"Neal Stephenson - Simoleon Caper" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stephenson Neal)

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Author: Neal Stephenson
Title: Simoleon Caper
Original copyright year: 1995
Genre: short story
Version: 1.0
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TIME Domestic
SPECIAL ISSUE, Spring 1995 Volume 145, No. 12

BY NEAL STEPHENSON
Hard to imagine a less attractive life-style for a young man just out of college
than going back to Bismarck to live with his parents - unless it's living with
his brother in the suburbs of Chicago, which, naturally, is what I did. Mom at
least bakes a mean cherry pie. Joe, on the other hand, got me into a permanent
emotional headlock and found some way, every day, to give me psychic noogies.
For example, there was the day he gave me the job of figuring out how many jelly
beans it would take to fill up Soldier Field.
Let us stipulate that it's all my fault; Joe would want me to be clear on that
point. Just as he was always good with people, I was always good with numbers.
As Joe tells me at least once a week, I should have studied engineering. Drifted
between majors instead, ended up with a major in math and a minor in art - just
about the worst thing you can put on a job app.
Joe, on the other hand, went into the ad game. When the Internet and optical
fiber and HDTV and digital cash all came together and turned into what we now
call the Metaverse, most of the big ad agencies got hammered - because in the
Metaverse, you can actually whip out a gun and blow the Energizer Bunny's head
off, and a lot of people did. Joe borrowed 10,000 bucks from Mom and Dad and
started this clever young ad agency. If you've spent any time crawling the
Metaverse, you've seen his work - and it's seen you, and talked to you, and
followed you around.
Mom and Dad stayed in their same little house in Bismarck, North Dakota. None of
their neighbors guessed that if they cashed in their stock in Joe's agency,
they'd be worth about $20 million. I nagged them to diversify their portfolio -
you know, buy a bushel basket of Krugerrands and bury them in the backyard, or
maybe put a few million into a mutual fund. But Mom and Dad felt this would be a
no-confidence vote in Joe. "It'd be," Dad said, "like showing up for your kid's
piano recital with a Walkman."
Joe comes home one January evening with a magnum of champagne. After giving me
the obligatory hazing about whether I'm old enough to drink, he pours me a
glass. He's already banished his two sons to the Home Theater. They have cranked
up the set-top box they got for Christmas. Patch this baby into your HDTV, and
you can cruise the Metaverse, wander the Web and choose from among several