Could Adolf Hitler ever have been the good guy?

The man was a warped, murderous bastard who ordered the slaughter of millions of people, started an unnecessary war of conquest, and permanently 86′d the dreams of an entire generation or three. But seriously — let’s say you hop in a time machine, track the dude down as a teenager, and put him through a serious reeducation program. And maybe give him a heavy dose of Prozac. Or better yet, hand him a Macintosh. Could he be redeemed?…

That was one of the Big Ideas behind my novels Infoquake and MultiReal. Create a character with Hitler-like strategic genius, with Gates-like business savvy, with Clinton-like personal magnetism, with Machiavelli-like disregard for ethics. Stick him on the fence between the ultimate selfishness and the ultimate selflessness, give him a technology that could revolutionize the world or destroy it, and see what he does.

I’m going to write a longer “introduction” to the book over the next week. But in the meantime, check out the Infoquake website (which contains, among other things, the first five chapters of the book, several audio podcasts, all of the book’s appendices, and a few exclusive background articles that don’t appear in the book as well). You might also want to browse through the Infoquake section on this blog.

Last, but definitely not least, John Scalzi published an interview with me this morning on his “By the Way” blog. Yes, that John Scalzi, author of the Hugo and Campbell Award nominee Old Man’s War, as well as The Ghost Brigades. The interview delves into the inspiration for the book, the pitfalls of worldbuilding, what bears have to do with business, and how good a job Adam Smith did at predicting the future. It’s linked from his popular “Whatever” blog as well.

I haven’t seen Infoquake in any actual brick-and-mortar bookstores yet. If you find it, snap a picture with your camera phone and send it to me so I can post it here!

Update 7/4/06: Infoquake has indeed been spotted at Books-a-Million stores (and is available from BAM online). One source in Southern California said the local Borders told her the book wouldn’t be on the shelves there until July 28.