The Diamond Age belongs to a set of works in science fiction, film, and popular culture that are a reaction to cyberpunk, a genre of science fiction that coalesced in the 1980s. Stephenson’s work takes the conventions of the genre and reimagines them in a world shaped by nostalgia for the Victorian Age.

Cyberpunk literature is usually set in the near or mid-distant future. These futures are frequently dystopian ones in which big, multinational corporations own technology that has changed day-to-day life and how the economy works. These changes usually do not benefit end users of the technology. Both the powerful and the powerless rely upon interfaces that bridge the gap between individuals and between humans and technology. These interfaces may include modifications to the human body to use the technology more effectively. An interface might also be a much more powerful iteration of the World Wide Web known as the metaverse—a term Stephenson coined to describe a fully immersive virtual world. The protagonists in these works usually start or end their character arcs as “punks”—they are motivated by a desire to subvert the reigning power structure on an individual or societal level.

The world of The Diamond Age is ravaged by 20th-century wars that pose existential threats to humanity.