Don´t do drugs, cyborg metaverse cyberpunk ghetto kids
High VR AR and finally only reality. What would VR and AR be without being hooked on a potentiallDon´t do drugs, cyborg metaverse cyberpunk ghetto kids
High VR AR and finally only reality. What would VR and AR be without being hooked on a potentially fatal wonderdrug, as the only chance to escape bleak reality, in an anarcho neoliberal nightmare controlled by corporations, organized crime, and the rest of government mutated into a bizarre self satire of bureaucracy without any real power.
Not like his second milestone, Diamond Age. In contrast to the somewhat Dickensian Diamond Age, this one is pure cyberpunk without biopunk elements, accelerating the badass dystopian transhumanist ideals to degenerated turbo capitalistic free market terror.
Humor as black as the world I had some of the best laughs with the hidden easter egg black comedy. Be careful not to miss them! Kool Aid, lol. This is by far Stephensons`funniest novel, I don´t know why he didn´t continue to expand this element.
Remember the mutating memes One of the most famous, best, important, and mind boggling ideas of this work is that any ideology, memes, manifestations of epigenetic and cultural evolution in progress, sadly often faith and sick ideologies, are parasitic, viral information, infecting the minds of humans as a first, single, abnormal mutation in the brain of just one, possibly a bit incestuous, ape with full borderline bipolar schizophrenic potential. I don´t want to discriminate against incest proponents, I´m already insulting enough other favorite target audiences, it´s just that one of the many, negative side effects is mental illness.
Action, philosophy, linguistic theories mixed with faith origin ideas, and quick cuts between pure fun and sophisticated mind penetration that will leave one blown away. Mix this all with the cool, quick writing style, extreme high complexity and density of ideas, philosophy, switching between action scenes and deep, linguistic introspections, inner monologues, dialogues, and social criticism, and one has a milestone of sci-fi and literature in general.
Who combined humanities, tech, and economics first? I wonder how many sci-fi movies have been influenced by literature, someone should consider making a list, because I watch close to no TV and will thereby never be able to compare it. In this case, I am not even sure if Gibson, Stephenson, or a forgotten, unknown author was the first one to mix economic criticism with VR and humanities.
Cherry pick wisely I´ve said this before, don´t read all of Stephenson´s work if you aren´t really into sci-fi or like to skim and scan lengthy passages, because Diamond Age and Snow Crash aren´t like many of his other novels. These are often more something like hard-science fiction, space opera, philosophical theory hybrids that are really exhausting to read, don´t care about writing conventions, and could have been much better, if just reduced to an acceptable length and included in a normal, suspenseful plot. Instead of just egomaniacally letting the author drivel about whatever comes to his mind in the form he thinks is cool, that is what sadly made his brick books like Anathem and Cryptonomicon unreadable for many people.
In a parallel universe, Stephenson could have evolved into a readable sci fi superhero Instead, Stephenson sabotages himself and his legacy, by being too much focused on the high brow, deep, art aspect and forgetting that he once was one of the prodigies of cyberpunk and sci-fi itself before becoming unreadable for a vast majority of the bibliophiles, even sci fi holics like myself. I´ve read many of his works and enjoyed them, but won´t reread them, because the best genre of them all is my lifeblood, but I couldn´t find another author who got so hypercomplex, interwoven, and difficult or impossible to understand as Stephenson with his close to 1k page behemoths of books. Yes, they offer unique and intelligent insights and revelations, but this would taste much less bitter without the knowledge that most readers, for completely understandable, logical, and appropriate reasons, won´t ever become comfortable with it.
Please note that I put the original German text at the end of this review. Just if you might be interested.
The evolution of thinking and philosophy inPlease note that I put the original German text at the end of this review. Just if you might be interested.
The evolution of thinking and philosophy in conjunction with technology thought further.
Stephensons novel contains a plethora of plots, allusions, and concepts. Arbitrarily, some that caught my eye. Societal implications are caricaturing the sober reflections of previous models of politics, economics, and religion. Or spin it into the future to a fictional, renewed collapse.
