The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer in What's the Name of That Book???

May 21, 2011 Otis Chandler rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: steampunk, nanotechnology, fiction, cyberpunk, sci-fi, adventure

I first read this ~10 years ago and just re-read it as someone reminded me that it predicts the future of reading. And it does - what I love about Stephenson is his high level of prescient-ness. In fact I think it also predicts a lot of the future of nanotechnology and entertainment.

The Young Ladies Illustrated Primer is a dynamic book with an AI in it. Imagine Alexa or Siri in 5-10 years, smart enough to make up stories on the fly and answer questions about or even redirect the storyline. The I first read this ~10 years ago and just re-read it as someone reminded me that it predicts the future of reading. And it does - what I love about Stephenson is his high level of prescient-ness. In fact I think it also predicts a lot of the future of nanotechnology and entertainment.

The Young Ladies Illustrated Primer is a dynamic book with an AI in it. Imagine Alexa or Siri in 5-10 years, smart enough to make up stories on the fly and answer questions about or even redirect the storyline. The YLIP is designed in the book for a 4 year old girl, Fiona, but Nell and a few other girls end up with them also. Maybe this resonated with me as I have a 4 year old girl and wish this existed for her. What's particularly powerful about this, is the story was able to be adaptive to the problems in Nell's life, and give her strength and confidence at moments when she needed it. Some cool trivia: Project Fiona was the codename for the Kindle. There is now a building at Amazon in Seattle named Fiona.

One of the pieces of magic of the Young Ladies Illustrated Primer was that for Nell and Fiona's editions, there were live actors ("ractors") on the other end, reading all the lines 1 on 1. This put a level of personalization and human connection into the story for the girls that wouldn't have been possible otherwise. Learning about the marketplace of ractors was particularly interesting and it's hard to think such a thing won't exist in 2-5 years as VR takes off. Would you rather watch the movie Harry Potter or live act out the scenes with 2 friends as Harry, Ron, and Hermione, and have professional actors play the other characters? You can imagine this being a big form of entertainment of the future.

The nanotechnology described in the book was also fascinating. Describing a world of robots and drones too small for the human eye to see, doing tasks and even fighting each other. Massive wars we perceive as "particularly dusty days". Poisoning or taking control of another person is as easy as getting them to inhale or injest some nanobots. The drummers were a particularly interesting notion of hive-mind, connecting multiple humans together through nanobots attached to their synapses on their brain. And then of course you have nanobots creating other bots, which led to this great quote:

"The Victorian system used Darwinian techniques to create killers adapted to their prey, which was elegant and effective but led to the creation of killers that were simply too bizarre to have been thought up by humans, just as humans designing a world never would have thought up the naked mole rat."

But of course the biggest implication of nanotechnology is the ability to manipulate molecules and thus - given The Feed (which I somehow provides a stream of molecules & energy for manipulation) - you can make anything in a Matter Compiler (MC). This is kind of like what they had in Star Trek, and what 3D printing gives us .0001% of today.

The book is largely about what would happen to society if MC's were invented and much of the need for farming, manufacturing, etc was eliminated. Poverty would become even more prevalent, as would crime, governments would collapse, and of course, a class divide would emerge as never before, driven by those who have technology and those who don't. And of course, badass engineers like Hackworth will rule the day (kind of). I suppose in a way the book is about the fear of what will happen if technology progresses too far and leaves masses of humans without a purpose in life. Parking lots and chaos.

“These were rice paddies before they were parking lots. Rice was the basis for our society. Peasants planted the seeds and had highest status in the Confucian hierarchy. As the Master said, “Let the producers be many and the consumers few.' When the Feed came in from Atlantis, from Nippon, we no longer had to plant, because the rice now came from the matter compiler. It was the destruction of our society. When our society was based upon planting, it could truly be said, as the Master did, “Virtue is the root; wealth is the result.' But under the Western ti, wealth comes not from virtue but from cleverness. So the filial relationships became deranged. Chaos,” Dr. X said regretfully, then looked up from his tea and nodded out the window. “Parking lots and chaos.” ...more

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Sep 30, 2009 El rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, 20th-centurylit-late, science-fictiony

Just when I really think I feel comfortable in a genre like science fiction I read someone like Stephenson and realize I don't know squat. It happened when I read Snow Crash and it happened now.

I love the concept here: nanotechnology affects everything. Seems decent enough an idea. I love the main story here: young Nell and her brother Harv live in an abusive home and Harv steals an electronic interactive illustrated primer for Nell which mirrors their life and encourages them they are strong en ...more

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Sep 02, 2007 Snail in Danger (Sid) Nicolaides rated it liked it

Shelves: used-to-own, science-fiction

This is actually the date of my latest re-read, not my first. Reaction: yeah, the tech is cool, but ZOMG that book needs some plot coherence help.

Interestingly, the Sci-fi Channel has ordered a 6 hour miniseries based on this book. It'll feature George Clooney. I thought, this could be great, it's tremendously well-suited for a visual medium, and frankly there's tons of stuff that could be cut from the book without substantial harm to the story. And then I realized that Stephenson is writing the ...more

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Sep 21, 2013 Rachel rated it liked it

The Diamond Age had some ideas in it I really liked. I loved the idea of a tablet-like device that could teach a young girl to read/fight/program/whatever (and also it being limited by its "ractors"). I liked the nanobots that settled like dust onto people, and the "wet net" idea.

For some reason, I had a really hard time finishing this book. I think the politics didn't excite me; I was more interested in character development that never finished. It makes me wish that Stephenson would write mor ...more

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Jul 30, 2007 Wealhtheow rated it really liked it

Shelves: cyberpunk

Revolution through education!

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Apr 08, 2007 Janet rated it liked it

Shelves: science-fiction

Loved the first half, in which the plot was wild but comprehensible. Enjoyed the second half, but I was disappointed that Stephenson ditched many of the characters and most of the story for a dissertation on artificial intelligence, thought as virus, programming, and other musings. It was interesting, at least the part I could follow, but the story got lost. It had some HUGE plot holes at the end. Still, quite a ride. ...more

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Jul 20, 2007 John rated it it was amazing

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is a great example of the creativity of Neal Stephenson. He takes a look at the next step in human history (Stone Age, Iron Age. . . Diamond Age) and tells a story about a Neo-Victorian world in which nano technology can compile matter at the molecular level to create food, automobiles, buildings or whole islands. Stephenson has an undeniable talent for creating worlds and developing characters, that talent is obvious here.

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Jun 21, 2007 HeavyReader rated it liked it

Shelves: sciencefiction

This book was another gift from my dear friend Keith. I enjoyed reading the story, it was a wild ride, but I was a bit let down by the ending. Although by now I can't remember what that ending was. ...more

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