TRP***GR**Singularity?

[Mark Kohut]

I know a little about Vinge and his work and  I doubt the social circles speculation ...or we would have heard something? 

We know he has read SF but still? Luddite essay seems  longer and deeper-bred to me. 

Sent from my iPhone

> On Jul 17, 2017, at 2:37 PM, Paul Cray <pmcray at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> I was very struck by the constant use of the term when I read GR in 2009. I have often wondered whether Pynchon knew Vinge in SoCal. As far as I know, Vinge first uses the S-word in "Marooned in Realtime" (1986), but it's entirely possible that either Vinge got the word from Pynchon (via GR or personal contact) or P got it from V in sf circles in SoCal in the late 1960s/early 1970s. I suppose it is more likely V got it from P, but it is interesting that they were both in SoCal at the same time and might well have had overlapping social circles.  
> 
> The famous statement about AI and biotech in the Luddism article always make me think that P might just have read Greg Bear's "Blood Music" in its original novelette form, which is a seminal Singularitarian text, although the S-word is not used. There's also plenty of Singularitarian subtext in AtD, although I don't recall the S-word itself being used much if at all. 
> 
>> On 17 July 2017 at 19:36, Paul Cray <pmcray at gmail.com> wrote:
>> I was very struck by the constant use of the term when I read GR in 2009. I have often wondered whether Pynchon knew Vinge in SoCal. As far as I know, Vinge first uses the S-word in "Marooned in Realtime" (1986), but it's entirely possible that either Vinge got the word from Pynchon (via GR or personal contact) or P got it from V in sf circles in SoCal in the late 1960s/early 1970s. I suppose it is more likely V got it from P, but it is interesting that they were both in SoCal at the same time and might well have had overlapping social circles.  
>> 
>> The famous statement about AI and biotech in the Luddism article always make me think that P might just have read Greg Bear's "Blood Music" in its original novelette form, which is a seminal Singularitarian text, although the S-word is not used. There's also plenty of Singularitarian subtext in AtD, although I don't recall the S-word itself being used much if at all. 
>> 
>>> On 16 July 2017 at 13:00, da kid <peterock86 at live.com> wrote:
>>> Was Pynchon aware of the technological singularity back in the early 70s? I know there are gravitational singularities and others, not just the Kurzweil one and it has been awhile since I finished GR. However, with all it's concerns with predestination, the end of history(?) and so forth it makes me wonder. Also, I recall two scenes in particular that are towards the end of the book. One is the scene about the rich guy practicing the Masonic ritual stuff to try to transcend to a higher dimension. The other is the lecture by is it Kekule? about the move from organic to inorganic chemistry. From Carbon to silicon. Not to mention all the times P talks about "singularities." Has this already been discussed to death here?
> 
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