The Binary and the Unique

The Diamond Age is centered on one artifact: the Illustrated Primer. The Primer is a typical storybook aimed at children, but extended through interactive technology. It was written and engineered by John Percival Hackworth and commissioned by Lord Finkle-McGraw for his own granddaughter. Finkle-McGraw is an aristocrat; like all his peers, he values things that are real and unique. His aim in commissioning the book was to produce something that was both unique and digital. However, his exercise was bound to fail as everything digital is essentially bound to be copied and reproduced infinitely. Indeed, in the end, thousands of similar books are produced and distributed to the Han refugees. The book itself is a symbol that foreshadows the democratization of the Feed, which is the privately owned source what literally "feeds" the controlled society described in the novel.

Reproducibility is at the heart...