And how the splinters and fragments of previous ideologies transform into new cults. This time not dedicated to the Transfiguration, Indoctrination, and Monotheism, but with the focus on enlightenment. Admittedly, every specialized section has the small flaw to put forward a kind of omnipotence claim for correctness in the whole context. But in a scientific background in which words, logic, forms, and reason are sometimes hotly debated. Always without a sword, a loosely holstered firearm or a nervous finger, hovering over DEFCON 1´nuclear missiles.
This could also be interpreted as a satire on the nature of dogma formation in the sciences. This is luckily approaching its end, as the simple exponential growth leaves no time for myths to form. Thanks to the singularity in scientific research with exponential growth of computational power, etc. In the past, one could easily derive one's own little glorification for a new thesis or new general opinion that could not be challenged for a few decades. Which, unfortunately for the progress, also happened much more often than necessary. After all, even Einstein was massively dissed and trolled before his breakthrough. The one´s before him burned.
In the book, the old, current and future science schools are treated under the aspect that already a long history of the future has introduced various new developments. Above all, the overlapping of natural science and the humanities, primarily philosophical, intuition and interpretation is devoted much space. How do proven hypotheses affect the construct of the ego, mind, consciousness? And how are the ancient theses of antiquity revitalized under this aspect and implemented in new technologies and social models?
The parallel development of science and humanities and constant interaction and mutual inspiration permeate the work. In the form of debates and monologues of the protagonists as well as "practical examples" in the course of the plot.
Also, understanding the theses leads to transference and change in consciousness and perceptions of the protagonists. A incubation of the self-perception of the reader is optional too. Through a digression through various schools of thought the one or the other self-perception error of the reader is revealed. If not, genuine respect. Godmode has been reached.
Summing up, one considers not only one's own epoch but even the nearer and more distant future, down to a framework of several millennia, with much more realism and with less optimism about the future and a lens that has been transfigured in a utopian way. Preferably, it allows one to humbly and objectively, soberly and rationally consider the fallibility of any seemingly immaculate technology, idea, worldview, social model, etc. And realize how small, insignificant and even to an inestimable extent wrong many of today's mantras could be.
As recommended by Stephenson himself, parallel reading of the footnotes provided separately on his homepage hones the depth of the text even more. Also independently, these footnotes represent a compact collection of the significant milestones in the evolution of philosophy as well as concentrated mental power in the smallest of spaces. What a pity that putting footnotes in fiction is contradicting the unwritten conventions of those genres (except for satire).
In that case, they could have increased the enjoyment of reading. If not already as physically manifested footnotes in printed editions, so at least in the Ebook as optional fade-in and fade-out hyperlinks for keywords or at the end of each page. For example, the continuing literature, encyclopedias and underlying philosophies of the schools of thought created by Stephenson.
Die Evolution von Denken und Philosophie in Verbund mit Technologie weiter gedacht
Stephensons Roman, beinhaltet eine Fülle an Plots, Anspielungen und Konzepten. Willkürlich einige, die mir besonders ins Auge fielen. Gesellschaftlichen Implikationen, die die nüchternen Betrachtungen bisheriger Modelle aus Politik, Wirtschaft und Religion karikieren. Oder sie in die Zukunft bis zu einem fiktiven, erneuten Zusammenbruch weiter spinnen.
Und wie sich aus den Splittern und Fragmenten der bisherigen Ideologien neue Kulte entwickeln. Diesmal nicht der Verklärung, Indoktrination und Monotheismus gewidmet, sondern mit dem Fokus auf die Erleuchtung. Zwar hat jeder Kult den kleinen Makel, für sich selbst eine Art von Allmachtsanspruch auf Richtigkeit im ganzen Kontext zu stellen. Aber in einem wissenschaftlichen Zusammenhang, in dem mit Worten, Logik, Formen und Vernunft mitunter auch heiß debattiert wird. Aber immer ohne Schwert oder locker im Holster sitzender Schusswaffe oder einem nervösen, über DEFCON 1 schwebenden, Finger.
