony art from the 1970s” ↗That makes sense. Something like Bruce Sterling's Schismatrix really gets wild with what posthumanism can look like. Cyberpunk taken to the next 200 years. That said, media like ghost in the shell and altered carbon (the novels) gesture in this direction. Altered…
on “CD Projekt Conference Call with the Management Board [pdf] (Dec 14)” ↗…everything else I've read by him as well). "Earthsea" by Ursula LeGuin - and "Powers". "Diamond Age" by Neal Stephenson. "Holy Fire" by Bruce Sterling (I also enjoyed Islands in the Net, Zenith Angle and Schismatrix). "Foundation" trilogy + prequel by Isaac Asimov. "Brave New World", Aldous Huxley. "Deepness in the Sky" / "Fire Upon the Deep" by Vernor Vinge. "Something wicked this way comes" by Ray Bradbury.…
on “Ask HN: What are some must read books?” ↗If we're going to bring up Gibson, I hope they also adapt Bruce Sterling's finest work- Schismatrix- set in transhuman space like Altered Carbon, but in a society that is truly alien, imagining a future where cyberpunk angst exists even in the vast cosmos.
on “Snow Crash: HBO Max adaptation of Neal Stephenson's 1992 cyberpunk novel” ↗Since this thread has a lot of chatter about all kinds of sci-fi adaptations, I'd like to endorse a show for Schismatrix Plus by Bruce Sterling, which fuses cyberpunk setting and action, transhumanism and the evolution of the species, space colonization, and the rise and fall of human ideological empires based on all of…
on “Apple TV+ to adapt William Gibson’s cyberpunk novel Neuromancer” ↗Since this thread has a lot of chatter about all kinds of sci-fi adaptations, I'd like to endorse a show for Schismatrix Plus by Bruce Sterling, which fuses cyberpunk setting and action, transhumanism and the evolution of the species, space colonization, and the rise and fall of human ideological empires based on all of…
on “Apple TV+ to adapt William Gibson’s cyberpunk novel Neuromancer” ↗…Jablokov. Scifi feudalism. All of an Instant, Richard Garfinkle. Vita Nostra, Marina & Sergey Dyachenko. Though very different, it somehow reminds me of Roadside Picnic. Spin, Robert Charles Wilson. Schismatrix, Bruce Sterling. Interstellar Pig, William Sleator. The Carpet Makers, Andreas Eschbach The Threshold series (Peter Clines) doesn't really belong in this list, but it is excellent and from what I gather,…
on “Sci-fi books that you may never have heard of, but definitely should read” ↗…course entitled "Science Fiction and Galactic Capital", which was honestly probably my favorite course in all of college. We would read Das Capital and then compare it with sections of Dune, Red Mars, and Schismatrix to tease apart how capitalism manifests in space. How are the fundamental rules of economics different in space? Could (or should) society function differently? This paper paired really nicely with…
on “Cyborgs and Space (1960) [pdf]” ↗…science fiction: http://sailsofoblivion.blogspot.co.uk/2008/02/pharmacopeia-o... http://sailsofoblivion.blogspot.co.uk/2008/02/pharmacopoeia-... I remember there were lots of drugs in Bruce Sterling's 'Schismatrix'. I think the cyberpunks were deliberately trying to imitate the Beats in their attempt to create a new kind of writing.
on “The Chemistry of William Gibson’s Neuromancer” ↗> there were lots of drugs in Bruce Sterling's 'Schismatrix' Like.... [see my username & profile] # "Life moves in clades."
on “The Chemistry of William Gibson’s Neuromancer” ↗Oops. thanks for picking up on that. I haven't read Islands in the Net or Schismatrix yet. I should really get around to them at some point. Heavy Weather was pretty good, there's a copy of that within three feet of me right now.
on “The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind” ↗