Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age is another one of my all time sci-fi favorites. It follows an eclectic cast of characters through a future where nano-technology dominates. Society has divided itself into a diverse set of files that are always at war. This read always stimulates my imagination and I'm inspired to explore emerging technology. The main story line revolves around Nell, who receives a mysterious book as a young girl. This book, the Young Ladies Illustrated Primer, is an interactive educational experience. It aims to teach skills and values that traditional education has forgotten.
Key Takeaways
Memorable Quotes
Rating: 8/10
The Diamond Age is in the same class as Snow Crash, but it's not quite as compelling. At times it's hard to sort out the different characters and their relationships. That said, it's exciting, funny, and inspirational at every turn.
Key Takeaways
- The stupid-intelligent spectrum is independent from the ignorant-educated spectrum.
- Self-sufficiency is a virtue.
- A society stagnates without a certain amount of subversiveness.
Memorable Quotes
- The difference between ignorant and educated people is that the latter know more facts. But that has nothing to do with whether they are stupid or intelligent. The difference between stupid and intelligent people—and this is true whether or not they are well-educated—is that intelligent people can handle subtlety. They are not baffled by ambiguous or even contradictory situations—in fact, they expect them and are apt to become suspicious when things seem overly straightforward.
- He had some measure of the infuriating trait that causes a young man to be a nonconformist for its own sake and found that the surest way to shock most people, in those days, was to believe that some kinds of behavior were bad and others good, and that it was reasonable to live one's life accordingly.
- 'The hour of noon has passed,' said Judge Fang. 'Let us go and get some Kentucky Fried Chicken.' The House of the Venerable and Inscrutable Colonel was what they called it when they were speaking Chinese. Venerable because of his goatee, white as the dogwood blossom, a badge of unimpeachable credibility in Confucian eyes. Inscrutable because he had gone to his grave without divulging the Secret of the Eleven Herbs and Spices.
- I have devoted much effort, during the last decade or so, to the systematic encouragement of subversiveness.
- There are only two industries. This has always been true....There is the industry of things, and the industry of entertainment....After people have the things they need to live, everything else is entertainment. Everything.
- One of the great virtues of Confucianism was its suppleness. Western political thought tended to be rather brittle; as soon as the state became corrupt, everything ceased to make sense. Confucianism always retained its equilibrium, like a cork that could float as well in spring water or raw sewage.
Rating: 8/10
The Diamond Age is in the same class as Snow Crash, but it's not quite as compelling. At times it's hard to sort out the different characters and their relationships. That said, it's exciting, funny, and inspirational at every turn.
