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54-523: Neal Town Stephenson (born October 31, 1959) is an American writer known for his works of speculative fiction . His novels have been categorized as science fiction , historical fiction , cyberpunk and baroque . Stephenson's work explores mathematics , cryptography , linguistics , philosophy , currency , and the history of science . He also writes non-fiction articles about technology in publications such as Wired . He has written novels with his uncle, George Jewsbury ("J. Frederick George"), under

108-477: A Kickstarter campaign for Clang , a realistic sword-fighting fantasy game. The concept was to use motion control to provide an immersive experience. The campaign's funding goal of $ 500,000 was reached by the target date of July 9, 2012, on Kickstarter, but funding options remained open and the project continued to accept contributions on its official site. The project ran out of money in September 2013. This, and

162-420: A baroque writing style, which Stephenson brought fully to bear in the three-volume Baroque Cycle . Stephenson worked at Blue Origin , Jeff Bezos ' spaceflight company, for seven years in the early 2000s while its focus was on "novel alternate approaches to space , alternate propulsion systems , and business models." He left after Blue became a more standard aerospace company. In 2012, Stephenson launched

216-555: A blockchain . Stephenson's writing is influential in technology circles. Bill Gates , Sergey Brin , John Carmack , and Peter Thiel are all fans of his work. In Snow Crash Stephenson coined the term Metaverse and popularized the term avatar in a computing context. The Metaverse inspired the inventors of Google Earth and Snow Crash was required reading on the Xbox development team under Microsoft executive J Allard . According to academic Paul Youngquist, Snow Crash also dealt

270-554: A "cryptographer's bible", is a fictional book summarizing America's knowledge of cryptography and cryptanalysis . Begun by John Wilkins (the Cryptonomicon is mentioned in Quicksilver ) and amended over time by William Friedman , Lawrence Waterhouse, and others, the Cryptonomicon is described by Katherine Hayles as "a kind of Kabala created by a Brotherhood of Code that stretches across centuries. To know its contents

324-536: A "friendly enemy" of Shaftoe's, are assigned to build a mysterious bunker in the mountains in the Philippines as part of what turns out to be a literal suicide mission. Circa 1997, Randy Waterhouse (Lawrence's grandson) joins his old role-playing game companion Avi Halaby in a new startup , providing Pinoy -grams (inexpensive, non-real-time video messages) to migrant Filipinos via new fiber-optic cables. The Epiphyte Corporation uses this income stream to fund

378-536: A "no Martians " type of science fiction, "about things that really could happen." Speculative fiction is also used as a genre term that combines different ones into a single narrative or fictional world such as "science fiction, horror, fantasy...[and]...mystery". The Internet Speculative Fiction Database contains a broad list of different subtypes. According to publisher statistics, men outnumber women about two to one among English-language speculative fiction writers aiming for professional publication. However,

432-476: A category ranges from ancient works to paradigm-changing and neotraditional works of the 21st century. Characteristics of speculative fiction have been recognized in older works whose authors' intentions , or in the social contexts of the stories they portray, are now known. For example, the ancient Greek dramatist, Euripides , ( c.  480  – c.  406 BCE ) whose play Medea seems to have offended Athenian audiences when he speculated that

486-406: A collection of essays and other previously published fiction entitled Some Remarks: Essays and Other Writing . This collection also includes a new essay and a short story created specifically for this volume. In late 2013, Stephenson stated that he was working on a multi-volume work of historical novels that would "have a lot to do with scientific and technological themes and how those interact with

540-446: A completely imaginary way or been followed by major new events that are completely imaginary (the genre of alternative history ). Or, it depicts impossible technology or technology that defies current scientific understandings or capabilities (the genre of science fiction ). Contrarily, realistic fiction involves a story whose basic setting (time and location in the world) is, in fact, real and whose events could believably happen in

594-563: A family of engineers and scientists ; his father is a professor of electrical engineering while his paternal grandfather was a physics professor. His mother worked in a biochemistry laboratory, and her father was a biochemistry professor. Stephenson's family moved to Champaign-Urbana, Illinois , in 1960, and then in 1966 to Ames, Iowa . He graduated from Ames High School in 1977. Stephenson studied at Boston University , first specializing in physics, then switching to geography after he found that it would allow him to spend more time on

