I was talking with Sean and Colin this past weekend about books. In particular, I was recommending The Diamond Age, by Neal Stephenson. I was trying to motivate that much of Stephenson’s work is visionary. His stories show an understanding of the beauty and power of technology that is rarely seen in modern fiction. To convince Sean that he should read this book, I first needed to argue that this purely imaginary world could have some bearing on his life. I told him that much of what The Diamond Age portrays is not currently possible, but many of the ideas are immediately applicable to existing technology. In reality, however, some of the book’s predictions are already coming true.
P.S. Stephenson also authored my favorite book, Cryptonomicon, and the sci-fi classic Snow Crash.
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August 13th, 2003 at 12:31 pm
I thought of our conversation as I was walking through a Borders bookstore the other night and noticed the Neal Stephenson reference on the front cover of Wired. In fact, I had entered the store with the specific intent of buying Snow Crash. Much to my dismay, the store carried neither Snow Crash nor The Diamond Age. Shame on them.
August 13th, 2003 at 2:20 pm
Yeah, but it’s so easy to just steal them from The-Lab-Formerly-Known-As-LCS. Um, if anyone from CSAIL is reading this, I’m kidding. I’m not the one who’s been taking all your issues of Wired. I swear.
And yes, Eddie, you should read Stephenson. You will be a better person for it.
August 13th, 2003 at 2:54 pm
Who uses the word abysmal?!
August 13th, 2003 at 3:17 pm
“Who uses the word abysmal?! ;)” - Anna
People who are forced to use MS products at work. It has become a regular part of my vocabulary, along with “fuck”, “shit”, “son of a”, “bitch”, and “I swear to God I’m going to start killing people at random.”