3 ms·

Firstly, True Names is an awesome read, and the real origin of cyberpunk. I much prefer it to Neuromancer or Diamond Age. Secondly, I recently tried to work ou

by nl 7mo ago

Firstly, True Names is an awesome read, and the real origin of cyberpunk. I much prefer it to Neuromancer or Diamond Age. Secondly, I recently tried to work out what year on the Top500 list[1] I could reasonably be for around US$5000. It's surprisingly difficult to work out mostly because they use 64 bit flops and few other systems quote that number. [1] https://top500.org/lists/top500/2025/11/ https://top500.org/lists/top500/2025/11/

eru 7mo ago
Isn't the Diamond Age something like post-cyberpunk already? It came out three years after Snow Crash, which already ironically referenced "The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel". I agree that Neuromancer wasn't a great novel, though it obviously had vibes that resonated with many people. The novel being otherwise a bit of a dud actually speaks to how strong the vibes were to overcome that.
- ehnto 7mo ago
  I feel that's a bit uncharitable, it wasn't just vibes, it was imaginative world building, with some truly interesting and novel concepts tied into a decent enough story to enjoy the world within. As with much from this thread of cyberpunk writing, the cities and world are the most important characters, and the storyline is just an excuse to wander through their streets.
  - eru 7mo ago
    'Vibes' was probably the wrong word. I agree with you. Though about the world building: he threw out a lot of neologisms on the page, and later other writers gave them meaning.
    - ehnto 7mo ago
      That's true, I read Neuromancer pretty late, already well primed on the terms of art which smoothed that over a bit. But a lot was left to the imagination.
bee_rider 7mo ago
I looked at something kinda similar a little bit ago. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45303483 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45303483 Jeff Geerling made a $3000 raspberry pi cluster and shared the linpack scores, so I looked at when it’d hit different spots in the top500 list. He’d have won from ‘93 to June ‘96, and then been knocked out of the top 10 in November ‘97. That’s with a pretty substantial constraint, making it out of raspberry pi’s, and a lower budget. With $5000, and your pick of chips… I bet you could hit the turn of the century…

by nl 7mo ago

eru 7mo ago

Isn't the Diamond Age something like post-cyberpunk already? It came out three years after Snow Crash, which already ironically referenced "The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel". I agree that Neuromancer wasn't a great novel, though it obviously had vibes that resonated with many people. The novel being otherwise a bit of a dud actually speaks to how strong the vibes were to overcome that.

ehnto 7mo ago
I feel that's a bit uncharitable, it wasn't just vibes, it was imaginative world building, with some truly interesting and novel concepts tied into a decent enough story to enjoy the world within. As with much from this thread of cyberpunk writing, the cities and world are the most important characters, and the storyline is just an excuse to wander through their streets.
- eru 7mo ago
  'Vibes' was probably the wrong word. I agree with you. Though about the world building: he threw out a lot of neologisms on the page, and later other writers gave them meaning.
  - ehnto 7mo ago
    That's true, I read Neuromancer pretty late, already well primed on the terms of art which smoothed that over a bit. But a lot was left to the imagination.

bee_rider 7mo ago

I looked at something kinda similar a little bit ago. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45303483 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45303483 Jeff Geerling made a $3000 raspberry pi cluster and shared the linpack scores, so I looked at when it’d hit different spots in the top500 list. He’d have won from ‘93 to June ‘96, and then been knocked out of the top 10 in November ‘97. That’s with a pretty substantial constraint, making it out of raspberry pi’s, and a lower budget. With $5000, and your pick of chips… I bet you could hit the turn of the century…