Distraction
It's November 2044, an election year, and the state of the Union is a farce. The government is broke, the cities are privately owned, and the military is shaking down citizens in the streets. Washington has become a circus and no one knows that better than Oscar Valparaiso. A political spin doctor, Oscar has always made things look good. Now he wants to make a difference. But Oscar has a skeleton in his closet. His only ally: Dr. Greta Penninger, a gifted neurologist at the bleeding edge of the neural revolution. Together they're out to spread a very dangerous idea whose time has come. And so have their enemies: every technofanatic, government goon, and laptop assassin in America. Oscar and Greta might not survive to change the world, but they'll put a new spin on it.
Stats for nerds
6recommend
18mentions
13people
2010–2022years
50% recommend50% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Accelerando by Charles Stross, The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson, Diaspora by Greg Egan, Distraction by Bruce Sterling
- We're definitely in more of a Bruce Sterling cyberpunk future than a William Gibson cyberpunk future. Distraction has been feeling eerily prescient recently.
- Bruce Sterling: Distraction
...also Heavy Weather
- I'll second Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon (but not the sequels) and Vinge's Rainbows End. You might also consider some of Bruce Sterling's stuff, Distraction, Holy Fire, and The Caryatids. Sterling has a more instrumental view of AI but I think he does a better job of addressing the social issues of technology than most of the other recommendations here.
Halting State, Rule 34, and Glasshouse by Stross might also be up your alley.
And Blue Remembered Earth by Alistair Reynolds but probably not the sequels.
Oh, and Nexus by Ramez Naam.
I'd certainly recommend Ken MacLeod in general but I'm not sure he's exactly what you're asking for unless you're also interested in examinations of radical political philosophy.
- Distraction by Bruce Sterling has held up very well except for missing open source software.
- Distraction by Bruce Sterling sometimes seems like it's literally just right around the corner.
