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Old 09-19-2007   #8 (permalink)
x1a4
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Join Date: May 2007
Location: Mississauga
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Default Re: Cyber-Fiction - recommend a book

Anything by William Gibson, especially Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive which are sequels to Neuromancer. Although Gibson's Pattern Recognition isn't really about Net runners and all like his previous books, but if you liked those you should like Pattern too. Gibson's Virtual Light, Idoru and All Tomorrow's Parties are also worth checking out.

And if you're interested in books about cyber culture, The Hacker Crackdown by Bruce Sterling is a good read. It's a non-fiction book about the hacker hysteria in the U.S. in the 1970s.

The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling is another amazing book. This is an alternate history type book taking place in 19th century England where Lady Ada Byron The Countess of Lovelace (the Ada programming language is named after her) along with her mentor Sir Charles Babbage did in fact build their Analytical Engine--a mechanical, steam powered computer.

Historical fact:
In the 19th Century Sir Charles Babbage, brilliant engineer, (Plague's name on the plane in the movie "Hackers" is a reference to him) designed an analytical engine. A small-condo sized, steam-powered calculating machine. It's processing speed was measured in how much of long punched tape it can run. This made Babbage the first hardware designer.

Lady Ada Byron, a brilliant mathematician, designed the processing logic and language for the punched cards (think punch cards together in a long chain). This made her the first software engineer.

Last edited by x1a4 : 10-03-2007 at 03:52 PM.
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