Tom Maddox

Tom Maddox (born October 1945) is an American science fiction writer, known for his part in the early cyberpunk movement.

Tom Maddox at the Internet Identity Workshop 2006

His first novel was Halo (ISBN 0-312-85249-5), published in 1991 by Tor Books. His story Snake Eyes appeared in the 1986 collection Mirrorshades, edited by Bruce Sterling.

He is perhaps best known as a friend and writing partner of William Gibson. They wrote two episodes of The X-Files together, "Kill Switch" and "First Person Shooter".

Maddox is the originator of the term Intrusion Countermeasures Electronics (or ICE). According to Maddox,[1] he coined the term in the manuscript of an unpublished story that he showed to Gibson at a science fiction convention in Portland, Oregon. Gibson asked permission to use the acronym, and Maddox agreed. The term was then used in Gibson's early short stories and eventually popularized in the novel Neuromancer, in which Maddox was properly acknowledged.

Tom Maddox has licensed his work under a Creative Commons license,[2] making a significant part of it available on his website: Tom Maddox Fiction and Nonfiction Archive.

Maddox was formerly a professor of literary studies at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington.[3]