Bruce Sterling
Bruce Sterling
Michael Bruce Sterlingis an American science fiction author known for his novels and work on the Mirrorshades anthology. This work helped to define the cyberpunk genre...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth14 April 1954
CountryUnited States of America
unwritten
The future isn't just unwritten, it's unsearched.
stupid profound computer
Unfortunately, computers are?stupid.Unlike human beings, computers possess the truly profound stupidity of the inanimate.
fall party innocent
In a start-up society, huge sums can fall on innocent parties, almost by accident .
organization fire worry
I've been asked to explain why I don't worry much about the topics of privacy threat...One reason is that these scenarios seem to assume that there will be large, monolithic bureaucracies...that are capable of harnessing computers for one-way surveillance of an unsuspecting populace. I've come to feel that computation just doesn't work that way. Being afraid of monolithic organizations especially when they have computers, is like being afraid of really big gorillas especially when they are on fire.
different internet free-speech
Everybody has a different Internet.
results form okay
Okay, are you really 'experimenting'? How do you know if you're really experimenting? You're working on it methodically and you're publishing the results! It's not an experiment if you don't publish the results in some verifiable and falsifiable form, okay?
government realizing bigs
Competence doesn't seem like a big deal until you are forced to realize that your own government has none.
perspective people victory
But from another, deeper perspective: we shouldn't involve outselves in lines of development where the ultimate victory condition is emulating dead people. There's no appeal in that. It's bad for us. That kind of inherent mournfulness is just not a good way to be human.
past kind happened
The past is a kind of future that has already happened.
giving want information
Information wants you to give me a dollar.
mean mutation painful
I know that the human condition will be radically changed through technical means. Much of this change will be painful, monstrous and horrible. Most mutations are disgusting failures, most experiments are failures. I accept this and I don't find it frightening.
fun thinking grandparent
I think our grandparents were Victor Frankenstein. I basically am the kind of deeply unnatural creature that Mrs Shelley instinctively dreaded. I not only eat her sacred cows but I eat them with ketchup. While I take her point, I think that transgressive monstrosity and tampering with the life force are both a lot more fun than she suspected.
civilization would-be good-times
Maybe we're about to radically change the operating system of the human condition. If so, then this would be a really good time to make backups of our civilization.
kids mirrors cyberspace
The future is unwritten. Cyberspace is the funhouse mirror of our own society, reflects our values and our faults, sometimes in terrifying exaggerations. It doesn't matter who you are today, if you don't show up in that mirror you are just not going to matter very much. Our kids have to show up in the mirror.