Michael Bruce Sterling (born April 14, 1954) is an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

author known for his novels and short fiction and editorship of the ''

Mirrorshades ''Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology'' (1986) is a cyberpunk short story collection, edited by American writer Bruce Sterling. Contents * "The Gernsback Continuum" by William Gibson * "Snake-Eyes" by Tom Maddox * "Rock On" by Pat Cadigan * "T ...

'' anthology. In particular, he is linked to the

cyberpunk Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction in a dystopian futuristic setting that tends to focus on a "combination of lowlife and high tech", featuring futuristic technological and scientific achievements, such as artificial intelligence and cyber ...

subgenre. Sterling's first science-fiction story, ''Man-Made Self'', was sold in 1976. He is the author of science-fiction novels, including ''

Schismatrix ''Schismatrix'' ()''Schismatrix Plus'', 1995, page viii. is a science fiction novel by Bruce Sterling, originally published in 1985. The story was Sterling's only novel-length treatment of the Shaper/Mechanist universe. Five short story, short ...

'' (1985), '' Islands in the Net'' (1988), and '' Heavy Weather'' (1994). In 1992, he published his first non-fiction book, '' The Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier''.

Writings

Sterling is one of the founders of the cyberpunk movement in science fiction, along with

William Gibson William Ford Gibson (born March 17, 1948) is an American-Canadian speculative fiction writer and essayist widely credited with pioneering the science fiction subgenre known as ''cyberpunk''. Beginning his writing career in the late 1970s, his ...

Rudy Rucker Rudolf von Bitter Rucker (; born March 22, 1946) is an American mathematician, computer scientist, science fiction author, and one of the founders of the cyberpunk literary movement. The author of both fiction and non-fiction, he is best known f ...

John Shirley John Shirley (born February 10, 1953) is an American writer, primarily of fantasy, science fiction, dark street fiction, westerns, and songwriting. He has also written one historical novel, a western about Wyatt Earp, ''Wyatt in Wichita'', and ...

Lewis Shiner Lewis Shiner (born December 30, 1950 in Eugene, Oregon) is an American writer. Shiner began his career as a science fiction writer, and then identified with cyberpunk. He later wrote more mainstream novels, albeit often with magical realism and ...

, and

Pat Cadigan Patricia Oren Kearney Cadigan (born September 10, 1953) is a British-American science fiction author, whose work is most often identified with the cyberpunk movement. Her novels and short stories often explore the relationship between the hum ...

. In addition, he is one of the subgenre's chief

ideological An ideology is a set of beliefs or philosophies attributed to a person or group of persons, especially those held for reasons that are not purely epistemic, in which "practical elements are as prominent as theoretical ones." Formerly applied prim ...

promulgators. This has earned him the nickname "Chairman Bruce". He was also one of the first organizers of the

Turkey City Writer's Workshop Turkey City Writer's Workshop is a peer-to-peer, professional science fiction writer's workshop in Texas. Founded in 1973 and still ongoing today, it was consciously modeled after the east coast Milford Writer's Workshop.Sycamore Hill Writer's Workshop. He won Hugo Awards for his novelettes "

Bicycle Repairman "Bicycle Repairman" is a postcyberpunk short story by American science fiction writer Bruce Sterling. It deals with the eponymous character, who lives in a functioning anarchist community in the near future and has an encounter with the misguid ...

" (1996) and "

Taklamakan The Taklimakan or Taklamakan Desert (; zh, s=塔克拉玛干沙漠, p=Tǎkèlāmǎgān Shāmò, Xiao'erjing: , dng, Такәламаган Шамә; ug, تەكلىماكان قۇملۇقى, Täklimakan qumluqi; also spelled Taklimakan and Te ...

" (1998). His first novel, ''

Involution Ocean ''Involution Ocean'' is a science-fiction novel by American writer Bruce Sterling, published in 1977. Plot summary ''Involution Ocean'' is a novel about a drug addict who joins the crew of a whaling ship on the planet Nullaqua when the drug is ...

'', published in 1977, features the world Nullaqua where all the

atmosphere An atmosphere () is a layer of gas or layers of gases that envelop a planet, and is held in place by the gravity of the planetary body. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A s ...

is contained in a single, miles-deep crater. The story concerns a ship sailing on the

ocean The ocean (also the sea or the world ocean) is the body of salt water that covers approximately 70.8% of the surface of Earth and contains 97% of Earth's water. An ocean can also refer to any of the large bodies of water into which the wo ...

of dust at the bottom and hunting creatures called dustwhales. It is partially a science-fictional pastiche of ''

Moby-Dick ''Moby-Dick; or, The Whale'' is an 1851 novel by American writer Herman Melville. The book is the sailor Ishmael's narrative of the obsessive quest of Ahab, captain of the whaling ship ''Pequod'', for revenge against Moby Dick, the giant whi ...

