Neal Stephenson reacts to Facebook name change • Hacker News Board

Re: Neal Stephenson reacts to Facebook name change

#61

Post by lhk2021 » Sat, Oct 30, 2021, 9:36 PM UTC

xiphias2 wrote: post #60

lhk2021 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think if you saw my full questions (had to edit for brevity) you would have gotten a different sense. I really was curious to know what he thought, given no one else had talked to him, which I found strange, but glad I did!

Why did you need to edit an amazing writer for brevity? Can you make the original interview available somewhere? It would be interesting

no I edited my questions, not his answers at all. made that clear in the piece. sure, i'll see where I can post it somehow

Re: Neal Stephenson reacts to Facebook name change

#62

Post by xiphias2 » Sat, Oct 30, 2021, 11:07 PM UTC

lhk2021 wrote: post #61

xiphias2 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why did you need to edit an amazing writer for brevity? Can you make the original interview available somewhere? It would be interesting

no I edited my questions, not his answers at all. made that clear in the piece. sure, i'll see where I can post it somehow

Ah, sorry, then it’s all fine, I wasn’t attentive enough :)

Re: Neal Stephenson reacts to Facebook name change

#63

Post by heckerhut » Sun, Oct 31, 2021, 12:13 AM UTC

DonHopkins wrote: post #23

heckerhut wrote: post #4

He should auction an NFT and Zuck/FB/MVRS should buy it for a decent amount

What reason is there to even use NFTs? How about he does exactly the same thing, with exactly the same outcome in the real world, just without making any NFTs, burning any coal, or shilling any get rich quick pyramid schemes? What tangible difference would there be? None whatsoever. ...Except for no bullshit, no proof of wasted energy, no precious GPUs buried in landfills, no contribution to climate change, no carcin…

By making it an NFT I think he creates something bigger than himself, something that could last generations. If he just gets a donation from FB, that would be some random amount of money…who cares.

Re: Neal Stephenson reacts to Facebook name change

#64

Post by DonHopkins » Sun, Oct 31, 2021, 11:09 PM UTC

heckerhut wrote: post #63

DonHopkins wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What reason is there to even use NFTs? How about he does exactly the same thing, with exactly the same outcome in the real world, just without making any NFTs, burning any coal, or shilling any get rich quick pyramid schemes? What tangible difference would there be? None whatsoever. ...Except for no bullshit, no proof of wasted energy, no precious GPUs buried in landfills, no contribution to climate change, no carcin…

By making it an NFT I think he creates something bigger than himself, something that could last generations. If he just gets a donation from FB, that would be some random amount of money…who cares.

While it's true that all that wasted energy and squandered precious rare earth elements and belching coal smoke and CO2 greenhouse gasses and climate change and cancer and lung disease you create by making NFTs are something bigger than yourself, they're not necessarily what you want to be remembered by.

And any person receiving some random amount of money donation from Facebook in exchange for NOT making an NFT probably cares.

Or is your whole point "who cares about the environment"?

Re: Neal Stephenson reacts to Facebook name change

#65

Post by regimeoftruth » Mon, Nov 01, 2021, 2:49 AM UTC

I actually want to see Zuckerberg’s Metaverse, but I also kind of want to see Neal Stephenson come at him with a team of fancy lawyers and walk away with a large pile of money.

Re: Neal Stephenson reacts to Facebook name change

#66

Post by WalterGR » Mon, Nov 01, 2021, 1:17 PM UTC

tomjen3 wrote: post #53

arrakis2021 wrote: post #41

Snow crash and Neuromancer are two well known must reads. I remember once hearing someone compare the 2 authors styles in that Neal Stephenson sounds like a hacker trying to be a great writer, and William Gibson sounds like a great writer trying to write like a hacker.

Attempted to get through Neuromancer, but (minor spoiler) when they started to switch persons around it got too confusing and I realized that it might have worked for a movie, but not a book. I also realized that I was only reading it because it was such a famous book, not because I was getting anything out of it, so I stopped. Just putting this out in case anybody else feels the same pressure.

Gibson's writing style is quite... disorienting.

It took me a few read-throughs of Neuromancer until I felt like I got everything.

Re: Neal Stephenson reacts to Facebook name change

#67

Post by webmaven » Mon, Nov 01, 2021, 2:21 PM UTC

mindcrime wrote: post #13

hgibbs wrote: post #6

Can anybody recommend authors like Stephenson? He is my favourite author by far and it's going to be a sad day when I exhaust his works.

Nobody's really like Stephenson, but to the extent that he is something of a cyberpunk author, I'd say you might like some of these folks if you're not familiar with them yet: 1. William Gibson - Neuromancer , 'nuff said. The rest of the Sprawl Trilogy is great as well. 2. Rudy Rucker - I haven't read any of his stuff yet, but he is on my short-list of authors to start reading. Gets recommended a lot in these circles…

> 4. John Brunner - not really "cyberpunk" but some of his work is often described as "proto-cyberpunk". The Shockwave Rider is one of his most famous works, and it is really good IMO. I haven't read Stand on Zanzibar yet, but it is also highly regarded.

Brunner's work is sometimes a bit of a downer, Stand on Zanzibar is matched or exceeded in that regard by The Sheep Look Up.

However, if that's your thing I can suggest George Turner and Paolo Bacigalupi, and Harry Harrison's Make Room, Make Room! (which was turned into the movie Soylent Green).

> 5. Pat Cadigan - I haven't read any of her stuff yet, but she is on my short-list of authors to start reading. Gets recommended a lot in these circles.

Cadigan is great, but her ouvre isn't all that large. Linda Nagata is a similar author well worth reading.

BTW, from my perspective Stephenson's real contribution in Snow Crash wasn't the Metaverse per-se but the huge dose of irony and insider humor, which reinvigorated a subgenre that was starting to take itself and it's RainyGrimDarkness a bit too seriously.

Then again, others have since explored similar territory (Tad Williams' Otherland series, Diane Duane's Omnitopia Dawn, etc.), but Stephenson's return to these stomping grounds in Reamde was a bit... turgid, by comparison.

Re: Neal Stephenson reacts to Facebook name change

#68

Post by heckerhut » Tue, Nov 09, 2021, 2:14 AM UTC

DonHopkins wrote: post #64

heckerhut wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By making it an NFT I think he creates something bigger than himself, something that could last generations. If he just gets a donation from FB, that would be some random amount of money…who cares.

While it's true that all that wasted energy and squandered precious rare earth elements and belching coal smoke and CO2 greenhouse gasses and climate change and cancer and lung disease you create by making NFTs are something bigger than yourself, they're not necessarily what you want to be remembered by. And any person receiving some random amount of money donation from Facebook in exchange for NOT making an NFT prob…

Let’s see who will be proven right. I am fully committed to saving the climate etc but in my mind NFTs have absolutely nothing to do with that. NFTs are real and however we prevent climate change will not prevent the continued existence and rise of NFTs. I’m saying that with 0 skin in the NFT game in terms of investment. So take that as you will. Just don’t be such a dick on the internet. It’s not conducive to you or anyone learning anything and that’s what we’re all here for. Thanks.