Next
Next is a 2006 satirical techno-thriller by Michael Crichton. It was the fifteenth novel under his own name and his twenty-fifth overall, and the last to be published during his lifetime.
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2012–2025years
45% recommend55% neutral
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What Hacker News says
- I'm glad I read Next by Michael Crichton, or I might never have heard the story of Henrietta Lacks.
Not that I've had the need luckily but I've been wary of having so much as a blood test since then.
- Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - Adams Discworld series - Pratchett Foundation - Asimov American Gods - Gaiman Snow Crash - Stephenson Next - Crichton 1984 - Orwell
- You might enjoy the novel Next, by Michael Crichton (Harvard M.D., author of E.R., Jurassic Park, etc.) Aside from the fact that most of his novels were pretty well written, the scary part is how much ahead of his time his ideas consistently were.
(His later novels, including Next, did drop slightly in quality as time went on, but Next is still a really interesting look at almost precisely the legal issue that you describe.)
The incredibly complete bibliography that you find in his novels of hundreds of citations just tends to prove out that frequently truth really is stranger than fiction. (For example, what if someone genetically engineered advertisements into the backs of sea turtles on barrier reefs?)
- Michael Crichton's novel "Next"[1] was a fantastic exploration of the implications of such issues being brought up here like: liability when the infringing patents are in you, in animals, in human-animal hybrids capable of human-level intelligence, and how the world deals with life when Man plays god.
Another excellent book on the ethics of bio-engineering and patentability is the true story, "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks."[2]
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Next_(novel) [2] http://www.amazon.com/The-Immortal-Life-Henrietta-Lacks/dp/1...
- > how about merely big (but society-changing) ideas in the near future
Isn't that the definition of a techno-thriller? You don't need e-books to be relatively successful in that. You don't even have to go the quasi-military route of Tom Clancy - how about Daemon and Freedom(tm) by Daniel Suarez, or Crichton's Next?
- Where this could go was covered by (among others) Michael Chrichton's last novel Next [1] which games this out in some detail (as far as I am aware it's his only novel with endnotes).
