The situation is complicated by the eventual contact with alien civilizations humanity eventually splits into many subspecies, with the implication that some of these vanish from the galaxy, reminiscent of the singularity in the works of Vernor Vinge. The Mechanists use a great deal of computer-based mechanical technologies the Shapers do genetic engineering on a massive scale. In the early 1980s, Sterling wrote a series of stories set in the Shaper/Mechanist universe: the Solar System is colonized, with two major warring factions.

It is partially a science-fictional pastiche of Moby-Dick by Herman Melville. The story concerns a ship sailing on the ocean of dust at the bottom and hunting creatures called dustwhales. His first novel, Involution Ocean, published in 1977, features the world Nullaqua where all the atmosphere is contained in a single, miles-deep crater. He won Hugo Awards for his novelettes ' Bicycle Repairman' (1996) and ' Taklamakan' (1998). He was also one of the first organizers of the Turkey City Writer's Workshop, and is a frequent attendee at the Sycamore Hill Writer's Workshop. This has earned him the nickname 'Chairman Bruce'. In addition, he is one of the subgenre's chief ideological promulgators. Sterling is one of the founders of the cyberpunk movement in science fiction, along with William Gibson, Rudy Rucker, John Shirley, Lewis Shiner, and Pat Cadigan.

In 1992, he published his first non-fiction book, The Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier. He is the author of science-fiction novels, including Schismatrix (1985), Islands in the Net (1988), and Heavy Weather (1994). Sterling's first science-fiction story, Man-Made Self, was sold in 1976. In particular, he is linked to the cyberpunk subgenre.

Michael Bruce Sterling (born April 14, 1954) is an American science fiction author known for his novels and short fiction and editorship of the Mirrorshades anthology. University of Texas at Austin (B.A., Journalism, 1976)