The strength of diamonds in anything where strength is an advantage. Control of the technology not problem free. Unless I misunderstand the concept, author and reviewer, I want to read this book. So I'll read it. Thanks!
One of my all time top ten favourite books. Love your breakdown. You managed to demonstrate how fascinating and profound the book is without even discussing the pedagogic relationship between The Primer and Nell. (For me the “heart” of the book. ) If there were an even longer and more in depth review I would watch that too. Thank you.
Incredible video, with some excellent insight into the Diamond Age. You seem like an awesome guy to talk to, would love to someday. As for my thoughts: Considering this post-scarcity world is implied to be a future after anarcho-capitalism, it is interesting to see the neo-victorians fully embrace the capital system (as imperialist real victorians did) while seemingly presenting as an elite but seemingly reasonable high society away from the chaos of other phyles. After reading Snow Crash, and seeing the chaos of corporations and cyberpunk lawlessness, the depiction of cultures in the story becomes all the more interesting, as the significance of corporations seems to have waned in favour of cultural gangs with nigh-unlimited resources. tldr; I would love to hear your thoughts on Snow Crash.
Thanks! It has been a long time since I read Snow Crash; recollecting now, it makes me think of the Torment Nexus (as in, a cautionary tale from which we should take warning not inspiration). But I should read it again with new eyes.
@@PeterAllenLab Thanks for the reply! Snow Crash is of course a cautionary tale, of the dangers of full belief in free market capitalism. Essentially the world Snow Crash takes place in is one where equity/assets mean more than anything else. Absolutely not a world I would like to live in, but it is one possible future based on the path of neoliberalism we were set on by politicians in the 1990s. Ultimately I think Snow Crash is a very entertaining look into that sort of sci-fi world with some very prescient insight into the nature of media in our world. The main connection between it and the Diamond Age would be how different the world seems to be a few decades after such a anarcho-capitalist world, as it is implied to be a sequel in-universe. Corporations become more tied in with a wealthy elite, and have their roles replaced by cultural elites that provide basic amenities and products. It seems to be an interesting evolution over time for the wealth to consolidate like it does in the Diamond Age. Not only that, but the book specifically pokes fun at the degeneracy of the western world in this interrim period before the rise of phyles. They (neo-victorians in particular) try to distance themselves from the obvious capitalist greed of the period between the victorian era and the rise of phyles, but still engage with many of the same principles. They try to act as though they have learned a lesson from the world of Snow Crash, but many core issues in this post-scarcity society still remain. There is a lot to dig into in the worldbuilding of these 2 books, and I may be overthinking some of these concepts a bit, but the world stephenson created is absolutely one of the most interesting speculative fiction settings I have ever seen.
Right. They keep people cleaning toilets because 'people' are the resource you need to subjugate. It is the 'people' category that needs to managed. Carbon allotropes and toilets can't depose your power or wealth. People... groups of people, can.
Hi , thank you for your video . I like the scientific way and view that you have on different things . Please show us how deep the sea can be and dont leave us with a small water drop . The world needs more reliable people like you. Best wishes :)
great vid i appreciate your thoughts. a storyteller friend of mine was asking me what he should pitch to an interested investor and i said, procedural storytelling! when he asked what i meant by that I sent him The Diamond Age.
Ugh, your recommendation of the book enticed me to read it. I feel that this book was never meant to be about post-scarcity. It has the matter compilers, it has the Feed, but... Never mentioned where the feed is coming from. I guess the region where action takes place is a hub that was well connected to the Nipon, Hindustan and other feed lines because a lot of high-level manufacturing and designing was happening there. I'd hazard a guess that the lives and surroundings of the feed producers looks very different from the what we saw the main characters go through. The poverty in the society? It's same as now - vagrants. We have them in our cities as well, no need for diamond windows. The books started strong with promises of the primmer delivering the next evolutionary step of human. How does it end? In a convoluted mess of "human flesh is better than cold computing power" and barely armed peasants taking over a nano-technological society somehow... Cookie-cutters exist? Whole cities clouded in nano-bots as protection? Ahm... yeah... no... "Sha! Sha!" was nonsense.
