Comments on: The Diamond Age

By: Tschafer

Tschafer — Tue, 24 Sep 2013 18:05:40 +0000

Yes, just stating that some cultures are better than others is likely to get you Derbyshired these days.

By: Scipio Americanus

Scipio Americanus — Mon, 23 Sep 2013 18:26:24 +0000

Calm down, folks. It helps if you introduce the crimethink a bit at a time. ;-)

By: Isegoria

Isegoria — Mon, 23 Sep 2013 15:14:31 +0000

Being more interesting and entertaining than alternatives was the explicit goal of Sesame Street, which was directed at the thetes of its day. Of course, it quickly endeared itself far more to suburban, upper-middle-class families. (The real-world setting of Sesame Street is probably the most otherworldly element to most viewers.)

By: Isegoria

Isegoria — Mon, 23 Sep 2013 15:11:06 +0000

I agree that the explicit disclaimer against HBD stood out enough to feel forced, James, but I think his point about culture was already transgressing norms quite a bit. Also, I think Stephenson would readily agree that indoctrination is not sufficient to prevent memetic drift.

By: Isegoria

Isegoria — Mon, 23 Sep 2013 15:08:14 +0000

You're absolutely right that educational apps are nowhere near the Illustrated Primer level yet, Buckethead. Interestingly, the Illustrated Primer itself wasn't at the Illustrated Primer level yet either; it required live actors to provide the voice-acting and motion capture for the various characters, in real time.

By: Dan Kurt

Dan Kurt — Sun, 22 Sep 2013 18:39:25 +0000

A few weeks ago I met an acquaintance after an interval of a few years. He is a brilliant individual who has done nothing with his life, never bothering with educating himself, but supporting himself (barely) making furniture while his wife is the real money earner having a government job (low level). He had massive a heart attack circa six months ago, was helicoptered to a medical center 100+ miles away and had multiple bypasses so now has a clean bill of health for 10 to 20 years. So what does he do as his furniture business is bankrupt and he feels he is too old to actually continue it? He is a sales clerk in a building supply company and happy. I have known him for nearly 20 years and found that he reads more than just about anyone I am acquainted with save me. He also reads some of what I also read. He told me he just read again Stephenson's Cryptonomicon and that I should give it a second try. So I did and I am now just over half way through it. I am loving it. Now my opinions on some of Stephenson's oeuvre: Snow Crash was a difficult read as it never really gelled but I finished it. The Big U was enjoyable but he definitely ran off the rails in the last 20%. Diamond Age was simply brilliant until I got a little past the halfway point when I decided the author must have forgotten to take his Haldol. The book in in a pile of "should I finish these books or not." Note: I usually finish books that I have started since I was a teenager. This goes against the advice in a book I recommend to anyone who is a book lover: Thinking As A Science by Henry Hazlett, 1916. I have the Baroque Cycle but have not started reading the eight books. Perhaps I will start when I retire. Stephenson is a most frustrating author with so much talent.

By: Anomaly UK

Anomaly UK — Sun, 22 Sep 2013 13:48:48 +0000

You should probably try Cryptonomicon if you haven't. It's less silly than Snow Crash, but more coherent than the Baroque Cycle, which had some good parts but was too vast to really succeed at anything in particular. Anathem didn't do anything for me and I haven't read Reamde.

By: James James

James James — Sun, 22 Sep 2013 13:06:07 +0000

I love Finkle-McGraw’s monologue. It seems Stephenson got there before Moldbug. But perhaps, like with Carlyle, one needs Moldbug’s exegesis to understand it. Or, in the case of Stephenson, to spot what’s in plain sight, and put it in context. One can see plenty of neoreactionary things said in the media/popular culture, but they’re not controversial because they lack neoreactionary emphasis or their significance is not pointed out.

By: James James

James James — Sun, 22 Sep 2013 12:59:46 +0000

The Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer certainly seemed futuristic when I read The Diamond Age in 2000. Now it seems possible. The artificial island now seems likely to me, therefore perhaps more futuristic because it’s within the realms of possibility, not magic.

I’m able to self educate now that I’m in my twenties, but I needed compulsion to learn when I was young, which needs a human to be present. The Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer relies on being more interesting/entertaining than alternatives, which worked for Nell because she was bright and lived in a shithole. Might not have worked for her fellow thetes.

By: James James

James James — Sun, 22 Sep 2013 12:51:44 +0000

When I re-read The Diamond Age two years ago, post Moldbug, the only thing that jarred was the explicit disclaimer against HBD. I can’t tell if Stephenson really believes this, or whether it’s just to emphasize that the book is about nurture. I find it hard to believe that Stephenson doesn’t believe in HBD since tthe book allows for intelligence to vary among individuals – so why not races? (I’ve noticed that people who deny HBD are forced to deny differences on intelligence as well, to be consistent.) Perhaps he just didn’t want controversy to distract from the book’s message, like Charles Murray saying he wishes he left the chapter on race out of “The Bell Curve” because it distracted from all the other chapters, and how he deliberately ignores race in “Coming Apart”. But for me this means the book doesn’t quite work, because while society is downstream from culture, culture is downstream from HBD. A lesson of The Diamond Age is that societies can be created from scratch. This seems unlikely. Would education really keep them stable? I think indoctrination is not sufficient to prevent memetic drift.

The ending was bad too :-)