Threats... and Other Promises

Zones of Thought

by Vernor Vinge

Threats and Promises: HOW DO YOU TELL THE DIFFERENCE?

Take for example the "promises" inherent in computers: super-human intelligences to do our every bidding and make our every wish come true; mind links with those mechanical intelligences to give us the gift of instant knowledge-on-demand of anything that has ever been recorded or can be calculated. Computer realities that aren't just as good as everyday life--but much, much better.

But once we have such servants civilization will no longer be recognizable, or even comprehensible to such as us. Once you mind link with that super-intelligence you will no longer be human--you might not even be you. And the world that "you" inhabit may be nothing more than a dream in the mind of a computer.

What was once a threat will have become a promise, and what was once a promise will be some kind of... joke.

Contents:
Apartness (1965)
Conquest by Default (1968)
The Whirligig of Time (1974)
Gemstone (1983)
Just Peace (1971) with William Rupp
Original Sin (1972)
The Blabber (1988)

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Short Stories, Collections

320 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1988

About the author

Vernor Steffen Vinge is a retired San Diego State University Professor of Mathematics, computer scientist, and science fiction author. He is best known for his Hugo Award-winning novels A Fire Upon The Deep (1992), A Deepness in the Sky (1999) and Rainbows End (2006), his Hugo Award-winning novellas Fast Times at Fairmont High (2002) and The Cookie Monster (2004), as well as for his 1993 essay "The Coming Technological Singularity", in which he argues that exponential growth in technology will reach a point beyond which we cannot even speculate about the consequences.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/vernor...

Reviews

[Peter Tillman · Rating 4 out of 5]

4-star rating is for "The Blabber", a near-great novella that was Vinge's start to the "Zones of Thought" series. I wonder if there's an online reprint? Nope, but the story has been reprinted a number of times, http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cg...

There are some inconsistencies with the novels that followed, but if you love them, you should seek out "The Blabber".

I have no memories of the other stories in the collection.

Alan Brown's thoughts on the Blabber and the Zones, definitely worthwhile: https://www.tor.com/2017/03/06/a-book...

[Annette · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable, if not particularly remarkable, collection of short stories by a favorite author. I appreciated the author's notes which gave some context, historical and personal, to each story.
Of the stories, the stand-outs for me were "Original Sin," a very unusual take on an alien race and their competition with humanity, and the novella "The Blabber," which introduces the universe of "A Fire Upon the Deep" and "A Deepness in the Sky"

Worth reading if you are an existing Vernor Vinge fan, or if you simply enjoy short stories in the sci-fi genre.

[Andrew Brooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

The content of this book has been merged into The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge

[Mmonchi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aunque se trata de un autor con enorme calidad, en estas obras de juventud se nota que todavía no llega a desarrollar todo su potencial. Están bien, son entretenidas, pero quedan muy lejos de las novelas que le dieron fama.

[Sue Loh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing particularly outstanding but still a nice collection of plain old SF stories - nothing dark or over dramatic. I was especially pleased to find that Vinge had a story in here that is set in his Fire in the Deep universe.

[Bill Wimsatt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun short stories. Not as great as True Names but still a great read.