This is horrible news. We are all poorer today, all of us. Banks is an inspiration to all who read him - of what could be, what can be, what is to be.
Cancer has claimed a terrible toll in my life. Three in my immediate family and counting, the countdown very fast for one of them. And now it seems to have turned its unwelcome gaze to my intellectual treasures. I hate this disease, I despise it so much it's hard to express.
I'd say it's my hatred of cancer that drives me to want to achieve riches, via a startup, so I can pour money into its vanquishing. It was hatred that made me agree to be a member of "the 300", as useless as that has turned out to be. And it's the knowledge and memory of those lifeless bodies on hospital sheets, cold before their time, that forces me onwards, reminds me that that capricious finger of death could swivel my way at any time.
Banks, you are a titan. You inspired me, you inspired others. You'll never be forgotten, and god willing maybe you'll inspire a few to take revenge on your blind, callous killer.
More money is not what is needed here--we already pour tons of money into cancer research. What's needed are new ideas. If you really want to fight cancer, skip the startup and go to graduate school. Computational and mathematical approaches to understanding and fighting cancer are still in their infancy. There is a lot of scope for smart, motivated people to do good.
I completely empathise. I have a personal hatred of cancer as well.
First Terry Pratchett and now Iain Banks. Satoshi Kon, taken by pancreatic cancer. Who's left? Why are all my favourite artists dying from this horrible family of diseases?
Fuck cancer, and damn our perverse incentives. All you hackers and entrepreneurs, please make all the money you can and do something to advance the combined well-being of the world and people like yourself. All that saved-up money can hardly do anything when a serious cancer strikes hard and we find out too late. Please do something to support the research that could save so many of your family and friends.
All the pleasures of the world cannot cancel out the loss and desolation of an early death. Our time is short; let's not let it be cut shorter.
I wish medical research were set up in a way to support hobbyists and part time involvement. There are lots of people in the high-profit, low-value-to-society parts of biotech and medicine (day jobs as pharma reps, sometimes MDs, people running clinical trials for yet another evergreening of an old drug, or a super-viagra, or whatever), who have skills, and have their personal financial situation set up, who could probably be effective part-time contributors to basic research. In software, that'd be a guy working in some enterprise somewhere developing a new programming language or library on the side. I don't think there really is anything like that for biotech, yet.
The 300 was far from useless - it was in fact the vehicle that enabled the Methuselah Foundation to do any of what it did: gain enough social proof and funding to invest in Organovo, boost SENS research far enough to gain funding from Peter Thiel and others, ultimately enabling it to spin off into the SENS Research Foundation, work behind the scenes to make the research community much more accepting of aging research, build a network of sympathetic researchers willing to speak out publicly about human longevity as a goal for science, help the Supercentenarian Research Foundation get started, and of late work on the New Organ initiative.
None of that would have been possible without the 300, and more importantly without people like you and I believing in the goal.
On cancer: there are new ideas and promising signs if you know where to look. I'm not a fan of WILT, but I haven't see anyone mount a good claim that it won't work as advertised, which is to say no cancer, ever:
An effective cancer treatment is all about finding a commonality to cut through the enormous variation in cancer biochemistry, so I watch for signs of that with some interest. The latest possible cancer commonality is CD47, for example:
There's also the suggestion that maybe we could extract the global cellular mechanism that makes naked mole rats cancer-free, or the different global cellular mechanism that makes blind mole rats cancer-free, and safely introduce one of them into human biology. That's much more speculative, not least for the concern that what works for 20-30 years in a mole rat might not be good for 100 in a human - there are plenty of examples of things working well in rodents but not being all that applicable to people.
But even without this, I think that targeted cell destruction therapies (via nanoparticles, or trained immune cells, or viruses, etc) will evolve into a robust cancer cure for near all cancers caught early enough within the next couple of decades:
This is sad news, and there is really nothing to add to his own words.
I just want to highlight two things, firstly his support for the NHS, which despite every newspaper and politician gunning for it still usually manages to deliver top quality care.
Secondly, can we leave off the cryogenic stuff ? The guy is dying, and pretending it will just be a pause is insulting all round. This was a touching and accepting note written by a skilled hand - and he is not blathering on about the next life. Please leave it be
On the subject of Scottish authors and the UK welfare state - my opinion of JK Rowling went up quite a bit when I learned of her attitude towards paying taxes (and I'm sure Iain would approve):
Personally, I'm glad to see cryonics being given more attention and discussion. It is a subject not well understood, even among biologists. If you think people undergoing it today are wasting their money (arguable, though I don't concede to it being obvious), there is still something of value to be gained by discussing the specific obstacles it faces, particularly in a technically inclined entrepreneurial crowd like HN. Many of us are younger, and will benefit from technological development that is only in the beginning stages at this point.
> I just want to highlight two things, firstly his support for the NHS
Which is meaningless; an anecdotal impression is not data.
> Secondly, can we leave off the cryogenic stuff ? The guy is dying, and pretending it will just be a pause is insulting all round.
Some people think that cryogenics is a better chance of resurrection than burying a body in dirt. The case isn't settled, but it's not a stupid or crazy belief. Even if the chance is only 0.1%, it's worth talking about. The chance of my house burning down is only 0.1% or so, and I still buy fire insurance.
(And, no, I'm not a big believer in cryogenics; I merely want to argue that discussion about it is reasonable.)
"Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The"
"Hand Me The Gun And Ask Me Again"
"Lapsed Pacifist"
"Subtle Shift In Emphasis"
I read science fiction to wonder at new ideas, concepts and their effects. But the Culture sounds like an incredible place to live. It's incredible that Banks could invent, create and hold the entirety of the Culture in his head.
We live in a pretty cynical time. One part of that is in our stories. We often take the quick path to "interesting" ideas by tearing apart good things. Utopia can't be, write about a dystopia instead. It is easier that way. This rut is comfortable.
It gets the author out of the hard task of building something that fits together well, and out of having to dream up something that works and that they would genuinely like to live in. Thinking up terrible things and things that fall apart can be much easier than thinking up what would make us lastingly happy. It also lets the listeners/readers/viewers of the story not think about their world in relation to some better world. That can be depressing; looking into a warm, comfy restaurant can just highlight how cold, poor, and hungry you are. Comparing our lives to those poor schmucks in some "utopia" with an terrible dark side isn't so bad; it doesn't impugn us for not having made something truly good to live in a reality.
But I'm so glad that Banks didn't go that route. Sci-fi needs to be able to get out of that rut. And it isn't that he doesn't know dark topics or how to write them; he can wrench a reader's guts along with the best of 'em. Yet he did the harder thing of looking for a consistent, shining-happy civilization to dream of living in. Gene Roddenberry got no small fame for a popular but rather more shoddy try at that many decades back. Banks did it with top notch sci-fi and writing skill. And I'd love to live in his utopia too.
But the books themselves, not the Culture, also include plenty of gut wrenching. Not as some easy dark side to the Culture itself. But at the edges of it, where the friction happens from its interaction with less nice places to live.
> Just introduced the works of Iain M. Banks to a friend, so something happy does come from sad news.
And I've just purchased Player of Games, maybe not based on your personal recommendation, but certainly on the collective recommendation since this news broke. Kind of a sad way to get introduced to an author, but OTOH I think it would be somewhat nice that even my impending death would lead to new readers of my work.
I do feel like I'm the last geek/techy/nerd/HN/SlashDot reader on the planet to have heard of him, though.
This is sad news. He's an awesome author, and many people will miss his great writing. 'Wasp Factory' was an amazing book.
He mentions his sore back. That's important! Most lower back pain is nothing serious, but rarely it's a sign of significant illness. He also mentions that he initially thought the pain was related to his work on a book. That's relevant for an industry where people tend to spend many hour sitting at a desk typing code. We talk about better ergonomics -nicer chairs, standing desks- but sometimes the wider health is missed.
