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Stephenson doesn't just write sci-fi, he writes operating manuals for the future. His books predicted cryptocurrency, the metaverse, and distributed computing b
by andy99 11mo ago
Stephenson doesn't just write sci-fi, he writes operating manuals for the future. His books predicted cryptocurrency, the metaverse, and distributed computing before most of us knew what TCP/IP stood for. Warning: his endings are notoriously abrupt, like a segfault in the middle of your favorite function.
This really is a study in AI slop. At least they had the good sense to change it.
- nakamoto_damacy 11mo agoHow did his books PREDICT crypto when we had eCash way before any of his books? SMH.
- agentultra 11mo agoMost of his books are also dystopias, not operating manuals.
- rainsford 11mo agoCan A16Z tell the difference? Insert that meme "At long last, we have created the Torment Nexus, from the classic sci-fi novel, Don't Create the Torment Nexus".
- cmrdporcupine 11mo agoa16z and others like them never met a dystopian warning they didn't interpret as a titillating invitation to an uncomfortably exciting and inevitable future!
- ndiddy 11mo agoa16z seems to view turning society into a dystopia as a goal, so that makes sense. Their portfolio includes: - DoubleSpeed, a bot farm as a service provider, allowing customers to orchestrate social media activity across thousands of fake accounts to create artificial consensus on the topic of their choice. Never pay a human again! - Cheddr, the TikTok of sports gambling, whose differentiating feature is allowing users under 21. Place live in-game bets with just a swipe! - Coverd, a new type of credit card where you can wipe off bills by betting on your favorite gambling games in their app. No VPN required!
- jsheard 11mo ago> Cheddr > Coverd Even worse, they're bringing Web 2.0 startup names back...
- jakelazaroff 11mo agoWow, I just checked the doublespeed website and it is comically evil. The footer says — verbatim, and in huge letters — "never pay a human again." (I'm not selectively quoting; it's a full sentence, despite their weird capitalization.) If Neal Stephenson tried to write a villain this on-the-nose, his editor would tell him to tone it down.
- efnx 11mo agoYeah, which book are we talking about? Reamde features crypto heavily, but I remember having bitcoins at the time it came out.
- simonw 11mo agoI imagine this is intended (though if it's AI-generated "intended" doesn't really apply) as a reference 1999's Cryptonomicon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptonomicon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptonomicon From that Wikipedia summary: > Their goal is to facilitate anonymous Internet banking using electronic money and (later) digital gold currency
- efnx 11mo agoAh, yeah, I missed that one.
- nakamoto_damacy 11mo agoDigital Cash was invented by David Chaum in 1982, and developed by his company DigiCash in 1990. I read about it years before Cryptonomicon.
- abecedarius 11mo agoWhen they changed it is also when they misspelled his name. Opus got it right. I was surprised Stephenson took the misspelling as an AI tell.
- philipwhiuk 11mo agoTo a version that managed to typo his name.
- netsharc 11mo agoMan... "Write a book recommendation for people who like The Big Bang Theory".
- dcre 11mo agoIt is appalling writing. Given that Opus is capable of a lot better than this, it seems likely they’re prompting it to be terrible.