Das könnte man auch als Satire auf die Art der Dogmenbildung in den Wissenschaften auslegen. Diese nähert sich jetzt sehr langsam ihrem Ende, da das schlichte exponentielle Wachstum, keine Zeiträume für Mythenbildgung mehr frei lässt. Der die wissenschaftliche Forschung erreichenden Singularität sei es gedankt. Früher hätte man um eine, für ein paar Jahrzehnte nicht anfechtbare neue These oder neue Allgemeinmeinung, leicht eine eigene kleine Glorifizierung ableiten können. Was, leider zum Nachteil, auch häufiger geschah. Immerhin, selbst Einstein wurde vor seinem Durchbruch massiv gedisst und getrollt.
Im Buch werden die alten, aktuellen und zukünftigen Wissenschaftsschulen unter dem Aspekt behandelt, dass bereits eine lange Zukunftshistorie diverse neue Entwicklungen mit eingebracht hat. Vor allem der Überschneidung der naturwissenschaftlichen mit der geisteswissenschaftlichen, primär philosophischen, Anschauung und Interpretation wird viel Raum gewidmet. Wie wirken sich bewiesene Hypothesen auf das Konstrukt des Ichs, des Geistes, des Bewusstseins aus. Und wie werden die alten Thesen der Antike unter diesem Gesichtspunkt revitalisiert und in neue Technologien und Gesellschaftsmodelle implementiert?
Die parallele Entwicklung von Naturwissenschaften und Geisteswissenschaften und eine stete gegenseitig Beeinflussung und Inspiration durchziehen das Werk. In Form von Debatten und Monologen der Protagonisten sowie "praktischen Beispielen" im Laufe der Handlung.
Auch führt das Verständnis der Thesen zur Übertragung auf das Bewusstsein und die Wahrnehmung der Protagonisten. Optional ist auch eine Inkubation der Selbstwahrnehmung des Lesers. Denn durch einen Exkurs durch diverse Denkschulen offenbart sich gewiss der eine oder andere Selbstwahrnehmungsfehler des Leser. Wenn nicht, herzlichen Respekt. Gottmodus erreicht.
Resümierend betrachtet man nicht nur die eigene Epoche, sondern selbst die nähere und fernere Zukunft bis in einen Rahmen von mehreren Jahrtausenden wesentlich nüchterner und mit weniger Zukunftsoptimismus und einer utoptisch verklärten Linse. Eher lässt es einen demütig und objektiv, nüchtern und rational die Fehlbarkeit jeder noch so scheinbar einwandfreien Technologie, Idee, Weltanschauuung, Gesellschaftsmodell, usw betrachten. Und erkennen, wie klein, unbedeutend und auch in noch unabwägbaren Ausmaß falsch viele heutige Mantras sein dürften.
Wie von Stephenson selbst empfohlen, vervollkommnet ein paralleles Lesen der von ihm separat auf seiner Homepage zur Verfügung gestellten Fußnoten die Tiefe der Lektüre noch zusätzlich. Auch separat stellen diese Fußnoten eine kompakte Sammlung der wesentlichen Meilensteine der Entwicklung der Philosophie sowie geballte mentale Kraft auf kleinstem Raum dar. Wirklich schade, dass es den Konventionen des Unterhaltungsroman (mit Ausnahme der Satire) widerspricht, Fußnoten in Belletristik zu setzen. In diesem Fall hätten sie den Genuss des Lesens noch potenzieren können. Wenn schon nicht als physisch manifestierte Fußnoten, so zumindest im Ebook als optional ein- und ausblendbare Hyperlinks bei Schlagwörtern. Etwa zu der weiterführenden Literatur, Enzyklopädien und den zugrunde liegenden Philosophien der von Stephenson erschaffenen Denkschulen....more
Wait for the conclusion, because after about 70 percent of the novel, a fascinating future humankind enters the stage.
