The Diamond Age

Stephenson’s novel turns on A Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer — an interactive book designed to raise its reader into a particular kind of thinker. The Primer adapts to its owner. It tells stories that fit the moment. It does not deliver answers; it composes situations that ask the reader to find her own.

For SoftMachine, the Primer is a target shape. A book that teaches you how to think, in your particular life, about your particular questions, by composing the right rooms around your unfinished ideas. Not the answer machine. The opposite of the answer machine.