What's the best way to create artificial intelligence? In 1950, Alan Turing wrote, 'Many people think that a very abstract activity, like the playing of chess, would be best. It can also be maintained that it is best to provide the machine with the best sense organs that money can buy, and then teach it to understand and speak English. This process could follow the normal teaching of a child. Things would be pointed out and named, etc. Again I do not know what the right answer is, but I think both approaches should be tried.'
The first approach has been tried many times in both science fiction and reality. In this new novella, at over 30,000 words, his longest work to date, Ted Chiang offers a detailed imagining of how the second approach might work within the contemporary landscape of startup companies, massively-multiplayer online gaming, and open-source software. It's a story of two people and the artificial intelligences they helped create, following them for more than a decade as they deal with the upgrades and obsolescence that are inevitable in the world of software. At the same time, it's an examination of the difference between processing power and intelligence, and of what it means to have a real relationship with an artificial entity.

Seconds before the Earth is demolished to make way for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is plucked off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised edition of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy who, for the last fifteen years, has been posing as an out-of-work actor.
Together this dynamic pair begin a journey through space aided by quotes from The Hitchhiker's Guide ("A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have") and a galaxy-full of fellow travelers: Zaphod Beeblebrox--the two-headed, three-armed ex-hippie and totally out-to-lunch president of the galaxy; Trillian, Zaphod's girlfriend (formally Tricia McMillan), whom Arthur tried to pick up at a cocktail party once upon a time zone; Marvin, a paranoid, brilliant, and chronically depressed robot; Veet Voojagig, a former graduate student who is obsessed with the disappearance of all the ballpoint pens he bought over the years.
Where are these pens? Why are we born? Why do we die? Why do we spend so much time between wearing digital watches? For all the answers stick your thumb to the stars. And don't forget to bring a towel!

When the Time Traveller courageously stepped out of his machine for the first time, he found himself in the year 802,700 -- and everything has changed. In another, more utopian age, creatures seemed to dwell together in perfect harmony. The Time Traveller thought he could study these marvelous beings -- unearth their secret and then retum to his own time -- until he discovered that his invention, his only avenue of escape, had been stolen.

H.G. Well's famous novel of one man's astonishing journey beyond the conventional limits of the imagination first appeared in 1895. It won him immediate recognition, and has been regarded ever since as one of the great masterpieces in the literature of science fiction.

The night after a shooting star is seen streaking through the sky from Mars, a cylinder is discovered on Horsell Common in London. At first, naive locals approach the cylinder armed just with a white flag only to be quickly killed by an all-destroying heat-ray, as terrifying tentacled invaders emerge. Soon the whole of human civilisation is under threat, as powerful Martians build gigantic killing machines, destroy all in their path with black gas and burning rays, and feast on the warm blood of trapped, still-living human prey. The forces of the Earth, however, may prove harder to beat than they at first appear.

Spine-tingling and entertaining, The Invisible Man is a science fiction classic–and a penetrating, unflinching look into the heart of human nature. To its author, H. G. Wells, the novel was as compelling as “a good gripping dream.” But to generations of readers, the terrible and evil experiment of the demented scientist, Griffin, has conveyed a chilling nightmare of believable horror. An atmosphere of ever-increasing suspense begins with the arrival of a mysterious stranger at an English village inn and builds relentlessly to the stark terror of a victim pursued by a maniacal invisible man. The result is a masterwork: a dazzling display of the brilliant imagination, psychological insight, and literary craftsmanship that made H. G. Wells one of the most influential writers of his time.

The capstone and crowning achievement of the Future History series, from the New York Times bestselling Grand Master of Science Fiction...

Time Enough for Love follows Lazarus Long through a vast and magnificent timescape of centuries and worlds. Heinlein's longest and most ambitious work, it is the story of a man so in love with Life that he refused to stop living it; and so in love with Time that he became his own ancestor.

本书背景为晚清时期的上海，主线剧情围绕着新新日报馆的记者梁启与清末科技发明达人谭四展开，叙述了二人结伴共同解决在“铁爵爷”幕后操控下出现的种种案件与问题，并掺入了与首富之子盛司琮、文坛鬼才荒江钓叟亦敌亦友、相争不下的种种趣事，最终在亦庄亦谐的叙事当中渐渐集结了所有志同道合的伙伴，一同与恶势力展开正面较量的大型科幻历史故事。
小说呈现段落式展开，每章或每几章之间都有相对独立的事件，同时又具备关联的线索与贯串全文的剧情。既有这群正义伙伴轻松幽默的日常，亦有惊险悬疑的桥段，完美呈现了独属于那个时代的科幻气质。

The Foundation has managed to preserve humanculture and shorten the period of chaotic barbarism after the Galactic Empire began to decay. But the Foundation still faces great challenges in its struggle to survive.

本书精选收录了刘宇昆的科幻佳作共22篇，由科幻文学译者耿辉倾情呈现。“奇点时代”来临，身处一个虚拟数据控制一切的时代，我们平凡的生活将以何种形式继续存在？作为一本人文科幻小说，《奇点遗民》融入了科幻艺术吸引人的几大元素：数字化生命、影像化记忆、人工智能、外星访客……刘宇昆的独特之处在于，他写的不是科幻探险或英雄奇幻，而是数据时代里每个人的生活和情感变化。透过这本书，我们看到的不仅是未来还有当下。

2001: A Space Odyssey is the classic science fiction novel that changed the way we looked at the stars and ourselves....2001: A Space Odyssey inspired what is perhaps the greatest science fiction film ever made -- brilliantly imagined by the late Stanley Kubrick....2001 is finally here....

Without warning, giant silver ships from deep space appear in the skies above every major city on Earth. Manned by the Overlords, in fifty years, they eliminate ignorance, disease, and poverty. Then this golden age ends--and then the age of Mankind begins....

Time is running out for the passengers and crew of the tourist cruiser Selene, incarcerated in a sea of choking lunar dust. On the surface, her rescuers find their resources stretched to the limit by the mercilessly unpredictable conditions of a totally alien environment. A brilliantly imagined story of human ingenuity and survival, A FALL OF MOONDUST is a tour-de-force of psychological suspense and sustained dramatic tension by the field's foremost author.

新作《Anathem》，属于太空歌剧类型。从目录上简介我们可以一窥其主要内容： 从童年开始，Raz就生活在一座有3400年历史的修道院的围墙之后，一个科学家、哲学家和数学家的避难所——远离无知、无理性和无法无天的saecular世界，那个世界一直处于繁荣和毁灭、世界大战和气候巨变的循环往复中。直到有一天，更高级的力量、恐惧的驱使，只有这些生活在修道院的学者才有能力转移这一次迫在眉睫的大灾难。一个接一个，Raz和他的军团召集起来朝着无法预知的世界前进。

Computer expert Randy Waterhouse spearheads a movement to create a safe haven for data in a world where information equals power and big business and government seek to control the flow of knowledge. His ambitions collide with a top-secret conspiracy with links to the encryption wars of World War II and his grandfather's work in preventing the Nazis from discovering that the Allies had cracked their supposedly unbreakable Enigma code. The author of Snow Crash (LJ 4/1/92) focuses his eclectic vision on a story of epic proportions, encompassing both the beginnings of information technology in the 1940s and the blossoming of the present cybertech revolution. Stephenson's freewheeling prose and ironic voice lend a sense of familiarity to a story that transcends the genre and demands a wide readership among fans of technothrillers as well as a general audience. Highly recommended.

在不远的未来，人类成立了智力研究院解码人类大脑的记忆信息，院长、数学家王洛基联合脑外科医生于世非和心理咨询师安以睿成立了一个科研小组，他们既帮助刑侦人员侦破各类案件，也帮人找寻失散的亲人，而于世非甚至还利用这项技术开展人体脑信息移植实验……

在线阅读本书
In Tokyo, in Los Angeles, in Antarctica, in the Solomon Islands . . . an intelligence agent races to put all the pieces together to prevent a global catastrophe.

★科幻迷波拉尼奥文学宇宙的地基，媲美《荒野侦探》的青春诗篇
☆对波拉尼奥而言，科幻不仅意味着宇宙航行、外星生物，或对未来科技的预言，更意味着一种自由的精神状态，一抹对抗暗淡生命的明亮激情
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波拉尼奥的早期作品，既充满幽默感又有溃败潦倒的青春悲情，日后出现在他作品中的诸多元素以及叙事结构都能在这里找到影子。
小说虽以科幻为题但并不是一本通常意义上的科幻小说。故事围绕21岁的雷莫和17岁的扬·史瑞拉展开，他们在皮诺切特政府掌权后移居墨西哥城，一起租住在一间小阁楼里。扬大部分时间都待在房间里，给他崇拜的科幻作家们写抒情又谵妄的信，向他们讲述自己的生活、困扰、梦境。雷莫则同形形色色的诗人朋友一起在墨西哥城中游逛、调查、聚会……
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虽然并非科幻文学，但科幻文学却在其中扮演了重要角色。仍是波拉尼奥招牌的以诗人为主角的故事，在巧妙编织起的三重叙事时空里，讲述他们如幽灵般漂泊的生活，充满了独属青春岁月的荒唐潦倒、激情与执着、反思与反叛。——陈楸帆
《科幻精神》是一把打开波拉尼奥小说珠宝盒的钥匙，是一份关于他所沉迷的图景的索引。波拉尼奥的忠实粉丝无疑会喜欢这杯熟悉的、混合着悲伤与狂喜的鸡尾酒。——《巴黎评论》
《科幻精神》以非常规的结构吸引读者去解开它的奥秘。……（这本书）是波拉尼奥宇宙的地基。一部有趣的、情感充沛的、完成度极高的小说。——《华尔街日报》
波拉尼奥绘制了一幅迷人的蓝图，从他的诗延展到了威廉·巴勒斯和杰克·凯鲁亚克所代表的垮掉派文学。——《纽约客》
充沛的情感、冷幽默、对文学与生活交错的激情，可以看到波拉尼奥卓越才华的草图。——《科克斯书评》
《科幻精神》是一封31岁的波拉尼奥写给17岁的自己的长信。——NPR
一枚小小的宝石……波拉尼奥对艺术、文学、女性以及墨西哥城的旺盛激情在这本小说里有了具体的形态。——《华盛顿邮报》
两位年轻作家耐人寻味的梦幻画像，他们以不同的方式追寻共同热爱的文学，也以不同的方式让自己的声音被听到。——《出版人周刊》

It begins in the realm of the Real, where matter still matters.
It begins with a murder.
And it will not end until the Culture has gone to war with death itself.
Lededje Y'breq is one of the Intagliated, her marked body bearing witness to a family shame, her life belonging to a man whose lust for power is without limit. Prepared to risk everything for her freedom, her release, when it comes, is at a price, and to put things right she will need the help of the Culture.
Benevolent, enlightened and almost infinitely resourceful though it may be, the Culture can only do so much for any individual. With the assistance of one of its most powerful - and arguably deranged - warships, Lededje finds herself heading into a combat zone not even sure which side the Culture is really on. A war - brutal, far-reaching – is already raging within the digital realms that store the souls of the dead, and it's about to erupt into reality.
It started in the realm of the Real and that is where it will end. It will touch countless lives and affect entire civilizations, but at the centre of it all is a young woman whose need for revenge masks another motive altogether.