• Soyweiser@awful.systems
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    12 days ago

    The unexplored part of the Diamond Age, what if the A Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer servers are shut down.

    • gerikson@awful.systems
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      11 days ago

      Diamond Age is an interesting idea, the original Primer was for the elite and used distributed encryption to farm out the qualified work to skilled artisans. In the end though, a cut-down primer (using some sort of AI? it’s been a long time since I read it) is used to educate and train the girl army used by one of the faction in the final battle.

      It’s not really explained but I suspect the OG Primer had a robust payment model that ensured that the service oculd be kept solvent.

      • Soyweiser@awful.systems
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        10 days ago

        You are right, the OG Primer was a bit bespoke yes. So I doubt that could have failed without large parts of the whole financial system falling down. It was more a reference than a real 1 to 1 comparison, and it certainly doesn’t fit neatly. Prob should have just made it a reference to the girl army thing, but I coudln’t recall enough of that.

    • YourNetworkIsHaunted@awful.systems
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      8 days ago

      At best you end up with the Gunther Hermann story from Deus Ex, forced into retirement and made disposable when last generation’s top-of-the-line becomes this generation’s unusable trash.