a book

The Diamond Age, or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer

Name: The Diamond Age, or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer
Rating: 5 (9 reviews)
Author: Neal Stephenson
ISBN: 9780553380965

Neal Stephenson · 2000 · 512 pages

Decades into our future, a stone's throw from the ancient city of Shanghai, a brilliant nanotechnologist named John Percival Hackworth has just broken the rigorous moral code of his tribe, the powerful neo-Victorians. He's made an illicit copy of a state-of-the-art interactive device called A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer. Commissioned by an eccentric duke for his grandchild, stolen for Hackworth's own daughter, the Primer's purpose is to educate and raise a girl capable of thinking for herself. It performs its function superbly. Unfortunately for Hackworth, his smuggled copy has fallen into the wrong hands.

recommended by 9 people

sourced from public statements

Peter Thiel
“You can’t build new things just with technical know-how; you need imagination. Stephenson’s is boundless: This novel is not just the most entertaining book you can read about artificial intelligence and nanotechnology, it will inspire inventions your kids will use — or create.”↗
Bill Gurley
“@ritholtz @wolfejosh I adore Diamond Age.”↗
Meltem Demirors
“@matthuang it’s one of the few books to explore collective consciousness (the hive mind) and importance of education / mythology construction via the primer”↗
Seth Godin
Naval Ravikant
Andrew Chen
Ev Williams
Kelly Starrett
Geoffrey Miller