Staying true to his cyberpunk and science fiction roots, Stephenson examines a variety of cyberpunk issues in his novel The Diamond Age, including technology, education, literacy, society and social status. He then uses these issues as a vehicle to investigate the ethical and moral obligations that humankind has toward their fellow citizens. Stephenson presents a well-crafted story about an underprivileged and illiterate child named Nell, living in Shanghai, and her experiences with an interactive book that was intended for a young, wealthy recipient. Through this book, entitled The Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer, Nell learns universal lessons about leadership, sound judgment, loyalty, intuition, critical thinking, and moral integrity. Nell then rises above her unfortunate conditions to the position of a heroic protagonist, highlighting one of Stephenson’s most important themes in this novel, that one’s literacy and education have the ability to transform and transcend her circumstances, whether it is a gender, societal or cultural barrier. Through her education, Nell achieves a metaphorical and literal sense of direction in her world, as well as an understanding of it. While Marxism is a central theme in this book, as society lacks any real balance of power between the haves and the have-nots, through Nell, the ideology of superiority is attacked, for as a young girl she observes, “princesses were not genetically different from commoners”, revealing her insight on the human connectedness in this world (386).

Further, Nell’s story is intertwined with several other narratives that all somewhat converge at the end of the novel. Nell’s copy of the book, only one of three in this society, was created by John Hackworth, a brilliant engineer whose ruin is somewhat self-imposed.  He disobeys his superiors’ orders and creates multiple copies of the esteemed Primer, one of which is returned to the intended owner Elizabeth, another which Hackworth’s daughter Fiona receives, and the last of which ends up in the hands of Nell. After violating his agreement with his boss, Hackworth is forced to work off ten years of punishment, and does so by helping a powerful corporation develop the Seed, a new technology that will result in the dissolution of the existing technology, the Feed, so that the corporation CryptNet can gain control over everything, after the ensuing mass chaos. The Seed is greatly feared and functions to reveal how technology dominates and controls society. Clearly, Stephenson is suggesting that some, but not all technological advancements, are beneficial to society and ethically acceptable.

     Stephenson’s political agenda is evident throughout this novel, as he clearly advocates for equal opportunity education and social justice, while seeming to have an unwavering faith in humanity and the human capacity to forgive, sacrifice, achieve and endure. Further, Stephenson also portrays the futuristic technologically centered world to be less than ideal. For example, the exchange of information and breaking codes are the primary purposes of organizations like the Drummers, who do so through massive orgies and sexual contact, while being in states where “your mind isn’t your own”, clearly suggesting that corruption is rampant (339). Further, machines with artificial intelligence, like the Turing machines, are not depicted as being anywhere near as valued as the human mind, soul and capacity for creativity, as Stephenson writes the Machine “no matter how complex, was not human. It had no soul. It could not do what a human did” (442). Corporations like CryptNet lack “moral code and confuse inevitability with right” and are constantly striving for a “more highly evolved society”, which isn’t often portrayed favorably by Stephenson (384, 284). Society is represented as shallow, profit driven, entertainment obsessed and willing to sacrifice as many innocent people as possible as a way to achieve a means to an end, with the end using being a power struggle.  

While the title The Diamond Age may initially suggest that this is a book about wealth and glamour, it becomes much clearer as to how the title relates to the important themes of and the events that unfold in the book, for this is certainly not a story about diamonds, rather this is a story about a society hardened by extensive technology, making the title a very ironic one. It has been suggested that the term “the diamond age” is likened to other “archeological time periods that take central technological materials to define an entire era of human history, such as the Stone Age, the Bronze Age or the Iron Age” ( ). Further, in the book, diamonds can be reproduced because of nanotechnology, or having control over atomic and molecular matter, which specifically “enables the cheap production of diamond structures” (wikipedia). Thus, this title implies that this is an era in which nanotechnology and the manipulation of atomic matter is rampant, and that what was previously valued in preceding generations and occurred naturally, like diamonds, is now reproduced and distributed through technology. Obviously, nanotechnology is an extremely important cyberpunk theme in this novel, as it relates to a futuristic advancement in terms of science and technology.

Ironically, the diamond age could also be a reference to the Gilded Age, “a time of economic expansion, roughly coinciding with the first Victorian Era”, as Victorian morals and norms are widely accepted in this futuristic society (wikipedia). Stephenson forces readers to question the merits of this lifestyle and its esteemed philosophies, and how, if and where they fit into the future, and how they interact with other ways of life, as the story is also infused with allusions to Confucianism. Thus, the immersion of different ideals within one society, compels readers to navigate Stephenson’s written world, which is characterized by diversity and change.

Due to his complexity, critics have suggested that Stephenson is a post cyberpunk author, and is even writing for a new genre entitled steam-punk. Regardless, he has the ability to create heroic characters such as Nell, among others, who are universal to all genres and cultures, for they leave readers with the sense that “maybe it’s possible to beat probability, when the heart as well as the mind is involved” (302). Stephenson gives readers hope for although he presents and is critical of the mechanical and robotic society he predicts, it is obvious through Nell that we can strike a balance between technology and humanity, and that with proper leadership, technology can be used for the greater good, and not the greater evil.