_The Diamond Age; or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer_, Neal Stephenson,
Bantam/Spectra, 1995, ISBN 0-553-09609-5, 455pp, US$22.95.
All right, yes, it's a science fiction novel. :-) So why am I reviewing
it for DESIGN-L? Well, for one thing, one of the main characters is a
designer and a major theme is the potentials and limitations of design.
For another, it's an exploration of the potentials of information and
materials technology; what some of you may have heard of as artificial life
and nanotechnology. For a third, it deals with the very post-modern
subject of the flow of ideas through cultures.
"So what's it all about, Mr. Natural?" :-)
_The Diamond Age_ is a novel drenched in Eric Drexler, Joseph Campbell, and
Jung. (Whoop! Whoop! Expository lump alert! Whoop! Whoop!) It is a
near-future novel; though I don't believe any date is explicitly stated,
the time is perhaps 50 years from now or perhaps "20 minutes into the
future." The next 50 years, in this future, have been more calamitous,
perhaps, than the entire 20th century. The crypto-anarchist project has
suceeded; governments collapsed as they lost the ability to tax. In place
of the nation-state, "tribes" have grown up, non-geographic empires rooted
in the ability to command allegiance, trade, and protect their members.
The project of nano-technology has partially suceeded: materials technology
has advanced to the point where virtually any form can be "compiled" from a
programmatic description of its forms, starting at the molecular level.
Hence the title; synthetic diamond is a popular industrial and construction
material of the day. This fine control over materials has blurred the
distinction between the biological, the built, and the manufactured form
and invaded and changed bodies and minds.
In such unsettled times, people cling to conservative social forms, and
nationalism and old empires have made a resurgence; as the title suggests,
neo-Victorians (queen and all) are a major tribe. They are also the most
understandable of the the tribes to people of our time.
The story begins with a cyberpunk interlude, but that milieu is quickly
pushed aside by John Percival Hackworth, a Victorian "Artifex"; an engineer
of his time. Like some historical Victorian engineers, Hackworth is more
than a bit of an artist and also, like some of those engineers, he is
willfully blind to the artistry of his work.
Hackworth is commissioned by a Victorian noble to create a teaching device;
a tool that will make a creative leader of the noble's daughter. What
Hackworth designs in response to this is what we would identify as a
magical book, the _Young Lady's Illustrated Primer_. It talks, it displays
moving pictures, it plays games which become more complicated and subtle as
the owner grows. Seeking a model for the content of this book, Hackworth
turns to Jung and Campbell.
The viewpoint then shifts; did I mention that _The Diamond Age_ is also
Victorian in form? :-) Hackworth decides to make an illicit copy of the
_Primer_ for his own daughter, and that copy is stolen, falling into the
hands of a poor and abused girl named Nell. From there like a Victorian
novel, it covers decades in its character's lives. We get a better look at
a broad range of cultures and the story climaxes in a very mythological
way. And then it ends like a late 20th-century novel; plenty of room left
for a sequel.
I have a number of reservations about the story, most notably in the
treatment of women as characters and actors in the "tribes"; I think it's
(like many Victorian novel) educational but falls short of great art.
Nonetheless, I recommend it highly, the more so to readers of this list who
for the most part have probably never heard of the technical possibilities
that form the books underpinnings.
Bantam/Spectra, 1995, ISBN 0-553-09609-5, 455pp, US$22.95.
All right, yes, it's a science fiction novel. :-) So why am I reviewing
it for DESIGN-L? Well, for one thing, one of the main characters is a
designer and a major theme is the potentials and limitations of design.
For another, it's an exploration of the potentials of information and
materials technology; what some of you may have heard of as artificial life
and nanotechnology. For a third, it deals with the very post-modern
subject of the flow of ideas through cultures.
"So what's it all about, Mr. Natural?" :-)
_The Diamond Age_ is a novel drenched in Eric Drexler, Joseph Campbell, and
Jung. (Whoop! Whoop! Expository lump alert! Whoop! Whoop!) It is a
near-future novel; though I don't believe any date is explicitly stated,
the time is perhaps 50 years from now or perhaps "20 minutes into the
future." The next 50 years, in this future, have been more calamitous,
perhaps, than the entire 20th century. The crypto-anarchist project has
suceeded; governments collapsed as they lost the ability to tax. In place
of the nation-state, "tribes" have grown up, non-geographic empires rooted
in the ability to command allegiance, trade, and protect their members.
The project of nano-technology has partially suceeded: materials technology
has advanced to the point where virtually any form can be "compiled" from a
programmatic description of its forms, starting at the molecular level.
Hence the title; synthetic diamond is a popular industrial and construction
material of the day. This fine control over materials has blurred the
distinction between the biological, the built, and the manufactured form
and invaded and changed bodies and minds.
In such unsettled times, people cling to conservative social forms, and
nationalism and old empires have made a resurgence; as the title suggests,
neo-Victorians (queen and all) are a major tribe. They are also the most
understandable of the the tribes to people of our time.
The story begins with a cyberpunk interlude, but that milieu is quickly
pushed aside by John Percival Hackworth, a Victorian "Artifex"; an engineer
of his time. Like some historical Victorian engineers, Hackworth is more
than a bit of an artist and also, like some of those engineers, he is
willfully blind to the artistry of his work.
Hackworth is commissioned by a Victorian noble to create a teaching device;
a tool that will make a creative leader of the noble's daughter. What
Hackworth designs in response to this is what we would identify as a
magical book, the _Young Lady's Illustrated Primer_. It talks, it displays
moving pictures, it plays games which become more complicated and subtle as
the owner grows. Seeking a model for the content of this book, Hackworth
turns to Jung and Campbell.
The viewpoint then shifts; did I mention that _The Diamond Age_ is also
Victorian in form? :-) Hackworth decides to make an illicit copy of the
_Primer_ for his own daughter, and that copy is stolen, falling into the
hands of a poor and abused girl named Nell. From there like a Victorian
novel, it covers decades in its character's lives. We get a better look at
a broad range of cultures and the story climaxes in a very mythological
way. And then it ends like a late 20th-century novel; plenty of room left
for a sequel.
I have a number of reservations about the story, most notably in the
treatment of women as characters and actors in the "tribes"; I think it's
(like many Victorian novel) educational but falls short of great art.
Nonetheless, I recommend it highly, the more so to readers of this list who
for the most part have probably never heard of the technical possibilities
that form the books underpinnings.