Somewhat ironically, perhaps, science fact has served to create a wealth of fundamental operating premises for the creators of science fiction. In its earliest days, science fiction basically had interplanetary exploration, time travel and robots upon which to construct its vision of the future. Much of anything beyond those big three moved precariously close to fantasy rather than true science fiction. The very idea of moving downward in size so as to examine in detail that which could not even be seen by the naked eye pretty much went entirely against the whole operating concept of the genre. Planetary aliens were much scarier if they were immense and who could be thralled by a tiny robot that fits into the palm of a child?
Technological innovation has opened up worlds of wonders for science fiction writers as a place to start from the starting point for Neal Stephenson’s novel The Diamond Age is nanotechnology. Rather than diving deep into hard science of abstruse theory and jargon, for the purposes of explication let the definition of nanotechnology the study of matter at its tiniest scale and proportion as a means to understand how it impacts everything else.
Typically, an analysis of such a novel which predicts a world of the not-too-distant future in which a singular revolution in technology has allowed everything to change—think of the silicon chip as an example from our own age—would focus on that technology. What is most interesting about the novel, however, is not how nanotechnology is used in the literal sense, but rather how it becomes a metaphor. The subtitle of The Diamond Age hardly seems appropriate for a futuristic dystopian tale. “A Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer” sounds like something from the Victorian Era and, indeed, that is precisely what it is. Sort of.
In reality, it is very much a futuristic book not completely dissimilar from the "Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy" in the series of novels that begin with the book of the same title. Both are extremely interactive and both contain an exhaustive amount of information. The information the book has the potential to give anyone with access to it opportunities far beyond the norm. Which is, of course, why it is specifically intended to be kept from falling into the wrong hands. And the wrong hands in this vision of the future is no different than the wrong hands that the powerful and influential try to keep information from today: the underprivileged classes.
Inevitably, of course, “A Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer” will fall into the hands of a young lady from the lower classes (which are really more reflectively described in terms of castes with the attached connotations of not just being kept down, but viewed as genetically inferior and incapable of rising upward) who are systemically kept from advancing.
And it is here the novel’s engagement of nanotechnology as metaphor takes over and gets interesting. For what the book is really about once stripped of all the façade of futuristic stuff is an age-old truth: knowledge is power and in the hands of a person deemed dangerous to the status quo, knowledge becomes the ultimate thing to be feared. One cannot get down to a much more microscopic level in this society than a four-year-old girl living in the slums at the lowest level of the societal spectrum. And yet, it is precisely at this nano-level that this futuristic society is about to undergo significant changes to its status quo.
