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This is “the Word” — one man’s word, certainly — about the art (and artifice) of the state of our computer-centric existence. And considering that the “one man” is Neal Stephenson, “the hacker Hemingway” ( *Newsweek* ) — acclaimed novelist, pragmatist, seer, nerd-friendly philosopher, and nationally bestselling author of groundbreaking literary works ( *Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon,* etc., etc.) — the word is well worth hearing. Mostly well-reasoned examination and partial rant, Stephenson’s *In the Beginning… was the Command Line* is a thoughtful, irreverent, hilarious treatise on the cyber-culture past and present; on operating system tyrannies and downloaded popular revolutions; on the Internet, Disney World, Big Bangs, not to mention the meaning of life itself.

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