BitCoin – Western Union at the Speed of Light

Last night at a party without smoking pot and I think before I even had a drink I had my weekly original thought: if Bitcoin can be transferred by radio wave that means one could have interstellar trade between two or more sentient species or civilizations (or far flung colonies of the same one) who can’t ever physically meet because of distance, where they sell each other information and intellectual property and use BitCoin as a medium of exchange superior to simple barter.

10 Weirdest Science Fiction Novels That You’ve Never Read

By Charlie Jane Anders @ i09

Science fiction is great when it’s weird. Really bizarre science fiction takes you on a wild ride, blowing past genre conventions and depositing you someplace miles from where you started. But where can you find the truly odd stuff?

Like hallucinogenic spores in a subterranean cavern, the most mind-bending science fiction books can take some digging. We asked around, and here’s what we came up with: the 10 weirdest science fiction (and fantasy) books that you’ve probably never read.

10. This Business of Bomfog, by Madelaine Duke (1967)

Cover tagline: “The Astonishing World of 1989 — A World of People Gone Mad, Mad, Mad.” This is recursive bit of Philip K. Dick-esque metafiction, set in a Orwellian dystopia where the Brotherhood of Man, Fatherhood of God (BOMFOG) complex tries to prevent wars by giving Important Guests access to perpetual-motion art and private swimming pools. Key line of dialogue: “Sex is part of our reeducation program.”

9. The Tsaddik of the Seven Wonders by Isidore Haiblum (1971)

A Tsaddik is a Hasidic spiritual leader or wise person, and this book is legendarily steeped in Jewish lore, as the main character visits various times and places in Jewish history. Writes Eleanor Skinner in her Amazon review, “The tsaddik wanders around through time & space, while a wisecracking Retief/James Bond sort of figure from a galactic bureaucracy accidentally rescues a Polish princess. Eventually they all meet to fight an intergalactic real estate conspiracy, culminating in a climactic battle between hordes of demons & time-hopping Chassidim in a Polish castle. 60s psychedelia meets Yiddish humour.”

The Tsaddik of the seven wonders

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8. All of An Instant by Richard Garfinkle (1999)

A scientist discovers a place called the Instant which, as Amazon’s summary puts it, is “a paradoxical nonplace that is simultaneously all times and no time.” Soon everybody’s battling to control the Instant, where changes ripple forward and alter the future. Every little ripple erases entire cultures and wipes out whole timelines. The SFSite review conveys just how weird this book gets: