Josh’s answer to “Is it just me, or does one of the characters seem profoundly like a current real-life Astronomer wh…” > Likes and Comments

Absolutely. I thought this was a bit off - I get that Stephenson maybe wanted to satirize the notion of young "martyrs" and symbols who get appropriated and manipulated by canny politicians, but I thought it was going a bit far to make such a blatant copy of a specific real person in that situation. I also didn't like the implications of her making all her descendants essentially doormats.