Obituary Science fiction author and academic Vernor Vinge has departed

Obituary Science fiction author and academic Vernor Vinge has departed
this life, aged 79.

Vinge is credited as the first author to describe an immersive
cyberspace, which he outlined in his 1979 novella True Names – five
years before William Gibson's Neuromancer brought the idea to the
mainstream.

Vinge's cyberspace – which he termed the "Other Plane" – was accessible
by attaching electrodes to one's skull. Inhabitants referred to
themselves as "Warlocks" and over the course of the novella illicitly
accessed government databases.

Suffice to say, True Names made a mark and elements of the short work
became staples of both SciFi and CompSci.

In 1993 he penned delivered a conference paper titled "The coming
technological singularity: How to survive in the post-human era" that
predicted the following:

He wasn't out by many years on the AI prediction. And his theory of
"The Singularity" – an event after which human history changes course –
was widely admired and even became the theme of a [1]university in
Silicon Valley.

His novels often used concepts from computer science.

1992's A Fire Upon The Deep imagined a galaxy-scale messaging network
that resembled [2]Usenet and connected across a network of space
stations that acted as routers.

1999's A Deepness in the Sky described an alien civilization emerging
into its information age and using steganography and cryptography to
communicate with one faction of invading human forces while hiding its
intentions from others.

Both won the Hugo Award for the year's best science fiction novel.
* [3]Science fiction titan Frederik Pohl dies, aged 93
* [4]RIP Sir Terry Pratchett: Discworld author finally gets to meet
DEATH
* [5]David Mills, the internet's Father Time, dies at 85
* [6]Thanks, Sir Clive Sinclair, from Reg readers whose careers you
created and lives you shaped

2006's Rainbows End (another Hugo winner) told a tale of an older
person who had his mental function restored by a cure for Alzheimer's
Disease and was then sent back to high school to learn how to live in a
networked society – including how to use search engines. The novel
included descriptions of what we would now call augmented reality,
haptics, and the internet of things.

Reg columnist Mark Pesce met Vinge when they collaborated on a
screenplay for True Names and said he was thinking of the author last
week when he learned of prompt injection attack worms – a concept he
feels the author described in sections of A Fire Upon The Deep.

"He is a loss, but what an incredibly talented person," Pesce said.

Your correspondent never met Vinge but shares those views. I recently
re-read A Deepness In The Sky and it remains thrilling and brilliantly
clever. I'm terribly sad he's gone.

Happily, Vinge's most celebrated works are in the public domain. You
can find True Names in the [7]Internet Archive [PDF] and "The coming
technological singularity" in [8]a NASA archive.

Take the time to consider one or both this coming weekend, dear reader,
to know the mind of an author and thinker who has positively impacted
us all. ®

References

1. https://www.theregister.com/2009/02/03/singularity_uni/
2. https://www.theregister.com/2023/12/18/google_ends_usenet_links/
3. https://www.theregister.com/2013/09/02/science_fiction_titan_frederik_pohl_dies_aged_93/
4. https://www.theregister.com/2015/03/12/sir_terry_pratchett_gets_to_meet_death_at_the_age_of_66/
5. https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/23/david_mills_obit/
6. https://www.theregister.com/2021/09/19/remembering_clive_sinclair/
7. https://ia801004.us.archive.org/0/items/truenamesvingevernor/True Names - Vinge, Vernor.pdf
8. https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19940022856