Comment by komali2 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by komali2 | Hacker News Reader

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> Human knowledge of the universe has widened and deepened since Verne's day, but for sheer intellectual and adventurous wonder about what that universe might contain, has any writer, from any era or land, outdone him since?

No, I don't think so. It seems sci fi went the way of the graduate thesis: hyper specialized, hyper focused. I think this might have been out of necessity. Maybe Stephenson has come close though.

He's covered nonfictional history, space travel (anathem, seven eves), colonization of Earth orbit and the moon (seven eves), generational space travel (anathem), multiple universe theories (anathem), and to come back down to earth, cryptography (cryptonomicon, reamde, fall), AI (diamond age), wetware hacking (snow crash), VR (snow crash, fall), post mortem VR (fall), nanotech (fall, diamond age), and layered simulated universes (fall).

So beyond Stephenson I don't think anyone comes close to fantastical exploration at the level of Verne. Crichton didn't. Watts is highly focused in biology. Banks deals with cosmic horror, AI, and a touch of multiverse. Doctorow is fantastic "realistic near future" exploration but he never takes us to space, and I don't think he really even explores AI.

Banks deals with cosmic horror, AI, and a touch of multiverse.

Come on now, there's a lot more to Iain M Banks than that. Anarchist post-scarcity utopias, dirigible behemothaurs, The Shellworld Sursamen, and the mind-boggling purpose it was put to, the immenseness of Syang-un Nestworld, the idea that whole civilizations can sublime, Minds, pure energy creatures, The Girdlecity of Xown, in which a huge airship hosts a five year long two thousand person party to mark the end of a civilization. The Excession. The Affront! The subtle exploration of what people born into a galaxy spanning utopia might want to do with their time. And the fantastic and slighly disturbing idea that super intelligent Minds might give themselves silly names.

And his non-Culture novel Feersum Endjinn, although its quite old now, had some startling ideas about cyberspace - that it might move thousands of times faster than base reality, and (major spoilers - ROT13) rfpncrq znyjner zvtug ribyir va uvtu-fcrrq plorefcnpr vagb n pvivyvmngvba infgyl byqre naq zber pbzcyvpngrq guna bhe bja, naq pbzcyrgryl vapbzcerurafvoyr gb hf

With names aready being dropped, here are some oldies: Clarke, Asimov, Stanislav Lem.

Ah, you're right, Asimov definitely tops the list. He explored the fuck out of AI and then jumped straight into the question of whether human psychology is deterministic. Space travel, galaxy colonization, hell even telekinesis and other wild shit.

I think he doesn't have the breadth of topic of Neal Stephenson but he's definitely prolific.

His nonfiction work is even broader: he wrote books on history, the Bible, and Shakespeare, as well as every kind of science.

Not always very well, mind you: my youthful adoration of his breadth has been replaced by am embarrassed coughing as I realize just how far out of his depth he often was. Still, who I am today owes a lot to him.

Asimov’s breadth tops NS’s by far. He is famously the only author who has published works in every single category of the Dewey Decimal System, fiction and non-fiction. And his books feature another theme that NS never explored: coherent endings.

Specifically science fiction topics though? Not so sure I agree. Not like those topics are well defined or universally applicable though.

Asimov never published a book categorized in the 100s. All nine other categories, yes.

Clifford Simak's books all seem to be mainly about evolution of humanity of some sorts, but they are so epic that they touch almost every usual and unusual sci-fi topic.

Why not Crichton? Too much techno-thriller horror, despite his fantastical imaginings and settings?

Ever notice that most Crichton plots end with things going back to the status quo?

They're a little like Indiana Jones adventures except with technological terrors instead of ancient artifacts.

I haven't read all of Crichton, but from what I remember, he covered

Nanotech/grey goo

Genetic engineering

Aliens and their freaky orbs

Time travel

As far as I know, he's not really explored the possibilities of space exploration, AI, VR, transhumanism, etc. I mean he's great but I don't think he covers all that much ground.

Also Heinlein explored some pretty far out things.

Philip K Dick had a pretty broad spectrum

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