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Comment by Hikikomori | Hacker News Reader

The society of Snow Crash is a dystopia, not something we should want to implement.

The biggest mistake the Cyberpunk authors made was making their dystopia look so cool and then assuming we’d actually read the book.

https://twitter.com/AlexBlechman/status/1457842724128833538

> Sci-Fi Author: In my book I invented the Torment Nexus as a cautionary tale

> Tech Company: At long last, we have created the Torment Nexus from classic sci-fi novel Don't Create The Torment Nexus

I wish this weren't so evergreen. Truly this is the Era of the Torment Nexus.

The world needs more https://aesthetics.fandom.com/wiki/Cyberprep

I'm personally a fan of https://aesthetics.fandom.com/wiki/Solarpunk

It's more The Diamond Age than Snow Crash. The "Patchwork" of Yarvin and Land maps pretty neatly to Stephenson's Clades -- micronations as voluntary societies.

TBH Diamond Age seems pretty cool, other than the Fists

I think/hope we will see something similar to voluntary societies in the future. Nation states are too heterogenous to row in the same direction. Stronger ethics are needed

Locked-down technology, courts where you don't get to present a defense and executions are carried out immediately without even telling the person, widespread illiteracy, violent revolution, masses of child soldiers.... Definitely "cool to read about" rather than "cool to live in."

Especially that whole ‘listening to reason’ thing ..

Well. I dunno, actually.

In some ways, I do want The Feed. But in other ways, I definitely don’t want Drummers. Okay, some aspects of Drummers.

The Feed would be cool, the Primer would be fantastic, and a lot of the voluntary societies would be awesome. Diamond age is the most compelling vision for the future of recent popular sci-fi that I've found

The Diamond Age is yet another terrible future that many readers take as awesome, for reasons I can never figure out.

The Primer that everyone likes is mostly just a human remote-teaching—certainly, the best parts of its outcomes are from that. One specific person caring very much and dedicating lots of time and focus to teaching this kid.

Meanwhile, the mass-production Primer without that aspect is just a brainwashing device.

There’s an epic battle raging between Gibson’s Cyberpunks and Clarke’s Spacefarers.

The former seems to be winning.

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