Frederik Pohl's "The Kindly Isle" (short story, biological weapons, free)

A government agency in cold war era US is building biological weapons for possible use against Russians. One of its researchers has developed a virus that affects a part of the brain that's supposed to drive the infected person nuts, only the effect is a bit different - it makes the infected person irritable & nasty. On the day of his triumph, the scientist vanishes with all the data - so the government no longer has the weapon.

Years later, a colleague sights the scientist on an idle isle, & suspects he has been testing the virus for selling to highest bidder. But subsequent investigation with throw up a completely different direction of his research...

Fact sheet.

First published: Asimov's, November 1984.
Download full text from Baen eBooks.
Rating: A.
Related: Stories of Frederik Pohl.

John Varley's "Press Enter _" (novella, AI): Lifestyle of a computer hacker & criminal

Varley seems to specialize in horror that is accessible to people who don't have a taste for the gory! How many other authors can write almost fun stories that are clearly horror?

Caution: This story has some sex scenes.

Story summary.

Charles Kluge, a recluse, appears to have committed suicide & left his property to Victor Apfel, a neighbor (& the narrator) he barely knew. Forensic investigation of the vast computer installations at his home will reveal the lifestyle of a super-programmer & a super-criminal.

Through the investigation, we'll see two more apparent suicides: of Detective Osborne, the cop investigating the case, & Lisa Foo, the woman doing the forensic investigation of Charles' machines & software. And Victor will be left an absolutely frightened & broken man.

You see, while having his hacking fun, Charles had stumbled upon a piece of software running on NSA's computers. We never learn the true nature of this software beast, but get enough indications that it's an AI run amok, that it exists without the knowledge of NSA, & that it is the real murderer of the 3!

Fact sheet.

First published: Asimov's, May 1984.
Rating: A.
Winner of Hugo Award 1985 in novella category.
Nominated for Nebula Award 1984 in novella category.
Related: Stories of John Varley.

David Brin's "The Crystal Spheres" (short story, first contact, free): An answer to Fermi's Paradox

This story is high on imagination & low on logic. Didn't really work for me, but it's a Hugo winner.

Story has a lot of irrelevant invented compound words that may irritate or appear exotic, depending on taste. I got irritated.

Story summary.

If the universe is teeming with intelligent life, why haven't we met aliens? Brin's answer is close to intelligent design of the universe, but leaves the possibility open of a remote physical explanation.

You see - each solar system is enclosed in a kind of physical container - a crystal sphere. I guess that would make the container may be a light year in radius & centered at the star. This is some sort of invisible barrier with special properties.

Crossing the sphere requires breaking it. And it cannot be broken from outside, but can be from inside provided the impact is powerful enough. Like if a local world develops life, that life gets intelligent, & sets out to stars - their first ship will eventually get destroyed by hitting this invisible barrier, but will also break the barrier for later ships! Ditto for signals - local signals can get out, but external signals cannot get in till the barrier is broken. It's a kind of cocoon protecting any local life of each star from outside interference till locals are ready.

An anomaly I couldn't resolve: a ship hits the sphere from inside & breaks it. The sensible thing will be some sort of local break in the sphere - not the whole sphere shattered! Means subsequent ships from inside should find it extremely tough to locate the break; odds of anyone from outside locating the break ought to be near zero!

There is more in the story.

1. Comets etc are but Shards of the broken sphere, or absorbed material from external attempts to enter the sphere!
2. When we reach a broken sphere & investigate its solar system, what we find is signs of abandoned civilization - their world is ours for the taking. You see - the intelligent aliens looking for other intelligent life eventually get so desperate they abandon their own worlds to "sleep at the edge of their timestretched black hole", waiting for other aliens to come join them later!

Fact sheet.

First published: Analog, January 1984.
Rating: B.
Download full text. [via Best Science Fiction Stories]
Winner of 1985 Hugo Award in short story category.
Related: Stories of David Brin.

Online movie: Michael Radford's "Nineteen Eighty-Four"

Streaming at Free Movies & Documentaries.

Michael Radford is the director. Movie was originally released in 1984.

Based on George Orwell's well known novel of the same name.

Disclaimer: I've not seen the movie yet, though I'd read the dystopic novel long back. I think this novel that coined the phrase "big brother".

[via QuasarDragon]

William Gibson's "Neuromancer" (novel): A world of cyborgs

I actually dropped this when I was may be one-fifth through - too much jargon, half sentences, & expectations of cultural familiarity with his world.

Even through this part, it is obvious this is a very influential book - going by number of authors that have imitated its plot elements. May be some day I will have courage & patience to return & finish!

Story so far is of a human cyborg, who is a computer hacker, & whose life was wrecked by his employer because he stole something. This was done by biologically changing him in a way that renders him incompetent to do his computer job. Employer apparently was some military organization - but I am not sure.

He is saved from footpath life by someone in position of power - for some job; benefactor also foots the medical bill to fix whatever was wrecked by old employer.

Then there is an AI which actually is controlling the benefactor - to ends that will likely become apparent later in story. Benefactor is also a cyborg.

AI apparently is working for a reclusive long lived family whose members periodically upload themselves to some computer archive - in the tradition of Arthur Clarke's "The City & the Stars" at a smaller scale.

Another major character is a female cyborg who becomes a bodyguard & lover of the wreck.

When reading it, I kept getting reminded of Hollywood movie Terminator.

Cyberspace & Matrix.
This story is often credited with the invention of these terms by the publishers.

As far as I can make out, & am not 100% sure, the meaning of the first term in the book is very different from the meaning we normally associate with it; later, of course, is not a common term at all. Definitions according to this story:

Matrix is what Windows applications refer to as "document", & application programmers refer to as "database".

Cyberspace is the immersive virtual reality interface of software applications; you interact with application via a device that directly plugs into your brain via a kind of head gear. Applications may be networked over wide geographical area. Note that internet already existed & was in widespread use in certain geeky communities when this book was written, though its widespread popularity among ordinary people via WWW was yet to happen. Also note that the term "cyber" has been around a long time - at least since the time of Norbert Weiner's book "Cybernetics".

Fact sheet.
Neuromancer, novel, review
First published: 1984
Rating: C
Winner of Hugo Award 1985 in novel category