Yeah, like the real Victorians, there were some ugly undertones of anti-Chinese sentiment there. It does talk at one point about the big inlets where huge bell-shaped flower-like air intakes pull in the atmosphere for generating the raw materials for the Feed, but the energy source is never mentioned to my knowledge. One can't re-arrange matter without energy, which is just never addressed. I read it as being about post-scartity technology when I was a teen, but I agree, that's not really the theme that was conveyed. The comparison between the Victorians during the industrial revolution (and their Empire building) and the current/future revolution(s) is more the point. Maybe the author's choice to look at inequality instead of post scarcity reveals his opinion of the prospects for a post-scarcity future.
IIRC - early on there is a description of a large "nanosieve" in the river that filtered out various elements including gold. this was one source of what would be included in The Feed.
The book features a huge revolt by mainland Chinese against the Neovictorians and their allies in the Chinese Coastal Republic (maybe reference to the Boxer rebellion? I don't know the history well enough to make the comparison). The Celestial Kingdom tries to develop a new liberated technology of the Seed (instead of the Feed). No central control, nanotech grown right out of the ground by the users themselves. That's the utopian vision, but the obvious reply is that it could grow weapons as easily as it could grow houses. In real life? I don't know. More local resiliency and meaningful human interaction to displace the power of monopolies?
You're right. The audiobook uses the correct pronunciation, but I'm so used to saying primer from work (as in PCR primers) that I lapsed. Whoops. When I read it the first time, I thought it was "priming" the kid for the future. Made sense to me at the time.
i am used to pronouncing it "primmer" as that was how it was pronounced at my first job in a pharmaceutical company. my group was tasked with creating summaries of complex topics for a general audience - the sales force as well as the rest of the company. not an easy task. Now I cannot pronounce it any other way.
No I do not want someone to clean my toilet, even though I have more money than most. That is disgusting. When better options are available. Clean it yourself or get a self cleaning toilet. or invent a way to survive without defecation.
We dont "do it to ourselves".
We do it to *each other*.
The strength of diamonds in anything where strength is an advantage. Control of the technology not problem free. Unless I misunderstand the concept, author and reviewer, I want to read this book. So I'll read it. Thanks!
One of my all time top ten favourite books. Love your breakdown. You managed to demonstrate how fascinating and profound the book is without even discussing the pedagogic relationship between The Primer and Nell. (For me the “heart” of the book. ) If there were an even longer and more in depth review I would watch that too. Thank you.
What are some other fiction books you would recommend reading? Looking for some recommendations if you can think of 4 or 5 to recommend.
Incredible video, with some excellent insight into the Diamond Age. You seem like an awesome guy to talk to, would love to someday. As for my thoughts: Considering this post-scarcity world is implied to be a future after anarcho-capitalism, it is interesting to see the neo-victorians fully embrace the capital system (as imperialist real victorians did) while seemingly presenting as an elite but seemingly reasonable high society away from the chaos of other phyles. After reading Snow Crash, and seeing the chaos of corporations and cyberpunk lawlessness, the depiction of cultures in the story becomes all the more interesting, as the significance of corporations seems to have waned in favour of cultural gangs with nigh-unlimited resources. tldr; I would love to hear your thoughts on Snow Crash.
Thanks! It has been a long time since I read Snow Crash; recollecting now, it makes me think of the Torment Nexus (as in, a cautionary tale from which we should take warning not inspiration). But I should read it again with new eyes.
@@PeterAllenLab Thanks for the reply! Snow Crash is of course a cautionary tale, of the dangers of full belief in free market capitalism. Essentially the world Snow Crash takes place in is one where equity/assets mean more than anything else. Absolutely not a world I would like to live in, but it is one possible future based on the path of neoliberalism we were set on by politicians in the 1990s. Ultimately I think Snow Crash is a very entertaining look into that sort of sci-fi world with some very prescient insight into the nature of media in our world. The main connection between it and the Diamond Age would be how different the world seems to be a few decades after such a anarcho-capitalist world, as it is implied to be a sequel in-universe. Corporations become more tied in with a wealthy elite, and have their roles replaced by cultural elites that provide basic amenities and products. It seems to be an interesting evolution over time for the wealth to consolidate like it does in the Diamond Age. Not only that, but the book specifically pokes fun at the degeneracy of the western world in this interrim period before the rise of phyles. They (neo-victorians in particular) try to distance themselves from the obvious capitalist greed of the period between the victorian era and the rise of phyles, but still engage with many of the same principles. They try to act as though they have learned a lesson from the world of Snow Crash, but many core issues in this post-scarcity society still remain. There is a lot to dig into in the worldbuilding of these 2 books, and I may be overthinking some of these concepts a bit, but the world stephenson created is absolutely one of the most interesting speculative fiction settings I have ever seen.
