Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age has a “forcefield” of anti-personnel drones around one compound. They form a dome and drift into one another to share power from the ground.
I don’t remember if there’s a reason they’re not just wirelessly charged, aside from mass air-to-air refueling sounding cooler.
The drones were powered by atmospheric static, I think? Or was it solar power? They recharged each other by close contact. The black dust created by constantly battling nanobots was terrifying. More terrifying than the amount of money Stephenson must have spent on stimulants.
Have you read Neuromancer? Snow Crash must seem even goofier than intended without the fresh context of whiz-bang 1980s cyberpunk. It’s satire. It’s satire of the whole Johnny Mnemonic, True Names, Lawnmower Man brand of futurism, from people who’d never seen the internet and figured computers are magic. Stephenson turned that flying-through-numbers mysticism into a shopping mall - and a shocking number of influential people did not get the joke.
If you like Stephenson’s writing when it’s a doorstop, Cryptonomicon bounces between World War II and 1999’s view of 2001. It freely borrows from historical events as much as it makes shit up… and I’ve been surprised by which parts weren’t fiction. Yamamoto’s assassination, for example. US fighters really did fly to the edge of their range, in the middle of nowhere, and fly back five hundred rounds lighter.
If you like Stephenson’s writing when his editor has a short leash, Zodiac is basically his whole formula writ small. Literally and figuratively.
I don’t know that I get the jokes. I prefer to read fast and in binges,but I had to put down Diamond Age, often at the most exciting parts, and go touch grass.
Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age has a “forcefield” of anti-personnel drones around one compound. They form a dome and drift into one another to share power from the ground.
I don’t remember if there’s a reason they’re not just wirelessly charged, aside from mass air-to-air refueling sounding cooler.
The drones were powered by atmospheric static, I think? Or was it solar power? They recharged each other by close contact. The black dust created by constantly battling nanobots was terrifying. More terrifying than the amount of money Stephenson must have spent on stimulants.
I think that’s just how he is. It’s not like Colombia naming a library after Stephen King.
I just read that! So much better than Snowcrash
Have you read Neuromancer? Snow Crash must seem even goofier than intended without the fresh context of whiz-bang 1980s cyberpunk. It’s satire. It’s satire of the whole Johnny Mnemonic, True Names, Lawnmower Man brand of futurism, from people who’d never seen the internet and figured computers are magic. Stephenson turned that flying-through-numbers mysticism into a shopping mall - and a shocking number of influential people did not get the joke.
If you like Stephenson’s writing when it’s a doorstop, Cryptonomicon bounces between World War II and 1999’s view of 2001. It freely borrows from historical events as much as it makes shit up… and I’ve been surprised by which parts weren’t fiction. Yamamoto’s assassination, for example. US fighters really did fly to the edge of their range, in the middle of nowhere, and fly back five hundred rounds lighter.
If you like Stephenson’s writing when his editor has a short leash, Zodiac is basically his whole formula writ small. Literally and figuratively.
I don’t know that I get the jokes. I prefer to read fast and in binges,but I had to put down Diamond Age, often at the most exciting parts, and go touch grass.