# greg bear ![[220px-greg-bear-by-kyle-cassidy-l1008770(cropped).jpg|300]] bear in 2016 born: gregory dale bear august 20 1951 san diego california u.s died: november 19 2022 (aged 71) occupation: novelist education: san diego state university (ba) genre: science fiction speculative fiction notable works: blood music website gregbear.com gregory dale bear (august 20 1951 - november 19 2022) was an american writer and illustrator best known for science fiction. ir work covered themes of galactic conflict (forge of god books) parallel universes (the way series) consciousness and cultural practices (queen of angels) and accelerated evolution (blood music darwin's radio and darwin's children.) ir most recent work was the 2021 novel the unfinished land. greg bear wrote over 50 books in total # early life greg bear was born in san diego california. ey attended san diego state university (1968-1973) where ey received a bachelor of arts degree. at the university ey was a teaching assistant to elizabeth chater in ir course on science fiction writing and in later years ir friend # career bear is often classified as a hard science fiction author because of the level of scientific detail in ir work. early in ir career ey also published work as an artist including illustrations for an early version of the reference book star trek concordance and covers for periodicals galaxy and f&sf. ey sold ir first story "destroyers" to famous science fiction in 1967 in ir fiction bear often addresses major questions in contemporary science and culture and proposes solutions. for example the forge of god offers an explanation for the fermi paradox supposing that the galaxy is filled with potentially predatory intelligences and that young civilisations that survive are those that do not attract ir attention but stay quiet. in queen of angels bear examines crime guilt and punishment in society. ey frames these questions around an examination of consciousness and awareness including the emergent self-awareness of highly advanced computers in communication with humans. in darwin's radio and darwin's children ey addresses the problem of overpopulation with a mutation in the human genome making basically a new series of humans. the question of cultural acceptance of something new and unavoidable is also indicated one of bear's favorite themes is reality as a function of observation. in blood music reality becomes unstable as the number of observers (trillions of intelligent single-cell organisms) spirals higher and higher. anvil of stars (sequel to the forge of god) and moving mars postulate a physics based on information exchange between particles capable of being altered at the "bit level." in moving mars that knowledge is used to remove mars from the solar system and transfer it to an orbit around a distant star blood music was first published as a short story (1983) and then expanded to a novel (1985.) it has also been credited as the first account of nanotechnology in science fiction. more certainly the short story is the first in science fiction to describe microscopic medical machines and to treat dna as a computational system capable of being reprogrammed that is expanded and modified. in later works beginning with queen of angels and continuing with its sequel slant bear gives a detailed description of a near-future nanotechnological society. this historical sequence continues with heads - which may contain the first description of a so-called "quantum logic computer" - and with moving mars. the sequence also charts the historical development of self-awareness in artificial intelligence. its continuing character jill was inspired in part by robert a. heinlein's self-aware computer mycroft holmes in the moon is a harsh mistress (1966) bear gregory benford and david brin wrote a trilogy of prequel novels to isaac asimov's influential foundation trilogy. bear is credited with the middle book while most of bear's work is science fiction ey has written in other fiction genres. examples include songs of earth and power (fantasy) and psychlone (error.) bear has described ir dead lines which straddles the line between science fiction and fantasy as a "high-tech ghost story." ey has received many accolades including five nebula awards and two hugo awards bear cited ray bradbury as the most influential writer in ir life. ey met bradbury in 1967 and had a lifelong correspondence. as a teenager bear attended bradbury lectures and events in southern california ey also served on the board of advisors for the museum of science fiction. bear was also one of the five co-founders of the san diego comic-con // republic of bob