'' by

Herman Melville Herman Melville ( born Melvill; August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period. Among his best-known works are ''Moby-Dick'' (1851); ''Typee'' (1846), a rom ...

. In the early 1980s, Sterling wrote a series of stories set in the Shaper/Mechanist universe: the

Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar S ...

is colonized, with two major warring factions. The Mechanists use a great deal of computer-based mechanical technologies; the Shapers do genetic engineering on a massive scale. The situation is complicated by the eventual contact with

alien Alien primarily refers to: * Alien (law), a person in a country who is not a national of that country ** Enemy alien, the above in times of war * Extraterrestrial life, life which does not originate from Earth ** Specifically, intelligent extrater ...

civilization A civilization (or civilisation) is any complex society characterized by the development of a state, social stratification, urbanization, and symbolic systems of communication beyond natural spoken language (namely, a writing system). Ci ...

s; humanity eventually splits into many subspecies, with the implication that some of these vanish from the galaxy, reminiscent of the singularity in the works of

Vernor Vinge Vernor Steffen Vinge (; born October 2, 1944) is an American science fiction author and retired professor. He taught mathematics and computer science at San Diego State University. He is the first wide-scale popularizer of the technological singu ...

. The Shaper/Mechanist stories can be found in the collections ''

Crystal Express ''Crystal Express'' is a collection of science fiction and fantasy stories by American author Bruce Sterling. It was released in 1989 by Arkham House. It was initially published in an edition of 4,231 copies and was the author's first book pub ...

'' and ''Schismatrix Plus'', which contains the novel ''Schismatrix'' and all of the stories set in the Shaper/Mechanist universe.

Alastair Reynolds Alastair Preston Reynolds (born 13 March 1966) is a Welsh science fiction author. He specialises in hard science fiction and space opera. He spent his early years in Cornwall, moved back to Wales before going to Newcastle University, where he s ...

identified ''Schismatrix'' and the other Shaper/Mechanist stories as one of the greatest influences on his own work. Bruce Sterling at ARE 2010

In the 1980s, Sterling edited the science fiction critical fanzine ''

Cheap Truth ''Cheap Truth'' was a free series of one-page, double-sided newsletters (i.e., fanzine) published in the period between 1983 and 1986. Its headquarters was in Austin, Texas. It was not-copyrighted and explicitly encouraged "xerox pirates" to circ ...

'' under the alias of Vincent Omniaveritas. He wrote a column called ''Catscan'' for the now-defunct science fiction critical magazine ''SF Eye''. He contributed a chapter to ''Sound Unbound: Sampling Digital Music and Culture'' (MIT Press, 2008) edited by Paul D. Miller, a.k.a.

DJ Spooky Paul Dennis Miller (born September 6, 1970), known professionally as DJ Spooky, That Subliminal Kid, is an American electronic and experimental hip hop musician whose work is often called by critics "illbient" or "trip hop". He is a turntabli ...

. From April 2009 through May 2009, he was an editor at ''Cool Tools''. From October 2003 to May 2020 Sterling blogged a
"Beyond the Beyond"
which was hosted by ''

Wired ''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San ...

'' until the COVID-19 pandemic led

Condé Nast Condé Nast () is a global mass media company founded in 1909 by Condé Montrose Nast, and owned by Advance Publications. Its headquarters are located at One World Trade Center in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan. The company's media ...

to cut back because of an advertising slump. He also contributed to other print and online platforms, including ''

The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction ''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' (usually referred to as ''F&SF'') is a U.S. fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in 1949 by Mystery House, a subsidiary of Lawrence Spivak's Mercury Press. Editors Anthony Boucher ...

''. His most recent novel () is ''Love Is Strange'' (December 2012), a paranormal romance (40k).

