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The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer

Questions About The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer

by Neal Stephenson (Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ Author)

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Answered Questions (7)

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Mel
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So did Hackworth prevent the Seed from forming, and protect the Feed, or did he fail?
prcardi
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Could The Young Ladies Illustrated Primer be built today? What would it look like if so?
Alex Willmer Not as described in The Diamond Age. We don't have the ability to make things atom by atom, which is how The Young Ladies Illustrated primer is constr…m´Ç°ù±ðNot as described in The Diamond Age. We don't have the ability to make things atom by atom, which is how The Young Ladies Illustrated primer is constructed. The capability is usually called molecular nanotechnology, or sometimes atomically precise manufacturing.

We could approximate TYLIP by stuffing something similar to an iPad with all of wikipedia/the internet, various software, an always on camera/microphone/sensors, 20 years of pre-paid mobile data, 20 years of a pre-paid tutor, 20 years of software support, and 20 years of pre-paid hardware support. However I suspect nearly all the benefit would derive from the pre-paid tutor.

Previous real world attempts have been inspired by The Diamond Age. An example in the early 2000s was One Laptop Per Child(less)
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I am a huge Neal Stephenson fan, loved Cryptonomicon and Snow Crash, but am about one-third thru this book and am slogging. I'm also a science nerd and SciFi geek, so I don't mind some hard science in my fiction. But jeez, the author will not let up in The Diamond Age. Page after page of no paragraph nanotech babble. It's like he wants to show off his knowledge. Is this book worth finishing? I'm ready to DNF.
Bruce Combs I just finished it yesterday. Yes, it's worth it, though all your questions won't be answered. After you finish it, I suggest you read all the Q&A hea…m´Ç°ù±ðI just finished it yesterday. Yes, it's worth it, though all your questions won't be answered. After you finish it, I suggest you read all the Q&A hear at GoodReads for The Diamond Age. I'm enjoying the various interpretations. (less)
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Is there a conclusion or sequel for this book? Just finished it and it ended abruptly as if the author died before completion.
David Gross That’s just the way his books tend to end. He’s written many great books since this one, but none have been direct sequels so far.
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Unanswered Questions (1)

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