Talk:Greg Bear

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Gaia theory[edit]

I was surprised to read in the article that in The Forge of God Greg Bear makes use of the Gaia theory. From my recollection of the book Gaia has no relevance whatsoever. I read a book in the Eon/Eternity (Legacy?)series where the life on the planet Lamarckia is somewhat different to Earth's - but I'm not convinced either that the Gaia hypothesis is being used - just that evolution took a different course which on the face of it was non-Darwinian. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.159.60.137 (talk • contribs) attribute comment

The "planetism" concept - that ecosystems eventually evolve creatures capable of spreading to other worlds, other star systems, and ultimately other galaxies - is very much based on Gaia theory, IMHO. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.80.254.58 (talk • contribs)
Having just read the book I can say that the Gaia Theory is used in the book but as far as I can see on a cosmic scale ie not just in terms of the Earth. One of the characters theorises that the Killers' process of destroying planets is part of how the Universe preserves balance. Or something like that. Its pretty unconvincing as far as I can see.
That aside I found FORGE OF GOD an extaordinary book, brilliantly imagined. The genius of having the Earth destroyed by an enemy we never even see and tracking the process whereby the planet copes with an inevitable end which nevertheless has to be waited for is amazing. What I love about Greg Bear's work is his humanity - although almost every book of his I've read deals in some way with the end of the Human Race - EON's nuclear destruction of earth, BLOOD MUSIC's transformation of humanity, FORGE OF GOD's annihilation of the planet - his sense of loss as mankind faces insuperable odds is deeply moving. You could say his work is tragic on a global scale.
I read FORGE OF GOD weeks before people started predicting the crossing of the threshold of global warming we now face. The sense of the human race's inability to conceive of its own extinction despite constant warning rang a very real bell. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 195.93.21.6 (talk • contribs)

Removal[edit]

I removed the complaint that bacteria developing conscioussness was scientifically dubious, because we don't possess a scientific theory of consciousness. Instead I point out that the math in Eon is pretty bogus. Gene Ward Smith 22:16, 19 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Commenting on which parts of books are bogus is Original Research. And personal opinion. go find a forum for that. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.246.145.33 (talk) 05:08, 14 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Dude, he did that five years ago. Millahnna (mouse)talk 09:43, 14 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

For future article expansion.[edit]

Have fun! ~Kylu (u|t) 04:01, 15 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Vagina Dentata[edit]

I've read in a book, and I'm fairly sure that it's either Neil Stephenson, Greg Bear or Dan Simmons, a Native American legend involving vagina dentatas belonging to three "spider women". I wanted to add this to the Vagina Dentata article. Does anyone know if this comes from Bear? Tomandlu (talk) 09:31, 22 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Chronology[edit]

I'm a bit confused by the following quote:

"In later works, beginning with Queen of Angels and continuing with its sequel, Slant, Bear gives a detailed description of a near-future nanotechnological society. This historical sequence continues with Heads — which may contain the first description of a so-called "quantum logic computer" — and with Moving Mars"

This makes it sound as though the order the books were written in is Queen of Angels, Slant, Heads, and then Moving Mars. But the list of books further down has the order as Queen of Angels, Heads, Moving Mars, and then Slant. I haven't read any of these books myself, so I'm not sure if one of these is incorrect, or if it's just a case of awkward wording in the quote above. Jcb9 (talk) 07:15, 5 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]


Signed Up for 3 new Halo Novels[edit]

Tor have annouced that he is to write; 3 Halo Novels based in the Forerunner era. Should we add it? SPARTAN-J024(Talk) 16:19, 11 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

  • Let's wait till they're out. Much of this page seems to come from the horse's mouth, with all due respect for the accompanying pic, so it's bound to be added as and when.Sartoresartus (talk) 12:36, 14 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Poul Anderson (Astrid's father), his short story "Call Me Joe" and it's similarity to the movie "Avatar"[edit]

Anybody know if Astrid and Greg Bear are planning a lawsuit against James Cameron's movie "Avatar" for ripping off Astrid's father's (Poul Anderson) short sci fi story "Call Me Joe"? The statute of limitations on civil copyright infringement cases is three years, as I recall. Thanks.69.104.54.170 (talk) 05:56, 19 June 2010 (UTC)Sgt. Rock[reply]

Listing Quantico and Mariposa under "Quantico ("Queen of Angels" prequels)"...[edit]

I think it's clear that Quantico and Mariposa should be included under the heading of Series: Quantico (Queen of Angels prequels), since Mariposa, by including "Mind Design, Inc.", a depiction of Mary Choy at the age of 5 years old, and relating how President Raphkind comes to power, clearly indicates that the events in those books precede those in the "Queen of Angels" series.

