Hieroglyph: Stories & Visions for a Better Future

Ed Finn · Kathryn Cramer

Sep 2014 · Harper Collins

About this ebook

Hieroglyph: Stories & Visions for a Better Future is an anthology of optimistic science fiction from some of today’s most hopeful visionaries.

“This collection could be the shot in the arm our imaginations need. It's an important book and not just for the fiction.” —Wall Street Journal

Born of an initiative at the Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University, this remarkable collection unites a diverse group of celebrated authors, prominent scientists, and creative visionaries who contributed works of "techno-optimism" that challenge us to imagine fully, think broadly, and do Big Stuff—reigniting the iconic visions of the golden age of science fiction.

Inside this volume are marvels of imagination and possibility, including a steel tower so tall that the stratosphere is just an elevator ride away . . . a drone-powered Internet . . . crowdfunded robots descending on the moon . . . cities that work like a single cell of algae powered entirely by the sun . . . and much more.

Engaging, mind-bending, provocative, and imaginative, Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future offers a forward-thinking approach to the intersection of art and technology that has the power to change our world.

Introduction by editors Ed Finn and Kathryn Cramer

Foreword by Lawrence M. Krauss

Interview with Paul Davies

Stories by Charlie Jane Anders, Madeline Ashby, Elizabeth Bear, Gregory Benford, David Brin, James L. Cambias, Brenda Cooper, Cory Doctorow, Kathleen Ann Goonan, Lee Konstantinou, Geoffrey A. Landis, Annalee Newitz, Rudy Rucker, Karl Schroeder, Viranda Singh, Neal Stephenson, and Bruce Sterling

About the author

Ed Finn is the founding director of the Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University, where he is an assistant professor with a joint appointment in the School of Arts, Media and Engineering and the Department of English. He has worked as a journalist at Time, Slate, and Popular Science. Kathryn Cramer is a writer, critic, and anthologist, and was co-editor of the Year's Best Fantasy and Year's Best SF series. She has co-edited approximately 30 anthologies. She was a founding editor of The New York Review of Science Fiction, and has a large number of Hugo nominations in the Semiprozine category to show for it. She won a World Fantasy Award for her anthology The Architecture of Fear. Kathryn grew up in Seattle. She holds a B.A. in Mathematics and a masters degree in American Studies, both from from Columbia University in New York. Recently, she has been a consultant for Wolfram Research, L. W. Currey, an antiquarian bookseller, and for ASU's Center for Science and the Imagination. She currently lives in Westport, New York in the Adirondack Park. Lawrence Krauss is a theoretical physicist. Krauss is professor of physics, Foundation Professor of the School of Earth and Space Exploration, and director of the Origins Project at Arizona State University. He is the only physicist to have received awards from all three major U.S. physics societies: the American Physical Society, the American Association of Physics Teachers, and the American Institute of Physics. Lawrence Krauss received undergraduate degrees in mathematics and physics from Carleton University and his Ph.D. in physics from MIT. Krauss taught at Yale University and was Chairman of the Physics Department at Case Western Reserve University. Krauss is the author of several bestselling books, including The Fifth Essence (1991), Fear of Physics (1994), The Physics of Star Trek (1995), Beyond Star Trek (1997), Quintessence (2001), Atom (2002), Hiding in the Mirror (2005), Quantum Man: Richard Feynman's Life in Science (2010), and A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing (2012). Neal Stephenson, the science fiction author, was born on October 31, 1959 in Maryland. He graduated from Boston University in 1981 with a B.A. in Geography with a minor in physics. His first novel, The Big U, was published in 1984. It received little attention and stayed out of print until Stephenson allowed it to be reprinted in 2001. His second novel was Zodiac: The Eco-Thriller was published in 1988, but it was his novel Snow Crash (1992) that brought him popularity. It fused memetics, computer viruses, and other high-tech themes with Sumerian mythology. Neal Stephenson has won several awards: Hugo for Best Novel for The Diamond Age (1996), the Arthur C. Clarke for Best Novel for Quicksilver (2004), and the Prometheus Award for Best Novel for The System of the World (2005). He recently completed the The Baroque Cycle Trilogy, a series of historical novels. It consists of eight books and was originally published in three volumes and Reamde. His latest novel is entitled The Rise and Fall of D. O. D. O. Stephenson also writes under the pseudonym Stephen Bury.