Vinge, who is one of my favorite writers, especially for A Deepness in the Sky, won the Libertarian Futurist Society's lifetime achievement award a decade or so ago (I got to present it to him). Most of his generation of libertarian SF writers are gone now, but we are starting to see new ones emerge: Sarah Hoyt, Travis Corcoran, Karl Gallagher, J. Kenton Pierce, Dave Freer, and others. That list has some overlap with "programmer SF" as a category, especially Gallagher and Corcoran, but has distinctive qualities as well, and it includes some excellent writers—most of whom look back to The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress as a founding work. (At the Vinge presentation, Vinge talked about David Friedman's The Machinery of Freedom as an inspiration, and Friedman said that The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress had inspired him!)
I suspect we will see much more of this genre as AI assisted programming pulls the very thing most software engineers actually enjoyed about their job right out from under them.
Really excellent. I like that this gives me a way to think about where SF is right now, because in the last decade it has felt like it’s dying or illegible, in part because the old outlets feel increasingly like they cater to sub cultural aspects that don’t do what I think of SF as uniquely doing — it feels sort of.. Ren Faire, cottage core, self-insert, polemical — while this clearly maintains it and is quite alive. In an interview with The Believer years ago, Mieville talked about the SF sensibility and commended Stephenson for calling his historical work SF because of its lens, and I think that lens is in part what you’re referring to here, or overlaps heavily with it. I think I need to read this again to make it all cohere for me, but I see what you’re pointing to.
Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect and Blindsight are also both books that are in the small category of "books I am pretty sure that I'm glad I read, I think, but I don't really want to recommend anyone else read"
Very good analysis. It was so fascinating to get involved a bit with the rationalist community and see them writing a form of scifi that feels mostly separate from what I saw in the mainstream scifi journals where I still publish my work. This post is great because it doesn’t just collapse all web fiction or blog based fiction together, but pays attention to distinct scenes and clusterings.
Thank you, I liked your piece on tech fic and obviously I think programmer SF is closely related to that.
It seems well equipped to deal with a world full of incomprehensible technology - no coincidence that books like “When we Cease to Understand the World” are popular among programmers
'Free Radical' and 'The Other Kind of Life', by the late Shamus Young, both absolutely fit the "Programmer SF" category; not so much in the tropes, message, etc. but in the "structure of the world", and even more so in the protagonists' approach to situations and problem-solving.
I can absolutely recommend both: Free Radical (web fiction) as the more 'Programmer SF' of the two, and The Other Kind of Life (self-published) as the more 'novel-shaped'.
(Of course I've read Watts and Stephenson but I had no idea there was a whole 'Programmer SF' genre beyond Shamus Young: I'm practically beside myself with excitement at the thought of reading my way through the other works you've listed here!)
Never thought about it this way but this is very well observed. As another interesting data point, John Chu is a microprocessor engineer who's done some stories in the kind of vein you describe, but I think his most-awarded works like "If You Find Yourself Speaking to God, Address God with the Informal You" are in a more relationship-focused style.
Thank you for massively expanding my TBR. Curious if you think any of David Mitchell’s work would rub shoulders with programmer sf, or if he veers too far into the mystical. I’m thinking of Ghostwritten and Number 9 Dreams in particular, but parts of Cloud Atlas also feel like they fit some of the criteria you’ve laid out.
Vinge, who is one of my favorite writers, especially for A Deepness in the Sky, won the Libertarian Futurist Society's lifetime achievement award a decade or so ago (I got to present it to him). Most of his generation of libertarian SF writers are gone now, but we are starting to see new ones emerge: Sarah Hoyt, Travis Corcoran, Karl Gallagher, J. Kenton Pierce, Dave Freer, and others. That list has some overlap with "programmer SF" as a category, especially Gallagher and Corcoran, but has distinctive qualities as well, and it includes some excellent writers—most of whom look back to The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress as a founding work. (At the Vinge presentation, Vinge talked about David Friedman's The Machinery of Freedom as an inspiration, and Friedman said that The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress had inspired him!)
I suspect we will see much more of this genre as AI assisted programming pulls the very thing most software engineers actually enjoyed about their job right out from under them.
Really excellent. I like that this gives me a way to think about where SF is right now, because in the last decade it has felt like it’s dying or illegible, in part because the old outlets feel increasingly like they cater to sub cultural aspects that don’t do what I think of SF as uniquely doing — it feels sort of.. Ren Faire, cottage core, self-insert, polemical — while this clearly maintains it and is quite alive. In an interview with The Believer years ago, Mieville talked about the SF sensibility and commended Stephenson for calling his historical work SF because of its lens, and I think that lens is in part what you’re referring to here, or overlaps heavily with it. I think I need to read this again to make it all cohere for me, but I see what you’re pointing to.
Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect and Blindsight are also both books that are in the small category of "books I am pretty sure that I'm glad I read, I think, but I don't really want to recommend anyone else read"
Prime Intellect is such a great read… until those parts.
Very good analysis. It was so fascinating to get involved a bit with the rationalist community and see them writing a form of scifi that feels mostly separate from what I saw in the mainstream scifi journals where I still publish my work. This post is great because it doesn’t just collapse all web fiction or blog based fiction together, but pays attention to distinct scenes and clusterings.
This is really good. Been thinking through some of the "what comes next" of sci-fi and this is a really compelling piece in that vein.
Thank you, I liked your piece on tech fic and obviously I think programmer SF is closely related to that.
It seems well equipped to deal with a world full of incomprehensible technology - no coincidence that books like “When we Cease to Understand the World” are popular among programmers
Just read your post on tech fic, Spencer. Very smart stuff!
Thank you!! Means a lot!
Feels like Rudy Rucker should fit in here.
Good catch, Software and Wetware definitely seem like early examples. I’ll have to get a copy.
'Free Radical' and 'The Other Kind of Life', by the late Shamus Young, both absolutely fit the "Programmer SF" category; not so much in the tropes, message, etc. but in the "structure of the world", and even more so in the protagonists' approach to situations and problem-solving.
I can absolutely recommend both: Free Radical (web fiction) as the more 'Programmer SF' of the two, and The Other Kind of Life (self-published) as the more 'novel-shaped'.
(Of course I've read Watts and Stephenson but I had no idea there was a whole 'Programmer SF' genre beyond Shamus Young: I'm practically beside myself with excitement at the thought of reading my way through the other works you've listed here!)
Thanks, I’ll check them out
Never thought about it this way but this is very well observed. As another interesting data point, John Chu is a microprocessor engineer who's done some stories in the kind of vein you describe, but I think his most-awarded works like "If You Find Yourself Speaking to God, Address God with the Informal You" are in a more relationship-focused style.
I haven’t read Chu’s stuff but it sounds like he could be another interesting bordering figure like Watts. Great point!
Thank you for massively expanding my TBR. Curious if you think any of David Mitchell’s work would rub shoulders with programmer sf, or if he veers too far into the mystical. I’m thinking of Ghostwritten and Number 9 Dreams in particular, but parts of Cloud Atlas also feel like they fit some of the criteria you’ve laid out.
Two points:
The proper term for PKD enthusiasts is “Dickheads”, I don’t make the rules;
This article would be improved by mentioning authors along with titles. Stand on Zanzibar is unique, but there are 6 or 7 books titled “Radiance”.