Ask HN: Are we all re-reading Neal Stephenson again?
I'm thinking of Snow Crash (1992) but even more so The Diamond Age (1995). Obviously not the first sci-fi to be prescient, not even the most pertinent (Black Mirror comes to mind). However I feel like as much as we're living in Infinite Jest, 1984, A Brave New World, The Machine Stops, etc., Stephenson's work is the most excruciatingly relevant to me right now in the year of our lord 1757774136 seconds since Jan 01 1970 (UTC).
Not really re-reading Stephenson, but I often ask myself "What would Goto Dengo do?"
Haha, I didn't even mentioned Cryptonomicon since I feel like privacy and cryptocurrency are sailed ships, but it's a good reference.
When I was at DARPA, I worked for a spell on CALO, which eventually turned into Siri. The team that was doing the follow on to Siri eventually spun off of SRI as Quato (Kwato?). And I guess they liked me cause they wanted to interview me. During the interview, they pitched their service as "The Primer." Which was kind of funny since the Primer as described by Stephenson was as much a mechanical turk as it was a marvel of technology. I wound up working for Linden Lab instead, but really appreciated some of the people I met at SRI and Quato.
Also ... Hardly a day goes by that I don't think of the Feed / Seed distinction Stephenson talked about. When I look at the digital media ecosystem, it looks as if we're getting the worst aspects of the feed.