True Names

What Hacker News says

1. nlApr 2026
   Firstly, True Names is an awesome read, and the real origin of cyberpunk. I much prefer it to Neuromancer or Diamond Age.

   Secondly, I recently tried to work out what year on the Top500 list[1] I could reasonably be for around US$5000. It's surprisingly difficult to work out mostly because they use 64 bit flops and few other systems quote that number.

   [1] https://top500.org/lists/top500/2025/11/

   thread
2. throwaway328Jul 2025
   "True names and the opening of the cyberspace frontier" is a very nice edition with essays (Tim May's is very good) plus the novella of True Names, worth checking out!
   thread
3. int_19hJul 2025
   Since we're talking about cyberpunk specifically here, the Vinge recommendation that needs to be at the top of that list is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_Names. As literary quality goes, it's not as good as his later works, but it's still written by a computer scientist who clearly understands and loves what he does - not just as technology, but also as culture - and it shows. Features ARPANET, VR cyberspace, and hackers ("warlocks") vs NSA.
   Show morethread
4. emmelaichMar 2024
   'true name'?

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_Names

   THE cyberpunk book.

   Also, his later books are great but the "Across Realtime" trilogy has a special place in my heart. https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/167844

   thread
5. ompogUeMar 2024
   Oh No! So Saddened! Found The Peace War at an airport book rack in the late '80's. Then, found True Names at a library sale in the early '90's and fell in love.

   "Zones of Thought" was a really smart idea once you got it. I put him as 2nd generation genius like "Hendrix -> Van Halen": "Asimov -> Vinge". Also (only real nitpick ever), like Asimov, was a little weak in dialogue and the poetry of words (comparing to Tolkein and Heinlein), but they were literally both STEM "Dr.s/PhD's".

   Rainbow's End seemed to be the FAANG playbook for many years: drones, AR (google glass on), haptics, autonomous automobiles, and on and on. Was thinking literally yesterday about how the biotech and architecture/earthquake ideas hadn't made it to today (which is around when the story takes place), but the latency issues seem to have been licked well before now.

   Requiescat in Pace

   Show morethread
6. nlMar 2024
   One of the true greats.

   True Names is a better cyberpunk story than anything Gibson or Neal Stephenson wrote.

   Everyone mentions A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky which are some of the best sci fi ever written, but I think The Peace War is way underrate too (although it was nominated for a Hugo award which it lost to Neuromancer).

   RIP

   thread