I can’t believe I never heard of Neptune’s Brood until last week. In my defense, I am not much of a sci fi reader, nor have I ever heard of it mentioned in any bitcoin podcast, conference, article or on any social media site.
The author, Charles Stross, is a fairly well known science fiction writer. The book, part of the Freyaverse series, was shortlisted for the Hugo Award for Best Science Fiction/Fantasy Novel of 2014. I discovered that Nobel Prize Winner and Widely Recognized Douchebag Paul Krugman really liked Stross’s treatment of “interstellar finance.” This fact alone almost caused me to dismiss “Neptune’s Brood”, but curiosity got the best of me.
So why is this book so obscure? Most people I know who are obsessed with bitcoin are also obsessed with science fiction. Even more incredibly, it has the distinction of being the first novel in history to mention bitcoin. That’s what my research tells me, and I stand by that assertion until I’m proven wrong. Start hunting.
Full disclosure – I have not read the book, so I am not calling this post a book review. However, I did read a lot about the book, and my copy is in the mail. From what I have learned, bitcoin is not just mentioned, but it is critical to the plot.
The novel opens with a quote from David Graeber’s book, Debt: The First 5,000 Years. I did read that book, and while I enjoyed it and learned a lot, I didn’t generally buy his debt over barter theory thesis.
Regarding the plot, I have seen it described as a financial sci fi novel. Set in the future, bitcoin forms the basis for an interstellar financial system because it is theft-proof. Each coin is cryptographically signed by the mind of its owner.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neptune's_Brood
Although I don’t know the details, money is broken up into three types:
Fast money is ordinary day-to-day cash, medium money covers investment instruments within a single planetary system, and slow money is reserved for interstellar investment that takes centuries or millennia to mature, with slow-money transactions relying on a three-way cryptoverification scheme that trades at one-third the speed of light.
Some reviewers say the writing is too dense, and the author uses too many obscure words. It is also criticized for spending too much time lecturing about the “slow money” financial system rather than focusing on plot or character development. As bitcoiners we may have a greater tolerance for financial discussion.
Members of Bitcointalk mentioned the book back in 2013. TraderTimm posted on July 9, 2013, saying:
in the novel's economy, essentially everyone is born into debt for the cost of the technology that constitutes them, large banks are linked by multi-light-year gigawatt laser beams, and there are cryptographic signing methods with bitcoin invoked as a nod to a system capable of underpinning entire civilizations.
He added that Stross, as a former programmer, would understand how [bitcoin] actually works.
Wladimir van der Laan, later bitcoin core’s lead maintainer, also recommended the book to programmers, along with Daniel Suarez’s Daemon" series.
Once I have my copy I will read it, and then maybe review it if someone doesn’t beat me to the punch.
satwize will also be stocking it soon.
charles stross hates bitcoin.
i like stross a lot on the writer but he's worthless on the corn. I haven't read this book but I'm confident in my asessment
family trade and layndry files are great.
From what I read he was libertarian when he wrote this book, but has moved steadily to the left since.
nah I don't think he was ever libertarian.
Stross was always about the post scarcity scenario. Bitcoin is digital scarcity embodied.
It's everywhere in his writing, blogs. AMAs.
Maybe. I'm just going on what I read. I'll be in a better position to evaluate the book once I read it. I do know that when it was released it impressed Wladimir van der Laan. I remember when I first discovered libertarianism it was because of Robert Nozick's Anarchy, State, and Utopia. I still love the book, but his politics changed during his lifetime. He wound up supporting New York City rent control!
My interest is in the book, anyway, as the first to address bitcoin in a work of fiction. Strosser's opinions are kind of beside the point now. What he wrote in 2013 is what matters.
Why do you think some libertarians started turning left?
I'm curious to understand the steelman case. If someone said "government power is needed as an antidote to corporate power", I'd sympathize. However, I'd argue that currently corporate power derives from govenrment power, namely the power to print money (the bitcoiner's hypothesis).
One thing that I think has caused a lot of left leaning people to turn away from bitcoin is that the crypto space went from punk to finance-bro.
Do you think you'll read the book? You seem to know his work well. It would be good to get your opinion.
Oof, maybe I'll have to get the book used then.
I'll let you know after I read it if it's worth your time.
I like idea of featuring Bitcoin tangentially and exploring the world it can create in works of fiction as opposed to hinging the entire story on it.
If it is as big as we all believe, then at some point it should be in almost every story, movie and novel.
Tag me when it's on satwize, I'll definitely give it a buy.
Don't know when I would get around to reading it, but I'll sneakily put it in a place my kids will see.
Will do.
Neptune's Brood - Charles Stross (mobi)
The year is AD 7000. The human species is extinct—for the fourth time—due to its fragile nature.
Krina Alizond-114 is metahuman, descended from the robots that once served humanity. She’s on a journey to the water-world of Shin-Tethys to find her sister Ana. But her trip is interrupted when pirates capture her ship. Their leader, the enigmatic Count Rudi, suspects that there’s more to Krina’s search than meets the eye.
He’s correct: Krina and Ana each possess half of the fabled Atlantis Carnet, a lost financial instrument of unbelievable value—capable of bringing down entire civilizations. Krina doesn’t know that Count Rudi suspects her motives, so she accepts his offer to get her to Shin-Tethys in exchange for an introduction to Ana.
And what neither of them suspects is that a ruthless body-double assassin has stalked Krina across the galaxy, ready to take the Carnet once it is whole—and leave no witnesses alive to tell the tale…
Pirate Bay description.This is an interesting review of the book; I thought it was a recent release, but it actually dates back to 2013. I had never heard of this book—or if I had, I didn't pay attention to it. The fact that it focuses on Bitcoin makes it interesting to me, and the fact that it was discussed on Bitcointalk makes it especially compelling for Stackers who understand the importance of that forum. Thanks for sharing this review with the community!
I’ve never read Neptune’s Brood, but this post definitely made me curious about it.
This is exactly the kind of Bitcoin rabbit hole I enjoy. There’s always something new to discover.