I loved The Diamond Age as well, although I remember mostly bits and pieces now:

* cult sex scenes

* a forced-participation theater that humiliates you using Occulus Rift-technology

* the Kill Bill-esque ending

* ... and, most of all, the idea of continous education using an immersive Minecraft-like book/world that expands in complexity as your education grows.

Too bad we (the hackers) never completed even a crude version of the Primer (the book in the last bullet point) for the young geeks out there.

TDA is an interesting take on the issues a post-scarcity world might face. Unfortunately my immesion in the book was broken in several places by cringe-worthy "computers will never be able to do X" tropes. For example, the Primer must get a human to read its text aloud because "computers will never be able to reproduce a human voice"; this is in a world where atomically-precise, molecular diamond nanocomputers can be essentially 3D printed for free.

* > computers will never be able to do X*

I like your point; it compliments itself nicely with my previous one. Soon enough, computers may be able to do many things very well -- however, hackers are not catching up to corporations.

What I mean: if I remember correctly, in the DA world TV and big companies have as big as a grip on general populace as they have to day, but hackers are able to create alternatives, like the mentioned Primer for children's education.

In the real world, "hackers" (or those with the technical know-how to be one) love Apple and Google as much as the rest of the populace does, and leave the big things (OS, main APIs, maps, voice assistant, their personal data, ebook stores, videos available to young children) to them with very little opposition.

I think things will get more interesting when Oculus, Meta, Magic Leap and others get a little bit more entrenched (ass-u-me'ing it happens!).. give it another 10 years or so.. ;)

* They built everything with DIAMONDS... because it was cheap.

Someone endowed of clue should get going with a kickstarter for at least a film version of TDA, if not a lot of what was described therein :)

Damn, I'm going to have to read it again now. Still, it's about time for a refresh...

IMHO, it would do better with the Studio Ghibli treatment, than a live action movie.

Read the book in college, recently re-read as an audiobook - still relevant, still tantalizing.

I think I've read all his books. But his work is pretty diverse, so you get to pick and choose based on taste and preference.

There was a time when I thought Snow Crash was the best. There was a time when Cryptonomicon was a lot of fun (still is). Nowadays I incline slightly more towards the 'philosophical opus' type of vibe that Anathem gives off.

Anyway, all his books are pretty good representatives of one sub-genre or another. He's a very good author, and he wrote in a lot of different keys through his career so far.