Thinking Big Thoughts with Mr. Stephenson

Neal Stephenson, author of the slightly overrated novel Cryptonomicon, also wrote an essay called "In The Beginning Was The Command Line." The essay has been annotated by Garrett Birkel. As I'm re-reading it, I'm struck by two things. First, Stephenson sees things from a particular perspective, so that he misses things or gets arguments wrong. Second, he seems unaware of this, and doesn't qualify his conclusions to match his limited knowledge. We're all guilty of this, of course, but I think I'll spend the next few posts addressing some of the ideas I find troubling.