Accelerando (book)

Infobox Book |
name = Accelerando


image_caption = Cover of first edition (hardcover)
author = Charles Stross
cover_artist = Rita Frangie
country = UK & US
language = English
genre = Science fiction, short stories
publisher = Orbit (UK), Ace (US)
release_date = July 5, 2005
media_type = Print (Hardcover), [http://www.accelerando.org/book/ Ebook]
pages = 400 pp
isbn = ISBN 0-441-01284-1

"Accelerando" is a 2005 science fiction novel consisting of a series of interconnected short stories by British author Charles Stross. As well as normal hardback and paperback editions, it was released as a free ebook under the Creative Commons attribution-noncommercial-no derivatives license (CC by-nc-nd).

Plot introduction

The book is a collection of nine short stories telling the tale of three generations of a highly dysfunctional family before, during, and after a technological singularity. It was originally written as a series of novelettes and novellas, all published in "Asimov's Science Fiction" magazine in the period 2001 to 2004.

The first three stories follow the character of "venture altruist" Manfred Macx starting in the early 21st Century, the second three stories follow his daughter Amber, and the final three focus largely on her son Sirhan in the completely transformed world at the end of the century.

According to Stross, the initial inspiration for the stories was his experience working as a programmer for a high-growth company during the dot-com boom of the 1990s [http://www.accelerando.org/2005/06/10/#sfbc-1] .

A sequel novel entitled "Glasshouse", loosely set in the same universe, was published in June 2006.

Explanation of the novel's title

In Italian, "Accelerando" means "speeding up" and is used as a tempo marking in musical notation. It could also refer to the accelerating rate at which humanity in general, and/or the novel's characters, head towards the technological singularity.

Characters

*Manfred Macx : Venture altruist. High Whuffie factor.
*Aineko : Manfred's robotic, increasingly intelligent cat.
*The Lobsters : Sentient, nervous-system state vectors originating from "Panulirus interruptus" - the California spiny lobster.
*Bob Franklin : Billionaire investor; originator of the "Franklin Collective" borganism.
*Annette Dimarcos : Arianespace employee; Manfred's second wife.
*Pamela : Manfred's partner, later first wife.
*Gianni Vittoria : Former Italian Minister for Economic Affairs, sometime Minister for Transhuman Affairs, economic theoretician.
*Amber Macx : Manfred and Pamela's daughter.
*Dr. Sadeq Khurasani : Muslim imam, engineer, "Field Circus" crewman.
*The Wunch : Predatory alien virtual constructs embedded in the router orbiting Hyundai.
*The Slug : Sentient alien corporation from the router.
*Sirhan al-Khurasani : Son of Amber and Sadeq (physical versions).
*Vile Offspring : Derogatory term for the posthuman "weakly godlike intelligences" that inhabit the inner system.

Plot summary and breakdown by story

In the following table, the chapter number (#), chapter name, original magazine date of publication (in red), and a brief synopsis are given. The nine stories are split into three parts.

Cosmology

In "Accelerando", the planets of the solar system are dismantled to form a Matrioshka brain, a vast computational device inhabited by minds inconceivably more complex than naturally evolved intelligences such as human beings. This proves to be a normal stage in the life cycle of an inhabited solar system; the galaxies are filled with Matrioshka brains, communicating via wormhole networks. Lesser intelligences may live unmolested around brown dwarf stars.

The notion that the universe is dominated by a communications network of superintelligences bears comparison with Olaf Stapledon's "Star Maker", although Stapledon's advanced civilizations communicate psychically rather than informatically.

Allusions/references to current science

* Lobster stomatogastric ganglion (STG) ... [http://www.pbrc.hawaii.edu/STG/STGoverview.html 1] , [http://jn.physiology.org/cgi/content/full/78/6/3450 2] , [http://jn.physiology.org/cgi/content/abstract/44/6/1102 3] , [http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Stomatogastric_Ganglion 4]
* [http://www.lanl.gov/news/index.php/fuseaction/home.story/story_id/1552 Rubberized concrete]
* Fermi paradox. Stross offers a solution - it's a problem of bandwidth (see Information theory).
* Roboticist and futurist Hans Moravec is mentioned.
* Quantum state vector, p. 6
* [http://crd.lbl.gov/~meza/papers/hybrid.pdf Nanoassembly conformational problem] , p. 14

Awards and nominations

* Book won the 2006 Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel.
* Book was shortlisted for:
**2005 BSFA award
**2006 Hugo Award for Best Novel
**2006 Arthur C. Clarke Award
* Original short story "Lobsters" (June 2001) was shortlisted for:
**2002 Hugo Award for Best Novelette
**Nebula Award for Best Novelette
**runner-up for the Theodore Sturgeon Award
* Original short story "Halo" (June 2002) was shortlisted for:
**2003 Hugo Award for Best Novelette
**Theodore Sturgeon Award
* Original short story "Router" (September 2002) was shortlisted for:
**2003 BSFA Award
* Original short story "Nightfall" (April 2003) was shortlisted for:
**2004 Hugo Award for Best Novelette
* Original short story "Elector" (September 2004) was shortlisted for:
**2005 Hugo Award for Best Novella

Release details

*Ace (US), hardcover, July 2005, ISBN 0-44101-284-8
*Ace (US), paperback, July 2006, ISBN 0-44101-415-6
*Orbit (UK), hardcover, Aug 2005, ISBN 1-84149-390-9
*Orbit, UK, paperback, June 2006, ISBN 1-84149-389-9

Online versions

* The entire novel has been released online under a creative commons license [http://www.accelerando.org/book/ here] .
* Original short story "Elector" (September 2004) is available [http://www.asimovs.com/_issue_0409/elector.shtml here] .
* Searchable version in [http://www.jus.uio.no/sisu/accelerando.charles_stross/sisu_manifest.html multiple formats] ( [http://www.jus.uio.no/sisu/accelerando.charles_stross/toc.html html] , XML, opendocument [http://www.jus.uio.no/sisu/accelerando.charles_stross/opendocument.odt ODF] , pdf ( [http://www.jus.uio.no/sisu/accelerando.charles_stross/landscape.pdf landscape] , [http://www.jus.uio.no/sisu/accelerando.charles_stross/portrait.pdf portrait] ), [http://www.jus.uio.no/sisu/accelerando.charles_stross/plain.txt plaintext] , [http://www.jus.uio.no/sisu/accelerando.charles_stross/concordance.html concordance] ) SiSU

ee also

* (on wikibooks)

External links

* [http://www.accelerando.org "Accelerando" website]
* [http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue343/interview.html SciFi.com interview] .
* [http://www.quicktopic.com/29/H/iAiYdNrDiaEa3/p-1.-1 Hunting for typos!]
* [http://www.thealienonline.net/ao_030.asp?tid=1&scid=6&iid=2920 Charlie Stross offers latest novel, Accelerando, for free] (The Alien Online, 8/26/2005): Includes commentary from Stross about reasons for releasing freely-downloadable novels.