On Wednesday, May 27, 2015 at 6:49:34 PM UTC-5, wrote:
Neal's a friend and I took him soaring out in Ephrata a couple of years ago. We talked a lot about thermals, mountain wave, dynamic soaring (hence the diving off the ridge), and other ways to extract "free energy" from the atmosphere. Neal enjoyed the flight, and later told me that he was featuring a bit of gliding in his new book with the caveat, "I've set it thousands of years in the future, so I can pretty much do whatever I want with the technology."

Maybe it'll inspire a few more folks to give gliding a try.

Chris Young

Wow. So that's where Stephenson got the soaring stuff! I am impressed.

Is Stephenson as scary smart in person as he is in his writing?