Editing Ken MacLeod (section)

==Writing==
He is part of a group of British science fiction writers who specialise in [[hard science fiction]] and [[space opera]]. His contemporaries include [[Neal Asher]], [[Stephen Baxter (author)|Stephen Baxter]], [[Iain M. Banks]], [[Paul J. McAuley]], [[Alastair Reynolds]], [[Adam Roberts (British writer)|Adam Roberts]], [[Charles Stross]], [[Richard K. Morgan]], and [[Liz Williams]].

His [[science fiction]] novels often explore [[Socialism|socialist]], [[Communism|communist]], and [[Anarchism|anarchist]] political ideas, especially [[Trotskyism]] and [[anarcho-capitalism]] (or extreme economic [[libertarianism]]).<ref>{{Cite web|title=Lifeboat Foundation Bios: Ken MacLeod, M.Phil.|url=https://lifeboat.com/ex/bios.ken.macleod|access-date=2020-07-30|website=lifeboat.com}}</ref> Technical themes encompass [[technological singularity|singularities]], divergent human [[cultural evolution]], and [[Transhumanism|post-human]] [[cyborg]]-[[resurrection]]. MacLeod's general outlook can be best described as [[Technological utopianism|techno-utopian]] socialist,<ref name="ZoneInterview">{{cite web |url=http://www.zone-sf.com/kenmacleod.html |title=SF Zone interview with MacLeod |publisher=Zone-sf.com |access-date=20 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051024053307/http://www.zone-sf.com/kenmacleod.html |archive-date=24 October 2005 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="TrueKnowledge">{{cite book | editor1-last = Butler | editor1-first = Andrew M. |editor2-last=Mendlesohn |editor2-first=Farah | title = The True Knowledge Of Ken MacLeod |
year = 2003 | isbn = 0-903007-02-9 | publisher = SF Foundation }}</ref> though unlike a majority of techno-utopians, he has expressed great scepticism over the possibility and especially over the desirability of [[computational theory of mind|strong AI]].<ref name="ZoneInterview" />

He is known for his constant in-joking and punning on the intersection between socialist ideologies and computer programming, as well as other fields. For example, his chapter titles such as "Trusted Third Parties" or "Revolutionary Platform" usually have double (or multiple) meanings. A future programmers union is called "Information Workers of the World Wide Web", or the ''Webblies'', a reference to the [[Industrial Workers of the World]], who are nicknamed the ''Wobblies''. The Webblies idea formed a central part of the novel ''[[For the Win]]'' by [[Cory Doctorow]] and MacLeod is acknowledged as coining the term.<ref>{{cite book | title=For the Win | author=Cory Doctorow | year=2010 | url=https://archive.org/details/forwin00cory | publisher=HarperVoyager | isbn=978-0765322166 }} MacLeod is thanked in the Acknowledgements section: "Many thanks to Ken MacLeod for letting me use IWWWW and 'Webbly.'"</ref> Doctorow and [[Charles Stross]] also used one of MacLeod's references to the singularity as "the rapture for nerds" as the title for their collaborative novel ''Rapture of the Nerds'' (although MacLeod denies coining the phrase<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://aeon.co/essays/communism-failed-what-about-the-ideal-of-global-humanity|title=Communism failed. What about the ideal of global humanity? – Ken MacLeod {{!}} Aeon Essays|work=Aeon|access-date=2018-08-18|language=en}}</ref>). There are also many references to, or puns on, zoology and palaeontology. For example, in ''The Stone Canal''  the title of the book, and many places described in it, are named after anatomical features of marine invertebrates such as [[Sea star|starfish]].