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I am really fascinated by the tone of optimism this and Cryptonomicon have
I am struck by the optimism too. I feel like it reflects a simpler, more optimistic, perhaps more naive time in cypherpunk libertarianism.
It feels like we've already living in the sequel. The one where the happily-ever-after turns into annoying kids, divorce, and midlife crisis.
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I suspect there is, in some circles, a similar optimism with regard to AI.
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I've been hearing a lot less AI Utopianism lately and a lot more doomerism, it seems
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I've enjoyed a number of the little essays in the appendix at the end of the book and on the merit of those, I keep hoping it will get better.
I am really fascinated by the tone of optimism this and Cryptonomicon have -- that people could build their own world. Maybe this is our version of utopian literature. Cryptopian? So much of cyberpunk literature is pessimistic, so flipping the script is interesting in and of itself.
Also, we have bitcoin now and almost everyone has a device in their pocket capable of encrypting communication, and pretty great apps that make it easy. But for all this, we still don't have Silk Road 2.0, people aren't using bitcoin on Facebook marketplace or Craigslist or Ebay, and Bitchat gets banned from app stores. I'm very curious to see how Rosenberg's utopia differs from our reality.