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648-510: A genre term has often been attributed to Robert A. Heinlein , who first used the term in an editorial in The Saturday Evening Post , 8 February 1947. In the article, Heinlein used "Speculative Fiction" as a synonym for "science fiction"; in a later piece, he explicitly stated that his use of the term did not include fantasy. However, though Heinlein may have come up with the term on his own, there are earlier citations:

702-557: A neo-Victorian social structure. This was followed by Cryptonomicon in 1999, a novel including concepts ranging from Alan Turing 's research into codebreaking and cryptography during the Second World War , to a modern attempt to set up a data haven . In 2013, Cryptonomicon won the Prometheus Hall of Fame Award . The Baroque Cycle is a series of historical novels set in the 17th and 18th centuries, and

756-605: A piece in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine in 1889 used the term in reference to Edward Bellamy 's Looking Backward : 2000–1887 and other works; and one in the May 1900 issue of The Bookman said that John Uri Lloyd 's Etidorhpa , The End of the Earth had "created a great deal of discussion among people interested in speculative fiction". A variation on this term is "speculative literature". The use of "speculative fiction" in

810-441: A sociological extrapolation of extreme laissez-faire capitalism and collectivism . Stephenson at this time would later be described by Mike Godwin as "a slight, unassuming grad-student type whose soft-spoken demeanor gave no obvious indication that he had written the manic apotheosis of cyberpunk science fiction." In 1994, Stephenson joined with his uncle, J. Frederick George , to publish a political thriller, Interface , under

864-570: A trio of novels dubbed The Baroque Cycle , provides part of the deep backstory to the characters and events featured in Cryptonomicon . Set in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, the novels feature ancestors of several characters in Cryptonomicon , as well as events and objects which affect the action of the later-set book. The subtext implies the existence of secret societies or conspiracies, and familial tendencies and groupings found within those darker worlds. The short story " Jipi and

918-470: A video discussion with Bill Gates , Stephenson revealed that he had just submitted the manuscript for a new historical novel—"a time travel book"—co-written with Nicole Galland , one of his Mongoliad coauthors. This was released as The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. on June 13, 2017. In June 2019, his novel Fall; or, Dodge in Hell was published. It is a near-future novel that explores mind uploading into

972-475: Is a thinly veiled reference to Linux , a kernel originally written by the Finnish native Linus Torvalds . Stephenson changed the name so as not to be creatively constrained by the technical details of Linux-based operating systems. An excerpt from Cryptonomicon was originally published in the short story collection Disco 2000 , edited by Sarah Champion and published in 1998. Stephenson's subsequent work,

1026-455: Is a thriller following a radical environmentalist in his struggle against corporate polluters. Neither novel attracted much critical attention on first publication, but both showcased concerns that Stephenson would further develop in his later work. Stephenson's breakthrough came in 1992 with Snow Crash , a cyberpunk or postcyberpunk novel fusing memetics , computer viruses , and other high-tech themes with Sumerian mythology , along with

1080-474: Is characterized by a lesser degree of adherence to realistic or plausible individuals, events, or places, while the umbrella genres of realistic fiction or literary realism are characterized by a greater degree of adherence. For instance, speculative fiction may depict an entirely imaginary universe or one in which the laws of nature do not strictly apply (often, the sub-genre of fantasy ). Or, it depicts true historical moments, except that they have concluded in

1134-591: Is in some respects a prequel to Cryptonomicon . It was originally published in three volumes of two or three books each – Quicksilver (2003), The Confusion , (2004) and The System of the World (2004) – but was subsequently republished as eight separate books: Quicksilver , King of the Vagabonds , Odalisque , Bonanza , Juncto , Solomon's Gold , Currency , and System of the World . (The titles and exact breakdown vary in different markets.) The System of

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1188-437: Is not limited to, science fiction , fantasy , horror , slipstream , magical realism , superhero fiction , alternate history , utopia and dystopia , fairy tales , steampunk , cyberpunk , weird fiction , and some apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction . The term has been used for works of literature , film , television , drama , video games , radio , and their hybrids. The umbrella genre of speculative fiction