My uncle died from a brain tumor two weeks ago. This week my aunt will have one of her lungs removed because of lung cancer. Last year my friend's wife had to have both of her breasts removed. And now one of my favorite authors will probably die to this shit. What a vile disease.
I have all his SF novels. I think he is the most original and refreshing author I've seen in the past decade. I always looked forward for those thrilling weeks after he released a new book. It was one of the best parts of a year for me. Mr Banks inspired me to dream about the future and what wonderful culture we could become. Even though I never met him, I will really miss him for I cherished his writings and opinions. One thing I won't do is forget him because his work is the kind that ressurects genres and is timeless.
Death from Cancer is a tragedy. If you are a computer hacker you have only two options to help. (1) Donate money to help cover medical expenses, which would surely bankrupt all but the very wealthiest in society. (2) Work within the framework of proven scientific results to help push science forward. As a computer guru, perhaps the best way to do this is to help develop programming packages such as R, Octave, and Julia. Otherwise, pick up biology books/manuscripts and just start reading for the next several years.
My favorite science fiction author, got sucked in by Matter, then quickly proceeded to read all Culture books. Use of Weapons is my favorite, has the perfect mix between the dark character and the utopian Culture space opera.
I never read any of the "M" banks books but i read a few of his regular ones when i was a teenager.
I remember thinking at the time, the wasp factory was a book i'd not forget, yet i can only vaguely recall the plot and some events! Espedair Street on the other hand i can recall pretty much everything. It's funny what you remember.
I was like you at the same age, and I wondered what the fuss was about.
Then I read his first Culture novel... I never looked back! They are my favorite sci-fi series ever and I have read a TON of sci-fi and fantasy in my life now (mostly sci-fi when younger).
Very sad, of course. He's only 59. I've gotta admit that I'm also a bit angry. The war on cancer is 40 years old and we are still so far away from solving the problem(s).
Jobs, more than likely, would have survived if he didn't try "alternative" cancer therapies. Banks did everything by the book and his outcome is poor, but at least he tried properly.
For yourself, the best things you can do today is massively reduce your sugar (and high-fructose corn syrup, which is nearly identical) intake[1] and increase excercise[2]. Reducing sugar will cause you to increase other macro and micro nutrients that are healthier (which may help) and most likely cause you to loose weight if you need to (which will help).
Unfortunately, until public policy on diet (which is set by the people responsible for selling more corn and sugar) changes, it's not going to get better.
[+] [-] venus|13 years ago|reply
Cancer has claimed a terrible toll in my life. Three in my immediate family and counting, the countdown very fast for one of them. And now it seems to have turned its unwelcome gaze to my intellectual treasures. I hate this disease, I despise it so much it's hard to express.
I'd say it's my hatred of cancer that drives me to want to achieve riches, via a startup, so I can pour money into its vanquishing. It was hatred that made me agree to be a member of "the 300", as useless as that has turned out to be. And it's the knowledge and memory of those lifeless bodies on hospital sheets, cold before their time, that forces me onwards, reminds me that that capricious finger of death could swivel my way at any time.
Banks, you are a titan. You inspired me, you inspired others. You'll never be forgotten, and god willing maybe you'll inspire a few to take revenge on your blind, callous killer.
[+] [-] hyperbovine|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] defen|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] creamyhorror|13 years ago|reply
First Terry Pratchett and now Iain Banks. Satoshi Kon, taken by pancreatic cancer. Who's left? Why are all my favourite artists dying from this horrible family of diseases?
Fuck cancer, and damn our perverse incentives. All you hackers and entrepreneurs, please make all the money you can and do something to advance the combined well-being of the world and people like yourself. All that saved-up money can hardly do anything when a serious cancer strikes hard and we find out too late. Please do something to support the research that could save so many of your family and friends.
All the pleasures of the world cannot cancel out the loss and desolation of an early death. Our time is short; let's not let it be cut shorter.
