On 3/29/2016 4:15 PM, Craig Berry wrote:
> For _Diamond Age_, it's the idea that in the world as portrayed you
> would need human actors (rather than a suitable not-quite-AI) to read
> material and listen to answers for an interactive children's book. It
> doesn't make any sense at all with the other tech present. And the plot
> absolutely hinges on that being the case.

The only possibility/justification I can think of is that a human is
still cheaper than a similarly capable AI (or that there is no such
thing), for such a task.  But it's been so long since I read it that I
can't recall if such is the case in the novel's setting.

Compared to that, it was a relatively minor detail for me, one that I
suspect was put in just for shock value - that the mixing of
nanomaterial from various donors is done inside a live human body, with
that unfortunate vessel being literally cooked from the waste heat of
the computation.  There is, IMO, absolutely no practical reason why this
process couldn't take place in a vat, with no loss of life - aside from,
again, what I believe is Stephenson going for shock value with
technoprimitivist ritual sacrifice as the excuse.

("Quant suff!")

--
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Kelly St. Clair
xxxxxx@efn.org