He conceived an early version of cyberspace and predicted the “technological singularity,” a tipping point at which machines would become smarter than humans.
Vernor Vinge, a mathematician and prolific science fiction author who in the 1980s wrote a novella that offered an early glimpse of what became known as cyberspace, and who soon after that hypothesized that artificial intelligence would outstrip human intelligence, died on March 20 in the La Jolla area of San Diego. He was 79.
James Frenkel, who edited nearly all of his work since 1981, said the cause of his death, in an assisted living facility, was Parkinson’s disease.
David Brin, a science fiction writer and a friend of Mr. Vinge’s, said in a tribute on Facebook, “Vernor enthralled millions with tales of plausible tomorrows, made all the more vivid by his polymath masteries of language, drama, characters and the implications of science.”
Mr. Vinge (pronounced VIN-jee) was renowned for his novella “True Names” (1981), in which he created an early version of cyberspace — a virtual reality technology he called the “Other Plane” — a year before William Gibson gave the nascent digital ecosystem its name in a story, “Burning Chrome,” and three years later popularized the word in his novel “Neuromancer.”
In “True Names,” Mr. Slippery, one of the anonymous computer hackers known as warlocks who work within the Other Plane, is identified and caught by the government (the “Great Enemy”) and forced to help stop a threat posed by another warlock.