[+] [-] rdl|13 years ago|reply
I wish medical research were set up in a way to support hobbyists and part time involvement. There are lots of people in the high-profit, low-value-to-society parts of biotech and medicine (day jobs as pharma reps, sometimes MDs, people running clinical trials for yet another evergreening of an old drug, or a super-viagra, or whatever), who have skills, and have their personal financial situation set up, who could probably be effective part-time contributors to basic research. In software, that'd be a guy working in some enterprise somewhere developing a new programming language or library on the side. I don't think there really is anything like that for biotech, yet.
[+] [-] unknown|13 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] reasonattlm|13 years ago|reply
None of that would have been possible without the 300, and more importantly without people like you and I believing in the goal.
On cancer: there are new ideas and promising signs if you know where to look. I'm not a fan of WILT, but I haven't see anyone mount a good claim that it won't work as advertised, which is to say no cancer, ever:
http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2011/10/accumulating-the-...
An effective cancer treatment is all about finding a commonality to cut through the enormous variation in cancer biochemistry, so I watch for signs of that with some interest. The latest possible cancer commonality is CD47, for example:
http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2013/03/more-on-cd47-as-a...
There's also the suggestion that maybe we could extract the global cellular mechanism that makes naked mole rats cancer-free, or the different global cellular mechanism that makes blind mole rats cancer-free, and safely introduce one of them into human biology. That's much more speculative, not least for the concern that what works for 20-30 years in a mole rat might not be good for 100 in a human - there are plenty of examples of things working well in rodents but not being all that applicable to people.
http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2011/03/revisiting-naked-...
http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2012/11/the-mechanism-of-...
But even without this, I think that targeted cell destruction therapies (via nanoparticles, or trained immune cells, or viruses, etc) will evolve into a robust cancer cure for near all cancers caught early enough within the next couple of decades:
http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2006/10/cancer-cells-are-...
http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2007/01/to-what-degree-is...
[+] [-] lifeisstillgood|13 years ago|reply
I just want to highlight two things, firstly his support for the NHS, which despite every newspaper and politician gunning for it still usually manages to deliver top quality care.
Secondly, can we leave off the cryogenic stuff ? The guy is dying, and pretending it will just be a pause is insulting all round. This was a touching and accepting note written by a skilled hand - and he is not blathering on about the next life. Please leave it be
[+] [-] arethuza|13 years ago|reply
http://timidheathen.tumblr.com/post/7043004518/jk-rowling-on...
[+] [-] lsparrish|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tjic|13 years ago|reply
Which is meaningless; an anecdotal impression is not data.
> Secondly, can we leave off the cryogenic stuff ? The guy is dying, and pretending it will just be a pause is insulting all round.
Some people think that cryogenics is a better chance of resurrection than burying a body in dirt. The case isn't settled, but it's not a stupid or crazy belief. Even if the chance is only 0.1%, it's worth talking about. The chance of my house burning down is only 0.1% or so, and I still buy fire insurance.
(And, no, I'm not a big believer in cryogenics; I merely want to argue that discussion about it is reasonable.)
[+] [-] swombat|13 years ago|reply
I've read most of his books (all of his SF books). The Culture is an amazing universe, but the rest of his works are also outstanding.
[+] [-] limmeau|13 years ago|reply
(edit: never mind, sibling thread has it covered: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5485695 )
[+] [-] xradionut|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] DomBlack|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] CoffeeDregs|13 years ago|reply
Also, if you're a fan of the Culture universe and want a smile, have a gander at a list of Culture ship names @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_spacecraft_in_the_Cultu...
I read science fiction to wonder at new ideas, concepts and their effects. But the Culture sounds like an incredible place to live. It's incredible that Banks could invent, create and hold the entirety of the Culture in his head.[+] [-] nooneelse|13 years ago|reply
It gets the author out of the hard task of building something that fits together well, and out of having to dream up something that works and that they would genuinely like to live in. Thinking up terrible things and things that fall apart can be much easier than thinking up what would make us lastingly happy. It also lets the listeners/readers/viewers of the story not think about their world in relation to some better world. That can be depressing; looking into a warm, comfy restaurant can just highlight how cold, poor, and hungry you are. Comparing our lives to those poor schmucks in some "utopia" with an terrible dark side isn't so bad; it doesn't impugn us for not having made something truly good to live in a reality.
