"True Names and Other Dangers". Reading a remark by Vernor Vinge on his concept of the "Singularity" led to my current career as a Research Fellow of the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence.
I actually read True Names at your suggestion. The concepts were worthwhile but it exemplifies the reason many consider Scifi to be a literary ghetto - that for many sf authors the story is just a vehicle to get an idea of theirs across, artistic consideration being secondary. Not to say literary ends are more valid than conceptual ones, but it seems unfair to scifi that the genre has it's artistic merits judged by averaging both.
