Re: [9fans] Very Off-Topic: Anybody here reads Sci-Fi? :)

["Brian L. Stuart" <blstuart@bellsouth.net>]

> i feel extremely hypocritical responding to this thread,
> because it really *is* so very off topic, but i have to
> put in a plug for Greg Egan. absolutely brilliant for extreme
> (and well thought out) technological extrapolation. he's got a
> computer-sciency
> background (he might even have heard of plan 9...)

I, too, have been trying not to respond, but there is
one book I'd suggest that hasn't been mentioned.  It's
called The Difference Engine and it's by William Gibson
and Bruce Sterling.  It's build around the premise that
Babbage did eventually succeed in building his difference
and analytical engines.  It even has elements of
computability theory in there.

Of course, it's still OT because Plan 9 just wouldn't
fit on an analytical engine--Inferno maybe...

BLS