There are, at the moment, many aWait for the conclusion, because after about 70 percent of the novel, a fascinating future humankind enters the stage.
There are, at the moment, many authors and screenwriters dealing with the idea of space colonization, habitats, and especially sociology and politics, parallel in space and on Earth, that it´s tricky to know who created what. Not to mention the old classics of sci-fi, where similar or maybe even identical settings may wait hidden behind close to impassable walls of oldfashioned writing.
That´s, what I´ve read so far, the closest, first hard sci-fi, first with some and then mainly space opera, Stephenson has written, because he usually tends to stay on devastated, dystopian Earth. There are, of course, lengths, and long passages without much action, but in contrast to some of other of Stephensons´ works with much philosophizing and info dumping, a better character implementation helps to prevent losing control over the storyline.
How good old tribalism poisons a technologically highly developed future space population, the results of it, the psychological and sociological effects of long time living in space environments, and how a very far future could look like, make it one of the most detailed and astonishing future visions, a bit similar to Kim Stanley Robinson´s work Red Mars. Because usually, there is much more action in such genre works, fractions, aliens, war, space battles, etc., but by just focusing on the key elements, Stephenson wants to explore, it gets much denser than the conventional sci-fi.
But it´s just something for enthusiasts and sci-fi prone persons, others could theoretically skim and scan some passages to accelerate if the topic doesn´t interest them, but that wouldn´t really make much sense, because the fusion of the technical and social aspects is what makes this work so interesting. And one has to honor Stephenson for making it a far not as complex, closer to normal novel, read, in contrast to his other sophisticated behemoths including different sciences, theories, genres, and ideas that make reading it both so fascinating and exhausting.
It´s wise to check preferences before, if one wants to read one of the more normal of his novels or one of the true beasts, because these could easily lead to dissatisfaction because they are like written by another author.
The logical dystopian continuation of a feudal system in a cyberpunk, no wait, the cyberpunk, yes you heard right, setting.
Such a laconic, badass wriThe logical dystopian continuation of a feudal system in a cyberpunk, no wait, the cyberpunk, yes you heard right, setting.
Such a laconic, badass writing style, such a messed up, gritty, sick world. As if China Mieville and Alastair Reynolds created a hybrid and doped it with philosophical undertones. Stephenson thematizes the consequences of nanotech in a Blade Runner style scenario that is coming closer each day, letting and enabling fiction to be history one day, making it seem as if it´s the inevitable fate of human societies to invite, celebrate, and realize each possible dystopian vision. Everything is already on the horizon:
The social injustice, a technological singularity, poverty, slums, redlining, crime, etc. out of control, corporations and organized crime becoming more and more potent thanks to free trade and new inventions, not to forget the lobbyism undermining democracies and escalating media consumption thanks to VR, AR, internet, etc. of course. I don´t even know where, except for the technology that will need a few decades to come, are any differences to reality which once again shows the immense Nostradamusian potential of sci-fi.
We´ve become cyberpunk, that might sound cool, but it´s a freaking nightmare, it´s at the moment becoming so strange that it couldn´t be even used for a movie, script, novel, or series some decades ago because many would have deemed it improbable and exaggerated, especially the stupidity. But it´s no fiction, humans are doing and gonna do all this stuff, this disturbing options will get real Cyberpunk 2077 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lembw... style.
Stephenson completely lost control over the length and redundancy, wordiness, and infodump detection and preventions systems over his career, Diamond Age and Snow Crash are still the perfect balance of length and content, but others escalated quickly and made him kind of unreadable for bookworms used to less egocentric and unconventional writers. Experiments over a few hundred pages are ok, but if it´s that extreme, many audiences get lost for a reason. I´m a nerd, I can handle it, heck, I love it, but it´s unnecessary that so many people won´t ever enjoy the wisdom and mindblowing ideas Stephenson weaves in his colossi of books that are exhausting to read, but extremely satisfying.
Mario the lone bookwolf
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