Turn On, Tune In, Veg Out (2005, Neal Stephenson) | Hacker News Reader

Turn On, Tune In, Veg Out (2005, Neal Stephenson)

nytimes.com

53 pointslincolnq14 comments

Scientists and technologists have the same uneasy status in our society as the Jedi in the Galactic Republic. They are scorned by the cultural left and the cultural right, and young people avoid science and math classes in hordes.

This theme is explored in depth with Stephenson's (fictional) account of the Ita, from his (fascinating) 2008 novel, Anathem.

A great book! I devoured it. I sometimes feel that future is here now, which I guess is what makes it such a good read.

The future has already arrived. It's just not evenly distributed yet. ~ William Gibson

Anyone else feel like Stephenson can only produce "nerd-bait"? Most of his literary work doesn't have strong characterization or meaningful plots, and everything he writes has this tired, "The geek shall inherit the Earth," undercurrent.

There's a name for that: "science fiction."

incidentally, Stephenson prefers "speculative fiction".

There's a division. Asimov and Herbert are science fiction, but not so easily grouped with Stephenson.

Very incisive take on the prequels and Episode 3 in particular. I think clearly that Episodes 1-3 are exactly the movies that Lucas wanted to make originally, but since they had limited budget and effects technology for Episodes 4-6, they had to actually flesh out the story in order to make a complete film. A textbook example of how constraints contribute to the quality of art.

yup, the prequels are like the ultimate example of the second-system effect :)

Woah, Avatar makes way more sense now.

Yeah -- that's why I cited Stephenson in the essay I wrote about Avatar: http://jseliger.com/2009/12/27/thoughts-on-james-camerons-av... , which got upvoted on HN yesterday. I assume whoever submitted this link thought, "Stephenson ought to get a place of his own here."

Yeah, that's when I first read the piece, after reading yours which linked to it.

It's a fantastic point, that we have an idealized view of how the critical elements of our infrastructure are created, so we make movie geeks with super powers... I guess we do the same with firemen and police and other parts of society that we rely upon and we have all those lame TV dramas.

This guy covers some of the same ground, but much funnier. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxKtZmQgxrI&; feature=player_embedded

Not really the same ground. Hilarious and insightful though.

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