Vernor Vinge winds up Clarion West series

Vernor Vinge (rhymes with windy) wound up the Clarion West summer reading program last Tuesday. Vinge is the author of several award-winning science fiction novels (including the SF mystery Marooned in Realtime recently featured in local library webcomic Unshelved).

Vinge read from his latest novel, Rainbow's End. A near-future work set around 2025, it's a departure from his far-future space opera novels A Deepness in the Sky and A Fire Upon The Deep, but a prequel to the equally praised short storyFast Times at Fairmont High.

The auditorium was packed;a lively and politics-laden Q&A session followed the reading. Vinge has been in the news lately discussing 'The Coming Technological Singularity' (like this NPR interview aired last week). The singularity in question will be a massive leap forward in terms of human intelligence: technology will allow us to enhance our abilities ad infinitum, changing human society forever. An interesting concept, but Seattlest won't start start worrying about it until we can get a flying car.