Lynnwood, Washington
December 5, 2000
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Many thanks to Special Agent Carl Jensen, FBI; Juliann Brunzell, Special Agent, Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension; Ed Ueber, NOAA; David and Diane Clarke; Yoshihisa Shirayama, Director and Professor of the Seto Marine Biological Laboratory in Kyoto, Japan; Mark E. Minie and Rose James; David Thaler, microbiologist at Rockefeller University; Dr. Karl and Sylvia Anders; Karen Anderson; Ron Drummond; copy editors Bob and Sara Schwager; and to my English-language editors, Shelly Shapiro, Jane Johnson, and Joy Chamberlain. And special thanks indeed to the Extropians, and to Max More and Natasha Vita-More.
The theory of aging described in this book is speculative. The concept of bacterial cooperation, however, is firmly established in scientific papers and books, including Bacteria as Multicellular Organisms, edited by James A. Shapiro and Martin Dworkin.
Eshel Ben-Jacob of Tel-Aviv University has an excellent Web site devoted to his ground-breaking explorations of bacterial cooperation:
http://star.tau.ac.il/~inon/baccyber0.htm
The notion of a distributed bacterial network—a bacterial mind, if you will—is far from fantasy.
Speculations on the ultimate description and relationship of xenophyophores and the Vendobionts are my own. Dr. Mark A. S. McMenamin’s The Garden of Ediacara is an excellent personal examination of the Vendobiont fossils and their possible relationships to modern life-forms.
Almost needless to say, I owe a great debt to the work of Lynn Margulis.
None of these fine people, of course, are responsible for any blunders or misconceptions that might remain.
disclaimer
The Waldorf Conference actually took place in New York in 1949. The AP photograph described in the text is real, but the person on the far right of the photograph is not, in fact, Rudy Banning.
Rudy Banning does not exist, nor is he intended to symbolize or represent any person, living or dead. Every other character in this novel is totally fictitious.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Greg Bear is the author of more than twenty-five books, which have been translated into seventeen languages. He has been awarded two Hugos and five Nebulas for his fiction, including the 2000 Nebula Award for Best Novel for Darwin’s Radio. He is married to Astrid Anderson Bear. They live with their two children, Erik and Alexandra, in the Pacific Northwest.
Also by Greg Bear
Psychlone
Blood Music
Songs of Earth and Power
The Infinity Concerto
The Serpent Mage
Eon
Eternity
Legacy
The Forge of God
Anvil of Stars
Queen of Angels
/ (Slant)
Heads
Moving Mars
Dinosaur Summer
Foundation and Chaos
Darwin’s Radio
