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Questions....[edit]

One of the things worth discussing is the actual reason for segregation of the avout. Nominally, they were placed in concents to prevent repeats of a set of horrors which Stephenson calls "The Terrible Events," presumably to avoid their involvement in the development of new and more terrible technology.

OK - I'll bite.

But it appears that the Saecular Powers which control the non-mathic world continue to use all of the technology - including the bad bits, like nuclear weapons, etc - which the avout or their ancestors developed. Further, the Saeculars all seem to be carrying technology ("jeejahs" (e.g., smartphones) and "cartablas" (GPS devices)) design and construction of which require knowledge of fairly significant physics or other science - knowledge which should be very limited in the Saecular world. I suppose that the technology in the Saecular world could be a holdover from the earlier technically sophisticated periods referenced in the novel, but for a couple of thousand years? It doesn't seem likely.

After the second or third pass through the book, this started becoming a real sticking point for me - what do the Avout have that the technical Saeculars don't, except perhaps a willingness to investigate questions beyond pure practical concerns and a lifestyle conducive to learning? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.192.170.250 (talk) 22:32, 14 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It's all in the culture: the Avout have the patience to study and learn, and that enables them to create technologies far beyond what the Saeculars can, even when they're limited to chalk and quill pens. Random newborns enter the Mathic world and succeed. Erasmus as a Sline is not particularly intelligent, yet he succeeds. Erasmus tells Jad that the Saeculars have a "primitive trigonometry" which they need to build their buildings. Their primitive knowledge leads to technologies that surprise Erasmus; e.g., Kord's welding machine and speeliecaptors and Kinograms, but they're still primitive. The Avout understand how they work and could make a better one if they had the desire and materials. It's a fictional world so we have to accept their judgment of it. Sluggoster (talk) 08:01, 26 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

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concent[edit]

Orithena, an ancient concent destroyed by volcanic eruption

Convent? Concept? Continent? … —Tamfang (talk) 19:50, 1 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

It's explained as concents (monastic communities) a couple paragraphs up, at the beginning of the "Plot summary" section. More about it at The Anathem Wiki. Woodroar (talk) 20:19, 1 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]