They watch the streets, search for things, act as an artificial immune system cleaning harmful microbes from the sky, and even crawl up and down your nervous system and function as a torture device.

Nano-drones, called mites in the story, can do anything and everything. The third technology that really stuck out to me is nanotechnology, which yes, is a buzz word, and perhaps might be overhyped, but the possibilities presented by Neal Stephenson make me forget about all that and enjoy the technology for what it is in the story: really cool and often quite helpful (but occasionally terrifying). Of course this doesn’t mean people don’t work, or don’t struggle there’s still crime, there’s still manipulation, there’s still a need to fill the day with hustle and bustle, because we are still human. So long as you have a roof over your head and an MC it seems that you can get by. The MC is a solution to the age-old problem of humans trying to meet their basic necessities. There are even public ones which, like all MCs, can make food. MCs are widespread in this future and available to everyone as a sort of utility. The MC is akin to a 3D printer, but much more advanced and user friendly. It recognizes different learning styles, it gives individualized attention, and it meets each child where they come from.Ī second technology I found interesting was the Matter Compiler (MC). In many ways this book presages today’s debates about personalized education.

This is an electronic book developed to teach young girls how to be “subversive.” It is an interactive storytelling instrument that personalizes everyone’s education by taking in information from its surroundings and presenting it to the child in a manner that is tailored to their life situation, personality, and learning style. The first is the central technology of the book, the illustrated primer. There are three technologies in The Diamond Age which I think merit mentioning here. In this future it is not only the political and cultural landscape which is interesting, but the technology as well, and perhaps most interesting of all is how humans interact with technology.

The Diamond Age posits a future that isn’t quite dystopian or utopian, but similar to what we have now: a mix of good and bad. The ideas in it are representative of the creative and innovative writing of Neal Stephenson and the story’s flow and characters make it an absolute pleasure to read. Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age (1995) has had a significant impact on many people not only is it one of the precursors to the Center for Science and the Imagination, but it has also been used by the likes of Amazon for code words related to the development of the Kindle e-reader.

The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson