- Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: Baen Books (1 May 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 067157809X
- ISBN-13: 978-0671578091
- Product Dimensions: 17.1 x 10.5 x 2.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,358,152 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Someone Out There really hated humans. Twenty years ago Shiva I swept aside Earth's defenses and rained down destruction until a suicide squad boarded it and blew it to smithereens. Now Shiva V has entered the Solar System. Vastly more powerful than any of its predecessors, it has destroyed all fleets sent against it. There is only one way to defeat a Shiva: get inside and kill it. Once again, in the personae of five champions, four billion of us are about to do just that, linked and coordinated by -- The Earthweb!
From the Author
Our Web-enhanced Future
How do you enable a billion people to work together as a tightly knit team?
How do you enable a billion people to work together as a tightly knit team?
How might our lives change when a mature version of the World Wide Web becomes the underpinning fabric of global society?
I have spent over a decade working with, and often managing, organizations in Silicon Valley dedicated to answering these questions. Indeed, I was working on these questions even before the term "World Wide Web" was invented: in 1988 I published an article for Analog magazine about hypertext and hypermedia, predicting the development of a global network that would embody the bulk of human knowledge, allowing us access from our homes. For those of us working in the hypertext community, the sudden arrival of the Web was not a surprise; the only question had been, which companies would first deliver Web-like capabilities successfully? But the Web as it now stands is not half so remarkable as the Web that will one day grow from it.
In fact, we already know how to enable a billion people to work together as a tight-knit team. We already know how to replace the bulk of government bureucracies, laws, and regulations, with Web-based machinery that can form the underpinning fabric of global society. The only question is, which companies will first deliver these capabilities successfully?
EarthWeb is the story of a world in which we have navigated through this evolution of the Web to a new, better place, only to see a terrible threat from deep space descend upon us. All the future machinery of the Web will be needed to meet that threat. This is a story of how billions of individual human beings, pursuing their own individual goals, often selfishly, sometimes altruistically, always with great differences in opinion, can come together and forge a solution to a problem of global scope. It is a story of liberty, wrapped in a story of the Web, cloaked in a story of alien battleships and cataclysmic combat.
You can read the first few chapters of EarthWeb at http://www.baen.com
You can read other information related to EarthWeb at http://www.the-earthweb.com
Related information at www.the-earthweb.com includes:
--Links to R&D efforts now underway to build the technologies of EarthWeb;
--Comments by various early readers of EarthWeb, including K. Eric Drexler (Engines of Creation), David D. Friedman(Machinery of Freedom), and of course Vernor Vinge( who is quoted in the elsewhere on the Amazon.com Earthweb page);
--Links to the EarthWeb Contest, revolving around the question, "What Ever Happened To Microsoft In the EarthWeb Universe?"
Join the Contest--you too can be a winner! :-)
And thank you, Amazon.com, for being a part of the evolution of the Web that will one day lead to a world not unlike...EarthWeb!
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Customer Reviews
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful vision of global computer-enhanced collaboration,
By A Customer
This review is from: Earthweb (Mass Market Paperback)
Stiegler a presents an intriguing vision of computer-enhanced collaboration. He draws on the work of Robin Hanson, Norm Hardy, Mark Miller, Dean Tribble and other little-known, but first-rate thinkers. Earthweb is a nearly painless introduction to the "good" sides of cryptography and of free markets. Unfortunately, the writing isn't as good as the ideas he showcases. I would have liked the characters to be more complex, the plot to be more compelling or at least not quite so blatantly contrived, and the writing to be less syrupy and self-congratulatory. If you read lots of Science Fiction, you probably won't mind these flaws. Even if you are spoiled by excellent writing, Earthweb is still well worth reading.
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Future of the World Wide Web in one book.,
By A Customer
This review is from: Earthweb (Mass Market Paperback)
Earthweb is a book that contains interesting characters. It also has an exciting alien attack. Those two elements would make this a good book. The element that makes this a great book is the way the author makes the future of the web come alive for every reader. We learn about Capablilty-Based Security, Idea Futures and Bidirectional links. These are real technologies that are being developed right now. In this book we see how these technologies may change the face of the internet forever. Please Mr. Marc Stiegler, give us more!
4.0 out of 5 stars
Space opera for the thinking reader.,
By A Customer
This review is from: Earthweb (Mass Market Paperback)
It is a future where pseudoanonymous identities with persistent reputation contract, over the web and in person. Decisions are guided by anonymous betting on idea future contracts. Reporters must be honest and accurate, because bi-directional, reputation endorsed public commentary follows them wherever they go. And Shiva V is coming to destroy the world.Welcome to Marc Stiegler's latest book, "Earthweb". It is a space opera with a bibliography. (And the bibliography includes some of my favorite links. Highly recommended. Bill Frantz
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