Desperately Balanced

[ framework, references needed, may include inaccurate details... ]

Anathem includes a debate between two camps (known under various names at different points in history) between a syntactic universe and a semantic universe. The distinction is that in a semantic universe, "things" exist in and of themselves, and everything is perception of those things. In a syntactic universe, definition is the key rather than perception - "things" exists once they are described by a valid syntax, imposed by a sentient mind.

Snow Crash has a similar distinction regarding the nam-shubs of Enki. These are incantations (speech, words, phrases) which directly translate to actions through people. In a purely syntactic universe, these incantations could not exist, because action would require syntactic agreement between the two parties. The opposite extreme is a semantic universe, where the incantations carry intrinsic meaning that other sentient beings will intrinsically perceive and act upon. In Snow Crash, the Metaverse is a purely syntactic universe. The attempts to usher in a new era of nam-shubs is an attempt to restore a purely semantic universe. In between is the real world, where the story takes place.

A niggling voice in the back of my head suggests that the syntactic/semantic distinction can be applied to The Diamond Age. The "Feed" provides raw atomic building blocks, which are nothing usable by themselves, to nanotechnological devices which use them to build useful items. This is a syntactic worldview, where the nanotechnical engineers perform the act of definition which makes "things" come into being. The Celestial Kingdom, however, has failed to keep up in a nanotechnological world, and wants to create a semantic equivalent for their use - the "Seed". Unlike a feed, which is (to borrow a phrase) "void and without form", a seed is a self-sufficient "thing" that performs actions regardless of the view a sentient mind takes upon them. Seeds are semantic entities.