Neal Stephenson is one of the great authors of contemporary sci-fiānot only because heās widely read, but also because his work unabashedly high-fives working scientific theories. Never one to underestimate his readers, Stephenson loves to wade in and explain interesting ideas kicking around the worlds of science, technology, and engineering, and then wrap them all up in a gripping speculative tale.
His newest work Fall: or, Dodge in Hell actually opens in modern-day Seattle (Stephenson is a Seattleite), and playfully jabs at his chosen city before setting to its purpose of exploring the future of social media, online identity, and the pursuit of eternal life. Like his 2015 space epic Seveneves, Fall tallies up nearly 900 pages, which I read at a running pace before conducting the following interview.
What are your feelings on spoilers? Should we avoid spoilers?
Itās almost impossible, with this one, not to do some spoiling.
Fall: or, Dodge in Hell centers on wealthy tech company founder Dodge Forthrast, who has his brain scanned and uploaded to a multiplayer game for dead people. The game ends up taking on a Dungeons & Dragons meets John Milton-esque Paradise Lost adventure scenario. Is that too spoilery?
Thatās fair. But although we might define it as a game, the people that are in it think itās real. As real as you and I believe our world is.
Fall includes characters from your 2011 ātechno thrillerā Reamde, but it stands alone and has a very different tone. Do you consider Fall a sequel to Reamde?
I avoid calling it a sequel because that raises expectations that itās going to pick up where that one left off and be a similar type of story. Itās not really like Reamde. Fall is a combination of science fiction and fantasy. It transitions from one to the other. Thereās a lot of readers of science fiction that also really like fantasyāand vice versaāso Iām hoping that they enjoy the blending of those two ways of writing.
Fall follows the death of a wealthy man whose will stipulates he be preserved for future reanimation and the people trying to work that out. They are aided by the massive wealth of various tech entrepreneurs who feel like parallels of our own real worldāultra-powerful CEOs shooting cars into space and restructuring our economy. Is Fall commenting on our powerful elites or the amassing of resources for technological leaps?
In the particular case of this book, it was a handy narrative device. I was trying to set up a story where, as you say, a dead personāand, later, more dead peopleācould be scanned and uploaded into the cloud. Practically speaking, thatās a hard thing to justify or explain unless the first people who do it have tons of money. Itās not really a comment on whether thatās a wise way for things to be, or a wise use of money. Itās just the reality of how things are today, so it was convenient for me to use as a springboard.
Thereās a good amount of research supporting theories that our consciousness doesnāt just live in our brains. Thereās our genes, which might carry memories or traumas from our ancestors, and our gut microbiome, which seems to influence our moods and actions. Did you decide to shove all that to the side and just go with: Iām writing a science-fiction book about uploading a guyās brain?
Yes, that is what I did. I actually do talk a little bit about what you just mentioned over the course of the book. At the beginning, theyāre totally brain-focused, so they believe they can get everything they need just by scanning the brain. Later on, they improve their procedures and they start doing full body scans. Thatās an example of me trying to take a page out of real science, as I understand it, and work it into the book, but thereās a lot of other ways in which Iām taking liberties.
Fall paints some lovely character portraits of personality types we often find in the tech industry. Is Fall a love letter to tech nerds?
Clearly thereās lots of nerds in my books, and the landscape of the modern tech industry is a common setting for a number of the books Iāve written. Iāve definitely got some affection for some aspects of that culture, but Iām not trying to be one-sidedly positive about it. Thereās some downsides, which I think I touch on as well.
Right. The main antagonist, Elmo Shepherd, is also a tech mogul.
The whole struggle between those two is a big theme. The clash of management styles, if you will.
What are the two styles?
In the one case, youāve got [Elmo] who has an extremely strong vision of how he thinks it all ought to work. When it goes wrong, he intervenes into what he sees as chaos. Then youāve got Dodge, whoās just sort of making it up as he goes.