Earth (novel)
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| Author | David Brin |
|---|---|
| Cover Artist | Bruce Jensen |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | Spectra |
| Released | 1990 |
| Media Type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 608 pg |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-553-07064-9 |
Earth is a 1990 science fiction novel written by David Brin. The book was a 1990 Hugo Award nominee.
Set in the year 2038, the book is a cautionary tale of the harm humans can cause their planet via disregard for the environment and reckless scientific experiments. The book has a large cast of characters and Brin uses them to address a number of environmental issues including endangered species, global warming, refugees from ecological disasters, ecoterrorism, and the social effects of overpopulation. The plot of the book involves an artificially created black hole which has been lost in the Earth's interior and the attempts to recover it before it destroys the planet. The events and revelations which follow reshape humanity and its future in the universe.
Brin set this novel 50 years in the future from the time he was writing, using the book as an opportunity to predict what technologies might — at that future date — be taken for granted day to day. Two of the items he predicted, which came to pass within only twenty years of the writing, include personalized Internet search routines and the proliferation of personal video recording devices.
Brin claims at least 15 predictive hits in Earth including:
- The Web
- Privacy as a vanishing commodity
- Global warming sea rise
- accelerated global warming that results in worsening storm seasons
- subvocal input devices
- manmade black holes taken seriously
- crisis habitat arcs
- eyeglass cams
- eyeglass VR overlays on real environments
- levees breaking on the Mississippi
- brain imaging->personality profiling
- geological-scale sculptures
- the partition of the Soviet Union
- blogging
- decline of delivered mail
- lawyer programs
The scope of the story expands vastly as the plot gradually reveals itself, bringing into question the future course — and even the survival — of humanity.
