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Date the Crypotonomicon!

ormondsacker — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 12:27:46 -0800

When Neil Stephenson's Cryptonomicon was published in 1999, it left vague exactly when the "modern" section was taking place. Can we narrow down the dates, based on the software/technology involved? In the present day, Randy's mildly-computer-literate dentist is considering switching his office from Windows 95 to Windows NT. Meanwhile Avi, tech-savvy Silicon-Valley business manager, keeps four OSs on his computer - Win95 ("just for gaming"), Windows NT ("business apps"), a Linux variant, and BeOS. Assuming Avi knows his stuff, how long would that have been a likely combination?

And are there any other clues that would help date the modern storyline?

What would be a good way to calculate "fuck-you money"?

ElfWord — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 19:27:13 -0800

What would be a good way to calculate "fuck-you money"? I've been re-reading the excellent Neal Stephenson novel, Cryptonomicon. In it, there's a passage alluding to "fuck-you money", which has since come to be defined by UrbanDictionary as "any amount of money allowing infinite perpetuation of wealth necessary to maintain a desired lifestyle without needing employment or assistance from anyone."

The original passage from the book is as follows, reprinted from the publicly-available excerpt on the Cryptonomicon site:
"We look for places where the math is right. Meaning what? Meaning that pop. is about to explode---we can predict that just by looking at age histogram---and per capita income is about to take off the way it did in Nippon, Taiwan, Singapore. Multiply those two things together and you get the kind of exponential growth that should get us all into fuck-you money before we turn forty.

This is an allusion to a Randy/Avi conversation of two years ago wherein Avi actually calculated a specific numerical value for ``fuck-you money.' It was not a fixed constant, however, but rather a cell in a spreadsheet linked to any number of continually fluctuating economic indicators. Sometimes when Avi is working at his computer he will leave the spreadsheet running in a tiny window in the corner so that he can see the current value of ``fuck-you money' at a glance."

So then...
Assume I'd like to create the fictional spreadsheet Avi has created. How would I go about it? Which 'economic indicators' would be a good way of measuring this sort of thing?

Bonus points for:
a) Making it self-updating/providing instructions on how to do so.
b) Examples of the kinds of things this money could buy, or of people that have this kind of money.
c) Originality in choosing economic indicators.
d) Actually following through, making the spreadsheet/program, and making it publically available.

Crypto film rights

OmieWise — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 15:06:04 -0800

Have the film rights to Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon been sold? In general how does one discover the answer to such a question (what the kids call google-fu is weak with me)?

Should I read Cryptonomicon before Quicksilver?

elsar — Wed, 29 Sep 2004 13:40:54 -0800

NealStephensonFilter: I just bought Quicksilver in the airport, am enjoying it, but curious if I should be reading Cryptonomicon first. Any opinions?