But I'm so glad that Banks didn't go that route. Sci-fi needs to be able to get out of that rut. And it isn't that he doesn't know dark topics or how to write them; he can wrench a reader's guts along with the best of 'em. Yet he did the harder thing of looking for a consistent, shining-happy civilization to dream of living in. Gene Roddenberry got no small fame for a popular but rather more shoddy try at that many decades back. Banks did it with top notch sci-fi and writing skill. And I'd love to live in his utopia too.
But the books themselves, not the Culture, also include plenty of gut wrenching. Not as some easy dark side to the Culture itself. But at the edges of it, where the friction happens from its interaction with less nice places to live.
[+] [-] mikestew|13 years ago|reply
And I've just purchased Player of Games, maybe not based on your personal recommendation, but certainly on the collective recommendation since this news broke. Kind of a sad way to get introduced to an author, but OTOH I think it would be somewhat nice that even my impending death would lead to new readers of my work.
I do feel like I'm the last geek/techy/nerd/HN/SlashDot reader on the planet to have heard of him, though.
[+] [-] chicagobob|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] csmattryder|13 years ago|reply
The BBC have a news article on this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-22015175
[+] [-] zerovox|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] arethuza|13 years ago|reply
Makes me want to laugh and cry at the same time, like so much of his work.
[+] [-] jschulenklopper|13 years ago|reply
That last past is almost a six word story, but sadly reality instead of fiction.
[+] [-] DanBC|13 years ago|reply
He mentions his sore back. That's important! Most lower back pain is nothing serious, but rarely it's a sign of significant illness. He also mentions that he initially thought the pain was related to his work on a book. That's relevant for an industry where people tend to spend many hour sitting at a desk typing code. We talk about better ergonomics -nicer chairs, standing desks- but sometimes the wider health is missed.
[+] [-] kitsune_|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] podperson|13 years ago|reply
Fuck cancer.
[+] [-] DanBC|13 years ago|reply
Compare these two adverts -
"Not Alone", MacMillan Cancer Support (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLpS97XA5VA)
"Cancer, We're Coming For You", Race for Life (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWJEmMDQXoA)
Yes, fuck cancer.
[+] [-] soapdog|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jostmey|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] phreeza|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] stevejalim|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Nursie|13 years ago|reply
Amazing author. I want to live in the Culture. And I want to read new books by him forever, this is not allowed.
[+] [-] satori99|13 years ago|reply
http://www.vavatch.co.uk/books/banks/cultnote.htm
Originally posted to rec.arts.sf.written on 10 Aug 1994.
[+] [-] robin_reala|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zerovox|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 3amOpsGuy|13 years ago|reply
I remember thinking at the time, the wasp factory was a book i'd not forget, yet i can only vaguely recall the plot and some events! Espedair Street on the other hand i can recall pretty much everything. It's funny what you remember.
[+] [-] drucken|13 years ago|reply
Then I read his first Culture novel... I never looked back! They are my favorite sci-fi series ever and I have read a TON of sci-fi and fantasy in my life now (mostly sci-fi when younger).
[+] [-] arethuza|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] melling|13 years ago|reply
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_Cancer
The first commercial microprocessor was released in the same year:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_4004
Solutions? Ideas? The list in my mind is starting to get painfully long:
Randy Pausch (47), Steve Jobs (56), Ian M Banks ...
[+] [-] drzaiusapelord|13 years ago|reply
http://osxdaily.com/2011/10/20/steve-jobs-refused-early-canc...
[+] [-] gargoiler|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] SoftwareMaven|13 years ago|reply
Unfortunately, until public policy on diet (which is set by the people responsible for selling more corn and sugar) changes, it's not going to get better.
1. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/02/130201100149.ht...
2. http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/prevention/phys...
[+] [-] engtech|13 years ago|reply
The first Banks book I read was in a palliative care room while my mom was dying of cancer.
[+] [-] modernerd|13 years ago|reply