1242-399: Is sometimes abbreviated "spec-fic", "spec fic", "specfic", "S-F", "SF", or "sf". The last three abbreviations, however, are ambiguous as they have long been used to refer to science fiction (which lies within this general range of literature). It is sometimes also known as "the fantastic" or as fantastika , the latter term attributed to John Clute who coined it in 2007 after the term for

1296-548: Is to hide the fact that Allied intelligence has cracked the German Enigma code. The detachment stages events, often behind enemy lines, that provide alternative explanations for the Allied intelligence successes. United States Marine sergeant Bobby Shaftoe, a veteran of China and Guadalcanal , serves in unit 2702, carrying out Waterhouse's plans. At the same time, Japanese soldiers, including mining engineer Goto Dengo,

1350-641: Is to qualify as a Morlock among the Eloi , and the elite among the elite are those gifted enough actually to contribute to it." The action takes place in two periods— World War II and the late 1990s, during the Internet boom and the Asian financial crisis . In 1942, Lawrence Pritchard Waterhouse, a young United States Navy code breaker and mathematical savant , is assigned to the newly formed joint British and American Detachment 2702. This ultra-secret unit's role

1404-480: The cyberpunk genre a "killer blow". According to Publishers Weekly , Cryptonomicon is "often credited with sketching the basis for cryptocurrency ." Speculative fiction Speculative fiction is an umbrella genre of fiction that encompasses all the subgenres that depart from realism , or strictly imitating everyday reality, instead presenting fantastical, supernatural , futuristic , or other imaginative realms. This catch-all genre includes, but

1458-619: The genres of historical fiction and contemporary techno-thriller than to the science fiction of Stephenson's two previous novels, Snow Crash and The Diamond Age . It features fictionalized characterizations of such historical figures as Alan Turing , Albert Einstein , Douglas MacArthur , Winston Churchill , Isoroku Yamamoto , Karl Dönitz , Hermann Göring , and Ronald Reagan , as well as some highly technical and detailed descriptions of modern cryptography and information security, with discussions of prime numbers , modular arithmetic , and Van Eck phreaking . According to Stephenson,

1512-401: The pen name "Stephen Bury"; they followed this in 1996 with The Cobweb . Stephenson's next solo novel, published in 1995, was The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer . The plot involves a weapon implanted in a character's skull, near-limitless replicators for everything from mattresses to foods, smartpaper , and air and blood-sanitizing nanobots. It is set in a world with

1566-647: The Paranoid Chip " takes place some time after the events of Cryptonomicon . In the story, the construction of the Crypt has triggered economic growth in Manila and Kinakuta, in which Goto Engineering, and Homa/Homer Goto, a Goto family heir, are involved. The IDTRO ("Black Chamber") is also mentioned. Stephenson's 2019 novel, Fall; or, Dodge in Hell , a sequel to Reamde (2011), reveals that Fall , Reamde , Cryptonomicon and The Baroque Cycle are all set in

1620-619: The World won the Prometheus Award in 2005. Following this, Stephenson wrote Anathem (2008), a long and detailed novel of speculative fiction . It is set in an Earthlike world, deals with metaphysics, and refers heavily to Ancient Greek philosophy . Anathem won the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel in 2009. In May 2010, the Subutai Corporation, of which Stephenson was named chairman, announced

1674-468: The World War II storyline: The precise date of this storyline is not established, but the ages of characters, the technologies described, and certain date-specific references suggest that it is set in the late 1990s, at the time of the internet boom and the Asian financial crisis . Portions of Cryptonomicon contain large amounts of exposition. Several pages are spent explaining in detail some of

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1728-482: The book communicate with each other through the use of one-time pads . A one-time pad (OTP) is an encryption technique that requires a single-use pre-shared key of at least the same length as the encrypted message. The story posits a variation of the OTP technique wherein there is no pre-shared key - the key is instead generated algorithmically. He also describes computers using a fictional operating system, Finux. The name

1782-765: The book is written for a technical or geek audience. Despite the technical detail, the book drew praise from both Stephenson's science fiction fan base and literary critics and buyers. In Clayton's book Charles Dickens in Cyberspace: The Afterlife of the Nineteenth Century in Postmodern Culture (2003), he calls Stephenson's book the "ultimate geek novel" and draws attention to the "literary-scientific-engineering-military-industrial-intelligence alliance" that produced discoveries in two eras separated by fifty years, World War II and

1836-411: The characters and civilisation during a particular span of history". He expected the first two volumes to be released in mid-to-late 2014. However, at about the same time, he shifted his attention to a science fiction novel, Seveneves , which was completed about a year later and was published in May 2015. On June 8, 2016, plans were announced to adapt Seveneves for the screen. In May 2016, as part of

1890-399: The circumstances around it, angered some backers with some threatening a class action lawsuit. The Clang project ended in September 2014 without being completed. Stephenson took part of the responsibility for the project's failure, stating, "I probably focused too much on historical accuracy and not enough on making it sufficiently fun to attract additional investment". In 2014, Stephenson

1944-524: The cloud, and contains characters from 2011's Reamde , 1999's Cryptonomicon , and other books. Termination Shock , published in November 2021, is a climate fiction novel about solar geoengineering . Stephenson's books tend to have elaborate plots drawing on numerous technological and sociological ideas at the same time. The discursive nature of his writing, together with significant plot and character complexity and an abundance of detail suggests

1998-509: The collective pseudonym Stephen Bury. Stephenson has worked part-time as an advisor for Blue Origin , a company (founded by Jeff Bezos ) developing a spacecraft and a space launch system, and is also a cofounder of Subutai Corporation, whose first offering is the interactive fiction project The Mongoliad . He was Magic Leap 's Chief Futurist from 2014 to 2020. Born on October 31, 1959, in Fort Meade , Maryland , Stephenson came from

2052-402: The concepts behind cryptography and data storage security, including a description of Van Eck phreaking . In the book, a playing-card based cipher called Pontifex is used. At Stephenson's request, Bruce Schneier developed such a cipher, calling it Solitaire , and a precise description of Solitaire is included as an appendix. Solitaire was cryptanalyzed in 1999. Several of the characters in

2106-452: The context of the real world. One realistic fiction sub-genre is historical fiction , centered around true major events and time periods in the past. The attempt to make stories feel faithful to reality or to more objectively describe details, and the 19th-century artistic movement that began to vigorously promote this approach, is called "literary realism", which incorporates some works of both fiction and non-fiction. "Speculative fiction"

2160-450: The creation of a data haven in the nearby fictional Sultanate of Kinakuta. Vietnam veteran Doug Shaftoe, the son of Bobby Shaftoe, and his daughter Amy do the undersea surveying for the cables and engineering work on the haven, which is overseen by Goto Furudenendu, heir-apparent to Goto Engineering. Complications arise as figures from the past reappear seeking gold or revenge. Fictionalized versions of several historical figures appear in

2214-765: The creative design and generation of lore and mythology for works of fiction. The term's definition comes from its use by J. R. R. Tolkien , whose novel, The Lord of the Rings , demonstrates a clear application of this process. Themes common in mythopoeia, such as the supernatural , alternate history and sexuality , continue to be explored in works produced within the modern speculative fiction genre. The creation of speculative fiction in its general sense of hypothetical history, explanation, or ahistorical storytelling , has also been attributed to authors in ostensibly non-fiction modes since as early as Herodotus of Halicarnassus (fl. 5th century BCE), for his Histories , and

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2268-451: The genre in some Slavic languages . The term has been used by some critics and writers dissatisfied with what they consider to be a limitation of science fiction: the need for the story to hold to scientific principles. They argue that "speculative fiction" better defines an expanded, open, imaginative type of fiction than does "genre fiction", and the categories of "fantasy", "mystery", "horror" and "science fiction". Harlan Ellison used

2322-406: The percentages vary considerably by genre, with women outnumbering men in the fields of urban fantasy , paranormal romance and young adult fiction . Academic journals which publish essays on speculative fiction include Extrapolation and Foundation . Speculative fiction may include elements from one or more of the following genres: Cryptonomicon Cryptonomicon is closer to