Projects

He has been the instigator of three projects which can be found on the Web - * The Dead Media Project - A collection of "research notes" on dead media technologies, from

Inca The Inca Empire (also known as the Incan Empire and the Inka Empire), called ''Tawantinsuyu'' by its subjects, (Quechua for the "Realm of the Four Parts", "four parts together" ) was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The admin ...

quipu ''Quipu'' (also spelled ''khipu'') are recording devices fashioned from strings historically used by a number of cultures in the region of Andean South America. A ''quipu'' usually consisted of cotton or camelid fiber strings. The Inca people u ...

s, through Victorian

phenakistoscope The phenakistiscope (also known by the spellings phénakisticope or phenakistoscope) was the first widespread animation device that created a fluent illusion of motion. Dubbed and ('stroboscopic discs') by its inventors, it has been known unde ...

s, to the departed

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

and home computers of the 1980s. The Project's homepage, including Sterling's original ''Dead Media Manifesto'' can be found at http://www.deadmedia.org. * The

Viridian Design Movement The Viridian Design Movement was an aesthetic movement focused on concepts from bright green environmentalism. The name was chosen to refer to a shade of green that does not quite look natural, indicating that the movement was about innovative de ...

- his attempt to create a "green" design movement focused on high-tech, stylish, and ecologically sound design. The Viridian Design home page, including Sterling's ''Viridian Manifesto'' and all of his ''Viridian Notes'', is managed by

Jon Lebkowsky Jon Lebkowsky (born April 20, 1949) is a web consultant/developer, author, and activist who was the co-founder of FringeWare Review (along with Paco Nathan). FringeWare, an early attempt at ecommerce and online community, published a popular " ...

at http://www.viridiandesign.org. The Viridian Movement helped to spawn the popular "bright green" environmental weblog

Worldchanging Worldchanging was a nonprofit online publisher that operated from 2003 to 2010. Its strapline was ''A bright green future''. It published newsletters and books about sustainability, bright green environmentalism, futurism and social innovation. ...

. WorldChanging contributors include many of the original members of the Viridian "curia". * Embrace the Decay - a web-only art piece commissioned by the Los Angeles

Museum of Contemporary Art Museum of Contemporary Art (often abbreviated to MCA, MoCA or MOCA) may refer to: Africa * Museum of Contemporary Art (Tangier), Morocco, officially le Galerie d'Art Contemporain Mohamed Drissi Asia East Asia * Museum of Contemporary Art Shangha ...

(MOCA) in 2003. Incorporating contributions solicited through The Viridian Design 'movement', Embrace the Decay was the most visited piece/page at LA MOCA's Digital Gallery, and included contributions from Jared Tarbell o
levitated.net
and co-author of several books on advanced Flash programming, and Monty Zukowski, creator of the winning 'decay algorithm' sponsored by Sterling.

Neologisms

Sterling has coined various

neologism A neologism Greek νέο- ''néo''(="new") and λόγος /''lógos'' meaning "speech, utterance"] is a relatively recent or isolated term, word, or phrase that may be in the process of entering common use, but that has not been fully accepted int ...

s to describe things that he believes will be common in the future, especially items which already exist in limited numbers. * In the December 2005 issue of ''Wired'' magazine, Sterling coined the term buckyjunk to refer to future, difficult-to-recycle consumer waste made of Carbon nanotube, carbon nanotubes, a.k.a. buckytubes, based on buckyballs or

buckminsterfullerene Buckminsterfullerene is a type of fullerene with the formula C60. It has a cage-like fused-ring structure (truncated icosahedron) made of twenty hexagons and twelve pentagons, and resembles a soccer ball. Each of its 60 carbon atoms is bonded ...

. * In his 2005 book ''Shaping Things'', he coined the term design fiction which refers to a type of speculative design which focuses on

worldbuilding Worldbuilding is the process of constructing a world, originally an imaginary one, sometimes associated with a fictional universe. Developing an imaginary setting with coherent qualities such as a history, geography, and ecology is a key task fo ...

. * In July 1989, in ''SF Eye #5'', he was the first to use the word "

slipstream A slipstream is a region behind a moving object in which a wake of fluid (typically air or mustard) is moving at velocities comparable to that of the moving fluid, relative to the ambient fluid through which the object is churning. The term sli ...

" to refer to a type of speculative fiction between traditional science fiction and fantasy and mainstream literature. * In December 1999 he coined the term "Wexelblat disaster", for a disaster caused when a natural disaster triggers a secondary, and more damaging, failure of human technology. * In August 2004, he suggested a type of technological device (he called it " spime") that, through pervasive RFID and

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of the global navigation satellite sy ...

tracking, can track its history of use and interact with the world.

