The Long Then

New York Times bestselling author of Cryptonomicon Neal Stephenson reads from his new novel, Anathem, and waves a shovel around onstage this evening. In conversations with Stewart Brand and Danny Hillis, Long Now Foundation dudes, the author also discusses the inter-inspiration going on between the forward- (and, it must be said, backward-)thinking writer and the group dedicated to long-term thinking. The evening also involves the performance of music composed specifically to accompany the book by David Stutz, also a very interesting guy, according to Boing Boing. Which means, yes, all of the above is of great interest to tech-heads and compugeeks. But the S.F.-based Long Now people are fascinating to listen to no matter who you are or what kind of role-playing games you're into, and Stephenson claims Anathem is based partly on the foundation's 10,000-Year Clock.
Tue., Sept. 9, 7 p.m., 2008