Schismatrix

Schismatrix is a science fiction novel by Bruce Sterling in the year 1985. The novel was preceded by several short stories set in the same world. The novel deals mainly with transhumanism, so the various possibilities of artificial advancement of humanity and the associated philosophies or ideologies and political tensions. In German, there are two different translations.

Content

The Solar System of the 23 century is split between the two factions of humanity, the shapers ( in other translation shaper called ), which continued to develop through genetic engineering and brain manipulation, and the mechanists, use the computer and endoprostheses. The ongoing war between the two factions is resolved when an extraterrestrial civilization enters the stage. The novel is told from the perspective of Abelard Lindsay, a brilliant shaper diplomat who influenced the course of its 200 - year life the course of human history several times massively.

Criticism

• Stephen O'Kane: " Bruce Sterling holds ... a paradox of life: Schismatrix is full of ideas and powerful images, and yet on a very basic level, the future - with all the different conditions - similar to how the past created not. easy to read, but often very interesting and from time to time, even exciting. "