[taneq]

"But for now, the companies are largely powered by people, clicking behind the curtain and making it look like magic."

Does this remind anyone else of the anonymous voice actors behind the Young Lady's Illustrated Primer?

[zipwitch]

Yes. Here come the ractors.

Just one of a great many points of correspondence between the present day and cyberpunk dystopian fiction. (Technically, I think Diamond Age is post-cyberpunk.)

Over at Naked Capitalism, the daily news rundown has a section titled The Jackpot.

[duckingtest]

What was dystopian about Diamond Age? While it wasn't explicitly utopian, the world is much closer to utopia than dystopia. Certainly better than current reality.