So I'm adding "(Queen of Angels prequels)" to that heading...

bonze blayk 10:57, 19 June 2010 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bonzesaunders (talk • contribs)

Missing awards[edit]

Article should include the fact that the Novella Hardfought, contained in 'The Wind from the Burning Woman' won a the 1984 Nebula

Maccheek (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 21:19, 30 March 2011 (UTC).[reply]

Darwin's Radio[edit]

Article had this section:

Such recent works as Darwin's Radio and Darwin's Children stick closely to the known facts of molecular biology of viruses and evolution. While some fairly speculative ideas are entertained, they are introduced in such a rigorous and disciplined way that Darwin's Radio gained praise in the science journal Nature.

Really? No citation for this supposed praise was given, nothing in the linked articles about the books. And having read the books in question, the science is ludicrous if you know anything about evolution. It's basically Intelligent Design -- that our evolution is following a program in our DNA. It's just the standard superman mutant story, like Van Vogt's Slan. So I think that Nature would "praise" these books is unlikely. If I'm wrong, supply the cite and restore it. 202.81.243.211 (talk) 11:22, 17 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Bibliography[edit]

I have commenced a tidy-up of the Bibliography section. Cite templates will be used for books and articles. Capitalization and punctuation follow standard cataloguing rules in AACR2 and RDA, as much as Wikipedia templates allow it. ISBNs and other persistent identifiers, where available, are commented out, but still available for reference. Links to potentially unreliable digitised copies may be removed. This is a work in progress; feel free to continue. Sunwin1960 (talk) 11:14, 15 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Death[edit]

Private advice from Astrid is that he died peacefully with family beside him late today (Seattle time). Need a reliable source for the article. There will be obituaries and tributes over the next few days; worth mining for information. --Pete (talk) 06:19, 20 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

It looks like the evidence of his death is a Tweet from earlier today (or yesterday, if you’re east of Washington state where he died): https://archive.ph/kOELE and the Facebook post from his wife that he was dying. news.google.com and other web searches are not showing up anything. I would like to see more confirmation before we update the Wikipedia page; hopefully Locus or what not will post something more official soon. Samboy (talk) 06:40, 20 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]
I'm not entirely happy about announcing his death in the article without better sourcing than social media and blogs. Astrid's FB post announcing his death was friends-only. The news is spreading:
* https://file770.com/greg-bear-1951-2022/?fbclid=IwAR25jGxPJuRo4jYM-2ntFg3N_FkLsgq4yS49hO3T9zWc803oX6VKaJzlR14
* https://medium.com/reciprocall/bear-hero-93100473cf18
* https://www.facebook.com/astrid.bear
I don't think we need remove the news from the article. There is no doubt that he is gone - at least in his corporeal state - but some solid sourcing is needed for the article. A stickler could revert it. --Pete (talk) 08:28, 20 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]
(later) The news has been placed on Gregbear.com. I think we may regard this as definitive. --Pete (talk) 16:08, 20 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]
I agree that’s definitive and allowed as per WP:ABOUTSELF. While we have to be careful about WP:HOAX content, having the news on his official webpage is good enough to put the info on the Wikipedia. I’ve added a reference; and plan to add more references when it goes out to Locus and other sources. Samboy (talk) 16:20, 20 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Since it's started to spread widely across social media (several public posts/tweets by verified accounts of public figures close to him), and we've started seeing an influx of edits, whether or not it's a hoax, I've added the recent death template to the page. Once his death is reported by WP:RS, someone will need to deal with his personal user page. --Vandraedha (talk|contribs) 18:51, 20 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Career section[edit]

This whole section is just copied and pasted from the introduction to "The Collected Stories of Greg Bear" published in 2003. 14.200.159.34 (talk) 02:30, 23 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I reported this to Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Copyright_Cleanup#Reporting_a_report. I don't have access to the Collected Stories to verify the claim, unfortunately. Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here 04:28, 14 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Pronunciation[edit]

Greg Bear's last name is transcribed into Russian and Ukrainian as if it's pronounced like "beer" and not "bear". What is the correct pronunciation of his last name? Hellerick (talk) 04:54, 16 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Presumably someone messed up the transcription? Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here 04:59, 16 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
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