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"When you're making a revolution in cyberspace, things look rather different from the way the 1980s cyberpunks wrote it."
- Charles Stross

Geotect  
  A person who creates landforms and physical environments  

MPS made consumer goods and ITL made real estate, which was, as ever, where the real money was. Counted by the hectare, it didn't amount to much– just a few strategically placed islands really, counties rather than continents– but it was the most expensive real estate in the world outside of a few blessed places like Tokyo, San Francisco, and Manhattan. The reason was that Imperial Tectonics had geotects, and geotects could make sure that every new piece of land possessed the charms of Frisco, the strategic location of Manhattan, the feng-shui of Hong Kong, the dreary but obligatory Lebensraum of L.A. It was no longer necessary to send out dirty yokels in coonskin caps to chart the wilderness, kill the abos, and clear-cut the groves; now all you needed was a hot young geotect, a start matter compiler, and a jumbo Source.
Technovelgy from The Diamond Age, by Neal Stephenson.
Published by Bantam Books in 1995
Additional resources -

Compare to planets made habitable from Last and First Men (1930) by Olaf Stapledon and terraforming from Collision Orbit (1941) by Jack Williamson.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from The Diamond Age
  More Ideas and Technology by Neal Stephenson
  Tech news articles related to The Diamond Age
  Tech news articles related to works by Neal Stephenson

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Science Fiction in the News

China Steals Strato Airship Design From Google App Engine
'...war-balloons, or, as it would be more correct to call them, navigable aerostats.'

The First Space Warship For Space Force
'Each of the electrical ships carried about twenty men...'

Biohybrid Jellyfish Explore The Ocean
As predicted, and detailed, by science fiction writers!

Should AIs and AI Robots Demand Rights?
'This robot is a creature... It is a manlike being. Therefore, like any other talking, thinking man, he is entitled to a court trial!'

Robot Learns Human Tool Usage By Imitation Learning
'I got one of those new electronic cameras...'

Companion Caregiver ChatGPT Dolls
'Every Artificial Friend is unique, right?'

'Pregnancy Humanoids' From China Replace Moms
'A great many of these synthetic babies were made...'

Man Builds 200 Foot Basement Firing Range
'The basement was huge... carved deep into the rock.'

Russians Create Robot Tank Platoons
'The remotely-operated robot tank is an old idea...'

3D-Printed Exoskeleton Learns From Your Hand
'...small electric motors at the principal joints worked the prosthetic framework by means of steel cables...'

More SF in the News

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