FYI assuming this is genuine, OP is a long-time science fiction writer with a couple novels that take place during or after an AI singularity: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Stross
He’s also made some damn insightful comments over the years. I wish a little less insightful in this case. He had a programming background and usually isn’t full of shit.
“The Merchant Prince’s” series is deep into pre-Great Recession liberal economics, but still a pretty good read.
I’m not that great at English, what’s the grammar on"merchant Prince’s"?
Is this a prince that’s also a merchant?
Is this a merchant that works or is associated with a prince?
Is it a typo and is supposed to read princess?
Yeah, it’s not totally obvious. It’s an old phrase and I’ve never really liked it. A similar one is “trader prince”, which is pronounced a lot like “traitor prince”, which of course means something totally different.
Anyway, it’s usually a prince that’s also a merchant. Historically, it refers to merchants who aren’t really princes or even any kind of nobility, but they get rich as fuck by trading across the kingdom. In the case above, the story focuses on a family that wasn’t originally noble, but got there after a very peculiar trade monopoly.
Thx for this, added a few of his books to the list of things I need to consume.
Haha, lul, that title did seem to stand out a bit from the other ones, but I didn’t read the des.
I might start with Index, Codex, or Saturn - but I’ve intentionally skipped reading the synopsis (not as a spoiler, I’m indifferent to those, just as adhd management to ‘start the thing’ - by keeping the info simple it might seem like an easier pick for my brainhole to chose & allow me to perform the activity, and I feel like I don’t need to do much more research on the author or specific books).
Rule 34 in particular is an excellent read, and expands on some of the concepts in the post.
Yup, you can find him on Mastodon now: https://wandering.shop/@cstross/112274383742505743
