Vernor Vinge
American computer scientist and writer
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“Vernor Vinge.” thisDay, thisday.info/people/vernor-vinge/. Accessed 2 Oct. 2026.
Vernor Vinge. (n.d.). thisDay. Retrieved October 2, 2026, from https://thisday.info/people/vernor-vinge/
“Vernor Vinge.” thisDay. Accessed October 2, 2026. https://thisday.info/people/vernor-vinge/.
Who was Vernor Vinge?
Vernor Steffen Vinge ( ; October 2, 1944 – March 20, 2024) was an American science fiction author and professor. He taught mathematics and computer science at San Diego State University. Upon receiving his B.S. in mathematics from Michigan State University (where his father was a member of the geography faculty) in 1966, he became a moderately prolific contributor to SF magazines throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s. His second, "Bookworm, Run!", was in the March 1966 issue of Analog Science Fiction, then edited by John W. Campbell. The story explores the theme of artificially augmented intelligence by connecting the brain directly to computerized data sources.
Historical significance
He was the first wide-scale popularizer of the technological singularity concept and among the first authors to present a fictional "cyberspace". He won the Hugo Award for his novels A Fire Upon the Deep (1992), A Deepness in the Sky (1999), and Rainbows End (2006), and novellas Fast Times at Fairmont High (2001) and The Cookie Monster (2004). Vinge published his first short story, "Apartness", in the June 1965 issue of the British magazine New Worlds.
Cite this page
“Vernor Vinge.” thisDay, thisday.info/people/vernor-vinge/. Accessed 2 Oct. 2026.
Vernor Vinge. (n.d.). thisDay. Retrieved October 2, 2026, from https://thisday.info/people/vernor-vinge/
“Vernor Vinge.” thisDay. Accessed October 2, 2026. https://thisday.info/people/vernor-vinge/.