Science
fiction
pioneer
and
inspiration
to
many
a
cypherpunk,
Vernor
Steffen
Vinge,
passed
away
Wednesday
at
the
age
of
79
in
La
Jolla,
California.
The
five-time
winner
of
the
prestigious
Hugo
Award
is
perhaps
best
known
for
popularizing
the
term
“singularity.”
This
is
an
excerpt
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Vinge,
born
Oct.
2,
1944
in
Wisconsin,
was
also
a
beloved
professor
of
mathematics
and
computer
science
at
San
Diego
State
University,
where
he
received
a
PhD
in
math
in
1971.
In
2000,
he
retired
from
academia
to
write
hard
science
fiction
full
time.
“A
titan
in
the
literary
genre
that
explores
a
limitless
range
of
potential
destinies,
Vernor
enthralled
millions
with
tales
of
plausible
tomorrows,
made
all
the
more
vivid
by
his
polymath
masteries
of
language,
drama,
characters
and
the
implications
of
science,”
American
author
David
Brin
said
in
a
farewell
message
on
Facebook.
Vinge
(pronounced
VIN-jee)
received
Hugo
Awards
for
his
novels
A
Fire
Upon
the
Deep
(1993),
A
Deepness
in
the
Sky
(2000),
and
Rainbows
End
(2007)
as
well
as
novellas
Fast
Times
at
Fairmont
High
(2002)
and
The
Cookie
Monster
(2004).
Perhaps
his
most
well-known
work,
the
30,000-word
novella
“True
Names”
(1981)
was
an
early
exploration
of
cyberspace,
transhumanism
and
hacker
culture.
As
weird
as
Thomas
Pynchon
and
as
prophetic
as
Nostradomus,
Vinge’s
writing
has
major
implications
for
the
age
of
artificial
intelligence
and
cryptocurrency.
The
technological
singularity,
a
term
now
in
vogue
to
describe
the
theoretical
moment
when
AI
surpasses
human
intelligence,
is
an
idea
Vinge
returned
to
over
and
over
throughout
his
career.
He
explored
the
concept
in
the
seminal
cyberpunk
tome,
“True
Names,”
which
follows
a
group
of
hackers
who
plug
into
a
virtual
reality
system
called
the
“Other
Plane”
to
explore
a
network
of
computers.
In
true
cypherpunkian
style,
the
hackers
(called
warlocks),
try
to
keep
their
“true
names”
secret.
Unfortunately
for
the
protagonist,
“Mr.
Slippery”
(a.k.a.
Roger
Pollack),
the
“Great
Enemy”
(a.k.a.
the
U.S.
government)
discovers
his
real
identity
and
uses
that
knowledge
as
leverage
to
get
him
to
investigate
a
newly
arrived
hacker
accused
of
treason
known
as
Mailman.
Thus
begins
a
romp
that
involves
a
rogue
AI
“personality
simulator”
(SPOILER:
created
by
the
National
Security
Agency)
that
replicates
itself,
eats
all
the
information
stored
in
databases
around
the
world
and
causes
chaos
on-
and
offline.
Written
eight
years
before
the
launch
of
the
World
Wide
Web,
and
inspired
by
Vinge’s
experiences
using
an
early
messaging
platform
Talk,
“True
Names”
anticipated
a
number
of
the
internet’s
runaway
effects
on
society
and
essentially
the
entire
field
of
artificial
intelligence.
”The
import
of
‘True
Names’
is
that
it
is
about
how
we
cope
with
things
we
don’t
understand.,”
AI
pioneer
Marvin
Minsky
wrote
in
a
(since
revised)
afterword.
Nowhere
is
this
more
evident
than
in
today’s
large
language
models,
which
are
black
boxes
to
even
the
researchers
who
build
them.
Although
he
was
convinced
that
technology
will
eventually
outcompete
and
outperform
humanity
as
a
whole
(actually
saying
the
singularity
would
arrive
between
2020
and
2040),
Vinge
was
an
eternal
optimist.
And
his
techno-optimism
was
infectious.
As
Minsky
wrote:
“I
too
am
convinced
that
the
days
of
programming
as
we
know
it
are
numbered,
and
that
eventually
we
will
construct
large
computer
systems
not
by
anything
resembling
today’s
meticulous
but
conceptually
impoverished
procedural
specifications
…
Once
we
learn
better
ways
to
tell
computers
what
we
want
them
to
accomplish,
we
will
be
more
able
to
return
to
our
actual
goals–of
expressing
our
own
wants
and
needs.”
It’s
a
point
of
view
that
many
manifesto
writers
nowadays
may
agree
with
—
from
the
Effective
Altruists
looking
for
ways
to
“align”
AI
with
humanity
to
the
Effective
Accelerationists
wanting
to
speed
up
the
rate
of
technological
innovation.
We
may
not
know
the
impact
of
introducing
a
new
technology,
but,
as
Vinge
argued
in
his
1993
essay
titled
“The
Coming
Technological
Singularity:
How
to
Survive
in
the
Post-Human
Era,”
“we
have
the
freedom
to
establish
initial
conditions.”
Technology
is
a
tool.
It
is
often
also
frightening.
But
it
is
a
means
to
an
end,
not
an
end
in
itself,
Vinge
may
argue.
That’s
why
it
matters
how
technologists
and
the
computer
cognoscenti
go
about
building,
and
why
Satoshi
Nakamoto,
who
may
have
been
alarmed
by
what
he/she/it
built,
should
be
praised
for
starting
the
crypto
industry
off
on
the
right
foot.
What
comes
next
is
not
answerable
in
this
lifetime,
but,
if
you
read
Vinge,
you
might
want
to
see
it
come
to
pass.
“Accused
by
some
of
a
grievous
sin
—
that
of
‘optimism’
—
Vernor
gave
us
peerless
legends
that
often
depicted
human
success
at
overcoming
problems…
those
right
in
front
of
us…
while
posing
new
ones!
New
dilemmas
that
may
lie
just
ahead
of
our
myopic
gaze,”
Brin
wrote.
“He
would
often
ask:
‘What
if
we
succeed?
Do
you
think
that
will
be
the
end
of
it?'”
