Postsingular

Postsingular
Author Rudy Rucker
Country United States
Language English
Genre Science fiction novel
Publisher TOR
Publication date
 October 2, 2007 (1st edition)/ February 3, 2009 (1st reprint)
Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback) and e-book
Pages 320 pp (print) / 179 pp (e-book)
ISBN 0-7653-1741-9 (Hardcover), ISBN 0-7653-1872-5 (Paperback)
OCLC 129957591
813/.54—dc22
LC Class PS3568.U298 P67 2007

Postsingular is a 2007 science-fiction novel written by American writer Rudy Rucker. It focuses upon a cast of San Franciscans and their relationship with emerging uses of nanotechnology. It was the first of his works to be licensed under a Creative Commons license and released to the public on the Internet.

A sequel, Hylozoic, was released in 2009, but was not released under a free license.

Summary

The novel is divided into four parts. Most of the events in the story take place in a future version of San Francisco.

Part 1

The first part begins on a New Year's Day, in which a young, 17-year-old Jeff Luty and his friend Carlos Tucay are about to light bottle rockets on Stinson Beach. The two boys, who are interested in the young but growing nanotechnology industry, dream about establishing Lu-Tuc Space Tech, and have inserted nanorobots into the rockets. After a passing dog had urinated on the rocket, the rockets are lit again. However, the rocket eventually misfires, and a launch lug is sent flying into Carlos' right eye, killing him.

The first part fast forwards several years later, in which Jeff is the CEO of Nantel, the leading nanotechnology company in the world. One of the leading employees of the company is engineer Ond Lutter, who works on a project to create "nants". However, when Jeff, who is still distraught over Carlos' death, comes to blows with Ond over the creation of a virtual earth with the nants. The US government buys the nants, and the president, Dick Dibbs, announces that the earth will be eaten by the nants and converted into a virtual version of the Earth, or "vEarth". Ond and his family, however, do not agree. Ond builds an antenna to resist the advance of the nants until the house is the last of the holdouts to persist on physical earth. Ond's 9-year-old son Chu, however, is an autistic savant and is able to Jumping into the wall of nants that has grown in the Lutter house, Chu immediately jumps back out and the nants begin to retreat. By the next day, the nants have mostly reversed all their advances until they return to the moon and are shot out of existence by a Chinese satellite.

After the reversal and destruction of the nants, Dibbs is arrested by the government and executed for his role in the "vEarth" conspiracy (classified as "treason"). Luty is now a wanted fugitive and goes into hiding; Lutter, who is rehired Nantel, now renamed as ExaExa Labs, however, is inspired by nanorobotics to create a new type of nanorobot, which becomes known as the "orphids". When he tells a gathering of his and Craigor's families in San Francisco Bay, however, Nektar becomes angry against Ond and argues against Ond over the nants, for fear of a repeat of the events. Ond seizes the jar and smashes the glass open, releasing the orphids to rapidly self-replicate. Within hours, the orphids, which are heavily connected to the Internet, spread to most of the West Coast, and Ond is wanted by the San Francisco Police Department. The orphids also provide displays for augmented reality, ridding society of the need for AR contact lenses (or "webeyes"), throat microphones and other AR utilities.

The city has a hard time adapting to the orphids and the sensorally immersive version of the Internet, or "orphidnet", presented by the orphids. The advanced properties of the orphidnet allow for opportunities not possible with prior computing technologies, such as advanced teleconferencing, telepathy remote sex between physically separated partners. However, this leaves little room for privacy, as the orphids barely allow for any living thing to be non-connected to the orphidnet, meaning that Ond is the subject of a mob which seeks to lynch him for "Orphid Night".

Nektar separates from Ond and becomes intimate with a cook at a nearby restaurant, leaving Ond to take care of Chu; furthermore, Ond and Chu discover the existence of a higher-intelligence dimension which somewhat mirrors earth. One of the rulers of the so-called "Hibrane" version of San Francisco, Gladax, tries to remove the means of "Lobrane" access to the Hibrane in order to keep Lobraners out, going so far as to penetrate Chu's mind. The pursuit of Ond and Chu by both Gladax and the anti-nant/orphid mob ultimately send the two teleporting from the Merz Boat to the Hibrane version of San Francisco, where everything is slower and larger.

Part 2

Years later, San Francisco has become reliant upon the orphidnet, and the story focuses upon a group of teenage residents, known as "kiqqies", who are homeless but depend upon dumpster-diving and a particular portion of the orphidnet known as "the Big Pig". The Pig is seen as an addiction to those whose minds are clear, as it allows for its partakers to rapidly glean information for so long as one is accessing it.

Jayjay, Thuy, Sonic and Kitty eventually meet Nektar, who has become head chef at a popular restaurant and the lead personality of a reality series, Founders, which is broadcast to viewers over the orphidnet. Nektar was being psychologically tortured and blackmailed by orphidnet "beetles" for criticizing presidential candidate Dick Too Dibbs (and refusing to run Dibbs' ads), the cousin of the disgraced former president, and the four visit her home to clear the beetles. After eating with the other cast members - Craigor and Jil - and leaving Nektar's home, the kiqqies happen upon the body of a former high-scoring quantum gamer who became addicted to the Big Pig and starved to death, motivating the kiqqies to visit the Natural Mind center to calm their minds away from the Big Pig.

