Accelerando

Why it’s on the list: Charles Stross’s fix-up novel of nine novelettes that runs three generations of one family straight through a technological singularity — and treats the singularity as an economic event rather than a special effect, asking what value, profit and property mean once intelligence is cheap. Shortlisted for the Hugo and the Clarke.

Where I heard about it

• Wikipedia and Amazon — saved to my reading list twice, once as the Wikipedia article and once as an Amazon link.
• r/printSF — a discussion thread titled “Accelerando is the kind of science fiction book you put down and realize … it was an important book for you to have read,” in which Stross himself replies.
• On Patrick Collison’s Bookshelf — Patrick Collison’s catalog of the physical books he owns (unflagged). Saved in Kyle’s April 19th, 2020 Roam daily note.

Connections

• Singularity — the subject, treated as an economics problem rather than a technology one.
• Science Fiction · Historical Futurism — the section and the portfolio idea.
• Artificial Intelligence — the novel’s engine.

Also recommended in that thread

The r/printSF thread Kyle saved alongside the book asks what other science fiction reads as “a survival guide to our lifetime’s future.” The recurring answers, for a later pass: Diaspora and Permutation City (Greg Egan), Rainbows End and A Fire Upon the Deep (Vernor Vinge), Red Mars (Kim Stanley Robinson), Snow Crash and The Diamond Age (Neal Stephenson), The Windup Girl and The Water Knife (Paolo Bacigalupi), Halting State and Rule 34 (Stross), Little Brother and Walkaway (Cory Doctorow), Beggars in Spain (Nancy Kress), Holy Fire (Bruce Sterling), the Nexus trilogy (Ramez Naam), and Fahrenheit 451. None of these have been minted as cards — they are recorded here rather than guessed at.