> i feel extremely hypocritical responding to this thread, > because it really *is* so very off topic, but i have to > put in a plug for Greg Egan. absolutely brilliant for extreme > (and well thought out) technological extrapolation. he's got a > computer-sciency > background (he might even have heard of plan 9...)
I, too, have been trying not to respond, but there is one book I'd suggest that hasn't been mentioned. It's called The Difference Engine and it's by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. It's build around the premise that Babbage did eventually succeed in building his difference and analytical engines. It even has elements of computability theory in there. Of course, it's still OT because Plan 9 just wouldn't fit on an analytical engine--Inferno maybe... BLS