2376-510: The production of an experimental multimedia fiction project called The Mongoliad , which centered upon a narrative written by Stephenson and other speculative fiction authors. Stephenson's novel Reamde was released on September 20, 2011. The title is a play on the common filename README . This thriller, set in the present, centers around a group of MMORPG developers caught in the middle of Chinese cyber-criminals, Islamic terrorists, and Russian mafia. On August 7, 2012, Stephenson released

2430-520: The same fictional universe , with references to the Waterhouse, Shaftoe and Hacklheber families, as well as Societas Eruditorum and Epiphyte Corporation. Two "Wise" entities from The Baroque Cycle also appear in Fall, including Enoch Root. Peter Thiel states in his book Zero to One that Cryptonomicon was required reading during the early days of PayPal . According to critic Jay Clayton ,

2484-608: The sense of expressing dissatisfaction with traditional or establishment science fiction was popularized in the 1960s and early 1970s by Judith Merril , as well as other writers and editors in connection with the New Wave movement. However, this use of the term fell into disuse around the mid-1970s. In the 2000s, the term came into wider use as a convenient collective term for a set of genres. However, some writers, such as Margaret Atwood , who wrote The Handmaid's Tale , continue to distinguish "speculative fiction" specifically as

2538-500: The term to avoid being pigeonholed as a science fiction writer. Ellison, a fervent proponent of writers embracing more literary and modernist directions, broke out of genre conventions to push the boundaries of speculative fiction. The term suppositional fiction is sometimes used as a sub-category designating fiction in which characters and stories are constrained by an internally consistent world, but not necessarily one defined by any particular genre. Speculative fiction as

2592-495: The title is a play on Necronomicon , the title of a book mentioned in the stories of horror writer H. P. Lovecraft : I wanted to give it a title a 17th-century book by a scholar would be likely to have. And that's how I came up with Cryptonomicon . I've heard the word Necronomicon bounced around. I haven't actually read the Lovecraft books, but clearly it's formed by analogy to that. The novel's Cryptonomicon, described as

2646-591: The titular shamaness Medea killed her own children, as opposed to their being killed by other Corinthians after her departure. Additionally, Euripides' play, Hippolytus , narratively introduced by Aphrodite , Goddess of Love in person, is suspected to have displeased his contemporary audiences, as his portrayal of Phaedra was seen as too lusty . In historiography , what is now called "speculative fiction" has previously been termed "historical invention", "historical fiction", and other similar names. These terms have been extensively noted in literary criticism of

2700-561: The university mainframe. He graduated in 1981 with a B.A. in geography and a minor in physics. Since 1984, Stephenson has lived mostly in the Pacific Northwest and currently lives in Seattle with his family. Stephenson's first novel, The Big U , published in 1984, is a satirical take on life at American Megaversity, a vast, bland, and alienating research university beset by chaotic riots. His next novel, Zodiac (1988),

2754-486: The works of William Shakespeare , such as when he co-locates Athenian Duke Theseus , Amazonian Queen Hippolyta , English fairy Puck , and Roman god Cupid across time and space in the Fairyland of the fictional Merovingian Germanic sovereign Oberon , in A Midsummer Night's Dream . In mythography the concept of speculative fiction has been termed "mythopoesis", or mythopoeia . This practice involves

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2808-409: The world, and responds to it by creating imaginative , inventive , and artistic expressions. Such expressions can contribute to practical societal progress through interpersonal influences, social and cultural movements , scientific research and advances, and the philosophy of science . In its English-language usage in arts and literature since the mid 20th century, "speculative fiction" as

2862-445: Was already both practiced and edited out by early encyclopedic writers like Sima Qian ( c.  145 or 135 BCE–86 BCE), author of Shiji . These examples highlight the caveat that many works, now regarded as intentional or unintentional speculative fiction, long predated the coining of the genre term; its concept, in its broadest sense, captures both a conscious and unconscious aspect of human psychology in making sense of

2916-648: Was hired as Chief Futurist by the Florida-based augmented reality company Magic Leap . Stephenson left the company in April 2020 as part of a layoff. In June 2021, Stephenson and colleagues Sean Stewart and Austin Grossman released New Found Land: The Long Haul , an Audible audio drama based on the intellectual property they developed at Magic Leap. In 2022, Stephenson launched Lamina1 to build an open source metaverse that would use smart contracts on

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