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TOPIC:

longer lives through nanobots

12
biskrem
07-17-2010
03:52 PM ET (US)
 travesti travesti travesti
  Messages 11-7 deleted by topic administrator between 07-15-2008 02:26 AM and 07-21-2006 08:56 AM
6
Mark Frauenfelder
12-07-2002
04:30 PM ET (US)
 Nothing Crichton writes can touch BLOOD MUSIC.
5
cypherpunksPerson was signed in when posted
12-07-2002
04:08 PM ET (US)
 No, I don't think he mentions Bear and Vinge, although we don't normally expect every author who uses a spaceship or some other technology to give credit to all the people who did so before him.

Actually I thought the beginning of the book could be interpreted as an homage to Blood Music. It starts off with a nanotech "camera" being injected into the blood stream and taking pictures as it passes through the body. Something similar was done at the beginning of Blood Music. Of course there's a fine line between offering a tribute and just plain copying.
4
Stefan JonesPerson was signed in when posted
12-06-2002
10:50 PM ET (US)
 I find myself annoyed at the publicity around Prey. For cripes sake, nanotech has been menacing people in SF for nearly twenty years.

Does Crichton at least mention guys like Bear and Vinge?
3
cypherpunksPerson was signed in when posted
12-06-2002
10:26 PM ET (US)
 Actually I thought Crichton's new book, Prey, was pretty good, especially the first half. The book is a techno-thriller with the first part set up as a mystery where you don't really know what's going on. Of course most everyone will be aware that there is some kind of nasty nanotech involved and you kind of see hints of this in some strange things that are going on, but mostly you're kept in the dark.

The second half wasn't so good, as the nanotech "monsters" are revealed and it turns into something of a rehash of Jurassic Park, where they're being chased by nanotech things instead of velociraptors. I don't want to give away too much but he does some stuff at the end with the nano that seems really ridiculous.

I don't think Prey really works as a cautionary tale about the dangers of runaway technology, because the eventual form that the nanotech takes just wasn't believable, at least to me. We'll see what other readers think of it.

I will say that I liked it better than Crichton's previous book, Timeline, about time travel back to medieval France. That book kind of plodded while this one kept up a pretty good pace and sense of danger.
2
Dan Z.Person was signed in when posted
12-06-2002
08:51 PM ET (US)
 Speaking of nano, anyone read the new Crichton novel yet?
1
cypherpunksPerson was signed in when posted
12-06-2002
06:48 PM ET (US)
 Some pictures of proposed medical nanobots, including animations of them eating bacteria, etc, are available at http://www.foresight.org/Nanomedicine/Gallery/.
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