Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future

Written by Ed Finn and Kathryn Cramer

Narrated by Danny Campbell and Cassandra Campbell

Inspired by New York Times bestselling author Neal Stephenson, an anthology of stories, set in the near future, from some of today’s leading writers, thinkers, and visionaries that reignites the iconic and optimistic visions of the golden age of science fiction.

In his 2011 article “Innovation Starvation,” Neal Stephenson argued that we—the society whose earlier scientists and engineers witnessed the airplane, the automobile, nuclear energy, the computer, and space exploration—must reignite our ambitions to think boldly and do Big Stuff. He also advanced the Hieroglyph Theory which illuminates the power of science fiction to inspire the inventive imagination: “Good SF supplies a plausible, fully thought-out picture of an alternate reality in which some sort of compelling innovation has taken place.”

In 2012, Arizona State University established the Center for Science and the Imagination to bring together writers, artists, and creative thinkers with scientists, engineers, and technologists to cultivate and expand on “moon shot ideas” that inspire the imagination and catalyze real-world innovations.

Now comes this remarkable anthology uniting twenty of today’s leading thinkers, writers, and visionaries—among them Cory Doctorow, Gregory Benford, Elizabeth Bear, Bruce Sterling, and Neal Stephenson—to contribute works of “techno-optimism” that challenge us to dream and do Big Stuff. Engaging, mind-bending, provocative, and imaginative, Hieroglyph offers a forward-thinking approach to the intersection of art and technology that has the power to change our world. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperAudio
• Release date: Sep 9, 2014
• ISBN: 9780062359537

Ed Finn

Ed Finn is the founding director of the Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University, where he is an assistant professor with a joint appointment in the School of Arts, Media and Engineering and the Department of English. He has worked as a journalist at Time, Slate, and Popular Science.

Reviews for Hieroglyph

[thomaspluck · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Some good stories, others are tech bro fantasies. Odd visions of a "better" future....

[dreamweaversunited · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Three stars is an average; some stories were self-important and tiresome ("Atmosphæra Incognita", "A Hotel in Antarctica," “The Man Who Sold the Stars”, "The Man Who Sold the Moon") but some had ideas I'll be thinking about for a long time ("Girl in Wave: Wave in Girl", "Entanglement", "Degrees of Freedom" and especially "Covenant.")

[quondame · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The 2,5 stories I re-read were well enough done that I had no painful memories of them, but I had no powerful memories either.

[nmele_4 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An unusually interesting concept anthology, Hieroglyph grew out of an idea of Neil Stephenson's about the smallness of our current technical endeavors. To put it another way,why write a better app when the stars are calling? Most of these stories are good science fiction reads in themselves, and most are intriguing treatments of big ideas, some of them using current technologies and some of them encouraging development of existing technologies.

[ternary-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I guess like any anthology this one is hit-and-miss.

Neal Stephenson's story was a disappointment (roughly distilled in his answer at the Seattle stop on the book tour to a question from the crowd "Who will take over the role the government used to play in making this sort of Big Thing happen?": "Benevolent Billionaires"), Cory Doctorow's was optimistic and wonderful even if it seemed almost a caricature of his own style, and Bruce Sterling's story to cap the collection was dark and surprisingly funny.