Interface
by Bury, Stephen · first published 1994
86% recommend14% critical
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This title may be relatively well-known among the HN crowd, but Interface by Stephen Bury aka Neal Stephenson is an amazingly prescient read. I find it Stephenson's most insightful and critical work that reflects contemporary America.
on “Ask HN: What are the best unknown books you have read?” ↗what a hipster - "Yeah, he's ok but I prefer his early stuff" Reamde seems like a trip back to the style of the Stephen Bury books he wrote with his uncle, The Cobweb & Interface, both enjoyable reads.
on “Has Neal Stephenson become too accessible? ” ↗Beckwitt's alias "3AlarmLampscooter" is a reference to the excellent novel "Interface" by Neal Stephenson and George Jewsbury (previously published under the pen names Stephen Bury or J. Frederick George). Coincidentally (?), the phrase occurs in the novel shortly before a politician…
on “Millionaire hacker gets 9 years in death of man building nuclear bunker tunnels” ↗The Interface is a criminally underrated book. Same with the Cobweb, under written by him under the pseudonym Stephen Bury.
on “We are all nerds: The literary works of Neal Stephenson” ↗You might like the plot of the (pseudonymous Neal Stephenson collaboration novel), "Interface", by Stephen Bury. There's definitely a parallel to what you're describing applied to politics.
on “A Fuss Budget (1885)” ↗As captured in the classic Neal Stephenson and George Jewsbury novel (released under the pen name Stephen Bury) “Interface”. Democracy hasn’t functioned as it was “intended” for, well, ever. It was never alive to be killed, which makes this useless handwringing.
on “Data-fueled neurotargeting could kill democracy” ↗Try Zodiac and Interface (authored under the co-pseudonym Stephen Bury).
on “Neal Stephenson was prescient about our AI age” ↗Time to re-read Stephenson's (well, "Stephen Bury") Interface. I don't remember it as a particularly good read, but it might be great fun to contrast the innocuously blunt politicization of mediatech envisioned 25 years ago with the realities of the Trump/Johnson…
on “Boris Johnson uses search terms in interviews to hide negative articles?” ↗