The Shockwave Rider

The Shockwave Rider
Cover of first edition (hardcover)
AuthorJohn Brunner
Cover artistCreston Ely
LanguageEnglish
GenreScience fiction
PublisherHarper & Row
Publication date
1975
Publication placeUnited Kingdom
Media typePrint (hardback and paperback)
Pages288
ISBN0-06-010559-3
OCLC1093694
823/.9/14
LC ClassPZ4.B89 Sj3 PR6052.R8

The Shockwave Rider is a science fiction novel by John Brunner, originally published in 1975. It is notable for its hero's use of computer hacking skills to escape pursuit in a dystopian future, and for the coining of the word "worm" to describe a program that propagates itself through a computer network. It also introduces the concept of a Delphi pool, perhaps derived from the RAND Corporation's Delphi method – a prediction market on world events which bears close resemblance to DARPA's controversial and cancelled Policy Analysis Market.