Reamde

by Neal Stephenson

The Colorado School of Mines didn’t raise no dummies.

“Aren’t you a graduate of the Colorado School of Mines?” Zula asked. Jones, for once, looked a bit sheepish. “They should probably change the name. It’s not just about that. I only went there to learn how to blow things up. I don’t know squat about mines really.”

But they have colored Mohawks and college degrees, and they program the lathes in computer languages. I was trying to come up with a name for them. Cerulean-collar workers, maybe.”

connected to the Internet by a fat pipe,

Same phrase used in ready player one

The channel through which these images had reached them was extremely confusing (decryption key pulled out of a dead man’s wallet by a Hungarian in the Philippines communicating with an American in Canada, the conversation taking place on an imaginary planet), and Olivia had to intervene and explain matters.