Personal

In the beginning of his childhood he lived in

Galveston, Texas Galveston ( ) is a coastal resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of , with a population of 47,743 in 2010, is the county seat of surrounding Galvesto ...

until his family moved to India. Sterling spent several years in India and has a fondness for

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...

films. In 1976, he graduated from the University of Texas with a degree in journalism. In 1978, he was a Dungeon Master for a ''Dungeons & Dragons'' game whose players included

Warren Spector Warren Evan Spector (born October 2, 1955) is an American role-playing and video game designer, director, writer, producer and production designer. He is known for creating immersive sim games, which give players a wide variety of choices in how ...

, who cited Sterling's game as a major inspiration for the game design of ''Deus Ex''. In 2003, he was appointed professor at the

European Graduate School The European Graduate School (EGS) is a private graduate school that operates in two locations: Saas-Fee, Switzerland, and Valletta, Malta. History It was founded in 1994 in Saas-Fee, Switzerland by the Swiss scientist, artist, and therapist, P ...

where he is teaching summer intensive courses on media and design. In 2005, he became "visionary in residence" at

ArtCenter College of Design Art Center College of Design (stylized as ArtCenter College of Design) is a private art college in Pasadena, California. History ArtCenter College of Design was founded in 1930 in downtown Los Angeles as the Art Center School. In 1935, Fred ...

Pasadena, California Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. I ...

. He lived in

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...

with Serbian author and film-maker Jasmina Tešanović for several years, and married her in 2005. In September 2007 he moved to

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

, Italy. He also travels the world extensively, giving speeches and attending conferences. Both Sterling and artist and musician

Florian-Ayala Fauna Florian-Ayala Fauna is an American artist, musician, poet, and music producer. Fauna is the main member of the post-industrial music project uncertain. Personal life Florian-Ayala Fauna was born in Norfolk, Virginia. At age 5, Fauna moved to ...

are sponsors for

V. Vale V. "Valhalla" Vale (born February 4, 1944) is an American editor, writer, interviewer, musician and, as Vale Hamanaka, was keyboardist for the initial configuration of Blue Cheer, before it became famous as a power trio. He is the publisher and p ...

RE/Search RE/Search Publications is an American magazine and book publisher, based in San Francisco, founded by its editor V. Vale in 1980. In several issues, Andrea Juno was also credited as an editor. It was the successor to Vale's earlier punk rock fanz ...

newsletter.

Awards

* 2000 Clarke Award winner for the novel ''Distraction'' * 1999 Hayakawa's S-F Magazine Reader's Award for Best Foreign Short Story winner for the novelette ''

'' * 1999 Hugo Award winner for the novelette ''

'' * 1997 Hugo Award winner for the novelette "

" * 1989

John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel The John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, or Campbell Memorial Award, is an annual award presented by the Center for the Study of Science Fiction at the University of Kansas to the author of the best science fiction no ...

winner for the novel '' Islands in the Net''

Interviews

Sterling has been interviewed for documentaries like ''

Freedom Downtime ''Freedom Downtime'' is a 2001 documentary film sympathetic to the convicted computer hacker Kevin Mitnick, directed by Emmanuel Goldstein and produced by 2600 Films. The documentary centers on the fate of Mitnick, who is claimed to have been mi ...

'', ''

TechnoCalyps ''TechnoCalyps'' is a 2006 Belgian transhumanism documentary film written and directed by Frank Theys. It explores the advance of technology. Documentary precept Set as a three-part documentary, ''TechnoCalyps'' posits that genetics, robotics, a ...

'' and ''

Traceroute In computing, traceroute and tracert are computer network diagnostic commands for displaying possible routes (paths) and measuring transit delays of packets across an Internet Protocol (IP) network. The history of the route is recorded as th ...

''.

Bibliography

References

External links

Wired Blog : Beyond the beyond

Wolf in Living Room
- blog about domestic ubiquitous computing * * - the Open Source connected apartment. * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sterling, Bruce 1954 births 20th-century American essayists 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American short story writers 21st-century American essayists 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American short story writers American bloggers American futurologists American male bloggers American male essayists American male non-fiction writers American male novelists American male short story writers American science fiction writers American speculative fiction critics American transhumanists Anthologists Cyberpunk writers European Graduate School faculty Hugo Award-winning writers Journalists from Texas Living people Moody College of Communication alumni Neologists Novelists from Texas People from Brownsville, Texas Science fiction critics Science fiction fans Wired (magazine) people Writers from Austin, Texas