Jim Fehlinger wrote:
>
> I wrote the following comments to a friend some months
> ago after reading _The Diamond Age_ by Neal Stephenson:
>
> > I was a little annoyed at the nastiness of the cultural setting,
> > still based on scarcity and social hierarchy amid the material
> > plenty afforded by nanotech assemblers. ... I mean, why the hell did
> > the action of the Neo-Victorian designer of the Young Lady's Guide in
> > making a surreptitious copy for his own daughter constitute such a heinous
> > crime, for crying out loud?
That was part of what I found interesting about the book. It gave a
semi-plausible future stage along the road from where we are to where
the technology makes possible for us to be. I think we will see
interesting and innovative artificial restrictions disguised as the new
way to be just as soon as keeping the current status-quo becomes
obviously a hopeless proposition. I just hope the process is as
relatively peaceful as in Diamond Age.
- samantha
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Mon May 28 2001 - 09:56:24 MDT