The Diamond Age

By Neal Stephenson


Beautiful work of science fiction recommended to me by a colleague at work. I loved the story, it was completely challenging and mind opening. The writing itself was excellent, fun and playful, laugh out loud in many places. Amazing piece of science fiction!


"Hackworth excused himself through a milling group of uncertain Hindus. Their hard shoes were trecherous on the cobblestones, their chins were in the air so that their high white collars would not saw their heads off. " Pg. 47


"On the left were the spirits of generations past who had shown up too early to enjoy the benefits of nanotechnology and (not explicitly shown, but somewhat ghoulishly implied) croaked from obsolete causes such as cancer, scurvy, boiler explosions, derailments, drive-by shootings, pogroms, blitzkriegs, mine shaft collapses, ethnic cleansing, meltdowns, running with scissors, eating Drano, heating a cold house with charcoal briquets, and being gored by oxen." Pg. 48


"The next time Nell saw Harv, he told her that Mark was never coming back, that he was one of the pirates he'd warned her about, and that if anyone else ever tried to do such things to her, she should run away and scream and tell Harv and his friends right away. nell was astonished; she had not understood just how tricky pirates were until this moment." Pg. 69


"From the highest point of the arch, Hackworth could look accross the flat territory of outer Pudong, and into the high-rise district of metropolis. He was struck, as ever, by the sheer clunkiness of old cities, the acreage sacrificed, over the centuries, to various stabs at the problem of Moving Stuff Around. Highways, bridges, railways, and their attendant smoky, glinting yards, power lines, pipelines, port facilities ranging from sampan-and-junk to stevedore-and-cargo-net to containership, airports.  . . . The old neighborhoods of Shanghai, Feedless or with overhead Feeds kludged in on bamboo stilts, seemed frighteningly inert, like an opium addict squatting in the middle of a frenetic downtown street, blowing a reed of sweet smoke out between his teeth, staring into some ancient dream that all the bustling pedestrians had banished to unfrequented parts of their minds. Hackworth was heading for one of those neighborhoods right now, as fast as he could walk." Pg. 71


"Dr. X's assistant swung the door open and nodded insolently. Hackworth swung his top hat into place and stepped out of the Flea Circus, blinking at the reek of China: smoky souchong, mingled with the sweet earthy smell of pork fat and the brimstony tank of plucked chickens and hot garlic." Pg. 78


"'Pardon me, Your Honor, the concept is not easy to explain - there is an ineffable quality to some technology described by its creators as concinnitous, or technically sqweet, or a nice hack - signs that it was made with great care by one who was not merely motivated but inspired. It is the difference between an engineer and a hacker.'" Pg.114

"Judge Fang stood up to find himself surrounded by a hundred little girls, all facing toward the little jade book, standing on tiptoes, mouths open.


Finally he had been able to do something unambiguously good with his position." Pg 244


Quoted in full from pg 245 from the Great Learning:

The ancients who wished to illustrate illustrious virtue throughout the

world, first ordered well their own States.

Wishing to order well their States, they first regulated their families.

Wishing to regulate their families, they first cultivated their persons.

Wishing to cultivate their persons, they first rectified their hearts.

Wishing to rectify their hearts, they first sought to be sincere in their thoughts.

Wishing to be sincere in their thoughts, they first extended to the utmost of their knowledge.

Such extension of knowledge lay in the investigation of things.

Things being investigated, knowledge became complete.

heir knowledge being complete, their thoughts were sincere.

Their thoughts being sincere, their hearts were then rectified.

Their hearts being rectified, their persons were cultivated.

Their persons being cultivated, their families were regulated.

Their families being regulated, their States were rightly governed.

Their States being rightly governed, the entire world was at peace.

From the Son of Heaven down to the mass of the people, all must

consider the cultivation of the person the root of everything besides. (...)

"His left eyes free to wander through the sights of Vancouver, which had not been advisable when he'd come this way on the velocipde. He had not noticed, before, the sheer maddening profusion of the place, each person seemingly an ethnic group of one, each with his or her own costume, dialect, sect and pedigree." Pg. 246


"'It is the hardest thing in the world to make educated Westerners pull together, 'Miss Matheson went on. "That is the job of people like Miss Stricken. We must forgive them their imperfections. She is like an avatar - do you children know about avatars? She is the physical embodiment of a principle. That principle is that outside the comfortable and well-defined borders of our phyle is a hard world that will come and hurt us if we are not careful. It is not an easy job to have. We must all feel sorry for Miss Stricken.'" Pg 323


"''I think I have finally worked out what you were trying to tell me, years ago, about being intelligent.' She [Nell] said.


The Constable brightened all at once. 'Pleased to hear it.'


'The Vicky's have an elaborate code of morals and conduct. It grew out of the moral squalor of an earlier generation, just as the original Victorians were preceded by the Georgians and the Regency. The old guard believe in that code because they came to it the hard way. They raised their children to believe in that coe - but their children believe it for entirely different reasons.'


'They believe it,' the Constable said, 'because they have been indoctrinated to believe it.'


'Yes. Some of them never challenge it - they grow up to be small minded people, who can tell you what they believe but now why they believe it. Others become disillusioned by the hypocrisy of the society and rebel - as did Elizabeth Finkle-McGraw.'


'Which path do you intend to take, Nell?' said the Consable, sounding very interested. 'Conformity or rebellion?'


'Neither one. Both ways are simple-minded - they are only for people who cannot cope with contradition and ambiguity.'


'Ah! Excellent!' the Constable exclaimed. As puncutation, he slapped the ground with his free hand, sending up a shower of sparks and transmitting a popwerful shock through the ground to Nell's feet."  Pg. 356

Good luck to each of you in 2011 navigating "contradiction and ambiguity!"
Book 1