Right.
They keep people cleaning toilets because 'people' are the resource you need to subjugate.
It is the 'people' category that needs to managed.
Carbon allotropes and toilets can't depose your power or wealth.
People... groups of people, can.
Hi , thank you for your video . I like the scientific way and view that you have on different things . Please show us how deep the sea can be and dont leave us with a small water drop . The world needs more reliable people like you. Best wishes :)
great vid i appreciate your thoughts. a storyteller friend of mine was asking me what he should pitch to an interested investor and i said, procedural storytelling! when he asked what i meant by that I sent him The Diamond Age.
bravo - nice move. did you get feedback? if I had not already read it the thing would be a bit overwhelming.
didn't Nikolas Tesla try to get everyone free electricity? and they didn't want that when they could profit.
Also I tried to read this book and thought it was a downloaded mistake and written by AI at first.
Ugh, your recommendation of the book enticed me to read it. I feel that this book was never meant to be about post-scarcity. It has the matter compilers, it has the Feed, but... Never mentioned where the feed is coming from. I guess the region where action takes place is a hub that was well connected to the Nipon, Hindustan and other feed lines because a lot of high-level manufacturing and designing was happening there. I'd hazard a guess that the lives and surroundings of the feed producers looks very different from the what we saw the main characters go through.
The poverty in the society? It's same as now - vagrants. We have them in our cities as well, no need for diamond windows.
The books started strong with promises of the primmer delivering the next evolutionary step of human. How does it end? In a convoluted mess of "human flesh is better than cold computing power" and barely armed peasants taking over a nano-technological society somehow... Cookie-cutters exist? Whole cities clouded in nano-bots as protection? Ahm... yeah... no... "Sha! Sha!" was nonsense.
Yeah, like the real Victorians, there were some ugly undertones of anti-Chinese sentiment there.
It does talk at one point about the big inlets where huge bell-shaped flower-like air intakes pull in the atmosphere for generating the raw materials for the Feed, but the energy source is never mentioned to my knowledge. One can't re-arrange matter without energy, which is just never addressed.
I read it as being about post-scartity technology when I was a teen, but I agree, that's not really the theme that was conveyed. The comparison between the Victorians during the industrial revolution (and their Empire building) and the current/future revolution(s) is more the point. Maybe the author's choice to look at inequality instead of post scarcity reveals his opinion of the prospects for a post-scarcity future.
IIRC - early on there is a description of a large "nanosieve" in the river that filtered out various elements including gold. this was one source of what would be included in The Feed.
What's the solution? Pitchforks?
The book features a huge revolt by mainland Chinese against the Neovictorians and their allies in the Chinese Coastal Republic (maybe reference to the Boxer rebellion? I don't know the history well enough to make the comparison). The Celestial Kingdom tries to develop a new liberated technology of the Seed (instead of the Feed). No central control, nanotech grown right out of the ground by the users themselves. That's the utopian vision, but the obvious reply is that it could grow weapons as easily as it could grow houses.
In real life? I don't know. More local resiliency and meaningful human interaction to displace the power of monopolies?
Weird way to pronounce "Primer". One primes a pump, rather than primming one.
You're right. The audiobook uses the correct pronunciation, but I'm so used to saying primer from work (as in PCR primers) that I lapsed. Whoops. When I read it the first time, I thought it was "priming" the kid for the future. Made sense to me at the time.
i am used to pronouncing it "primmer" as that was how it was pronounced at my first job in a pharmaceutical company. my group was tasked with creating summaries of complex topics for a general audience - the sales force as well as the rest of the company. not an easy task. Now I cannot pronounce it any other way.
The pronunciation is the legal one.
No I do not want someone to clean my toilet, even though I have more money than most. That is disgusting. When better options are available. Clean it yourself or get a self cleaning toilet. or invent a way to survive without defecation.