The four visit the Natural Mind offices in the San Francisco Armory and are invited to visit the office of the center's director, Andrew Topping, who offers to hire Sonic and Thuy for their skills (Sonic is a quantum gamer, and Thuy writes "metanovels"). When the four suspect Topping's relationship with Jeff Luty and reject the offer, Topping seizes Thuy and attempts to throw her into the grating. The four fight Topping, and when Sonic wrestles Topping for Topping's gun, JayJay rushes Topping, pushing Topping and (accidentally) Sonic bloodlessly through the grating. The remaining three - Thuy, JayJay and Kittie, run from the Natural Mind building.

Part 3

Two months after the Natural Mind incident, Thuy is recovering from her addiction to the Big Pig and focuses more on developing her semi-autobiographical metanovel, Wheenk. When she begins to present a portion of her metanovel for a small audience, the event is disrupted by an attack shoon. Thuy runs out across the street and is rescued by JayJay, who demonstrates his recent mastering of teleportation through the orphidnet to bring them to the Merz Boat of Jil and Craigor. Due to Craigor's chronic infidelity, Jil has become addicted to sudocoke and has an erratic behavior. When the boat is attacked by attack shoons which are suspected of originating from Jeff Luty, the four defend the boat, only to find out from one of the shoons how Sonic had been blackmailed by Luty to create attack shoons for Luty's use against his enemies, including Thuy. Teleporting from the boat, JayJay and Thuy stop at Nektar's house before being chased by another attack shoon.

The two teleport to Easter Island, where they rest, gather weapons and gain information from Azaroth and other Hibraners. The two also find out about a massacre organized by Luty at his ExaExa compound to stall law enforcement, his plan to re-release the nants into the world for a Vearth 2.0, and the Big Pig's intentions toward the nants. The two teleport back to the Merz Boat to pick up Craigor and Jil, but not before curing Jil of nanomachines which were laced inside the sudocoke that she snorted up. The four teleport to the ExaExa compound in the middle of a gunfight, fighting armed guards and rescuing Sonic before Sonic, Thuy and Jil are captured by Luty's agents, including Topping. Luty asserts his plans to release the nants from his "ark" but unsuccessfully demands that Thuy contact Ond, who is still in the Hibrane. Before Topping makes good on Luty's threat to kill Sonic before her eyes, Gladax appears and kills the agents. Sonic runs through the nearby grating and blows up much of the machinery with a grenade, presumptively killing himself in the process. Luty escapes through what is left of the grating. Before they teleport from the compound, Jil breaks up with Craigor and ends their marriage.

Now with the ark in tow, Thuy and JayJay return to Easter Island to think of a way to destroy the nants. However, the Big Pig returns demanding that the ark be opened. After torture, JayJay agrees to open the box, only to find it booby-trapped with nant goo which consumes much of his body before Thuy's eyes. The pain of seeing the incident results in Thuy finishing her metanovel and finding the means to teleport on her own to the Hibrane. However, the Big Pig assures Thuy that not only is her boyfriend not dead, but that Thuy could save him and potentially stop the destruction of Earth by the nants if she returns to the Lobrane with Ond and Chu by midnight. Desperate, Thuy teleports to the Hibrane.

Characters

History

Portions of the book were previously published in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine and Year's Best SF 12 in 2006.

Reception

Science fiction author and activist Cory Doctorow reviewed the book for Boing Boing, summarizing it as "pure Rucker: a dope-addled exploration of the way-out fringes of string theory and the quantum universe that distorts the possible into the most improbable contortions,"[1] and rated it as "one of the most fun, strangest, most thought-provoking sf novels I've read, and it's fantastic to have it show up on the net, ready to be copied and shared." He praised the decision to release the material under a Creative Commons license.[2]

Booklist stated that "While Rucker’s improbable scenarios sometimes cross the line into pure silliness, his devoted fans and dazzled newcomers to him will revel in his willingness to push technological extrapolation to its soaring limits.[3]". io9's Charlie Jane Anders stated that it "actually pulls off the ambitious multilayered story it sets out to tell," but described the novel as being full of "bizarre idea-spikes" such as the hibrane.[4]

References

  1. ↑ Cory Doctorow (Oct 1, 2007). "Rudy Rucker's Postsingular: Wheenk!". Boing Boing.
  2. ↑ Cory Doctorow (Nov 2, 2007). "Rucker's Postsingular is a free, CC download!". Boing Boing.
  3. ↑ "Postsingular". Booklist via KurzweilAI.net.
  4. ↑ Charlie Jane Anders (Feb 28, 2008). "Postsingular Is Rudy Rucker's Wildest Ride Yet". io9.
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