Vernor Steffen Vinge is a retired San Diego State University Professor of Mathematics, computer scientist, and science fiction author. He is best known for his Hugo Award-winning novels 'A Fire Upon the Deep' (1992), 'A Deepness in the Sky' (1999), 'Rainbows End' (2006), 'Fast Times at Fairmont High' (2002) and 'The Cookie Monster' (2004), as well as for his 1993 essay 'The Coming Technological Singularity', in which he argues that exponential growth in technology will reach a point beyond which we cannot even speculate about the consequences.

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• "Vernor Vinge, Online Prophet" (Salon.com): http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/1999/04/05/vinge/
• Signs of the Singularity (Vinge): http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/jun08/6306