Cyberpunk Author Details Future-Proofing Technology
Neil Stephenson, author of such books as
Snow Crash,
Cryptonomicon, and the
Baroque Cycle trilogy, gave the closing-day keynote at Black Hat, detailing his love of swordplay, gaming, next-generation rockets, and the history of encryption, although the one-time
PGP user said he'd dropped email encryption owing to the lack of participants.
Discussing the difficulty of future-proofing his books, given the speed at which technology changes, Stephenson noted that, on the advice of a friend who read a draft of his since-published README, he replaced every mention of iPhone, cellphone, or other name-branded mobile communications device with the simple word "phone."
Neil Stephenson photograph by Mathew J. Schwartz.
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