quicksilver

A review of Neal Stephenson's new book (part one of a trilogy named "the Baroque Cycle"), including numerous comparisons to Hofstadter's GEB. Stephenson has left his cyberpunk, nanotech, and cryptographic futures for things of the past, opting instead for a romp through the days of scientists of yore, including the Royal Society of Isaac Newton.

The World Outside the Web - Neal Stephenson's new book upends geek chic.

Stephenson's unspoken premise is that 1990s California had nothing on 1660s Europe.

But jeez, Neal, 3,000 pages? Newton invented calculus in less time than it'll take to read about it.