“Can you make a Unix administrator into a character people
will find compelling?“
“In 1992 Neal Stephenson published “Snow Crash”, one of the most
prescient – and entertaining – visions of the future of the
Internet ever written. He instantly became a cult figure among
computer geeks. Last year Stephenson released “Cryptonomicon,” a
historical thriller about cryptography and the invention of the
computer. It became a best-seller, and suddenly Stephenson had
stormed out of the AV club and into the mainstream.”
“We caught up with Stephenson, who was in the throes of creating
his next work, tentatively titled “Quicksilver,” and peppered him
with questions about nerds, Linux, the science-fiction ghetto and
not getting rich.”
“Here’s what he had to say, in longer form than we were able to
run in the print version of TIME Digital.”