<P>This is "the Word" -- one man's word, certainly -- about the art (and artifice) of the state of our computer-centric existence. And considering that the "one man" is Neal Stephenson, "the hacker Hemingway" (<i>Newsweek</i>) -- acclaimed novelist, pragmatist, seer, nerd-friendly philosopher, and nationally bestselling author of groundbreaking literary works (<i>Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon,</i> etc., etc.) -- the word is well worth hearing. Mostly well-reasoned examination and partial rant, Stephenson's <i>In the Beginning... was the Command Line</i> is a thoughtful, irreverent, hilarious treatise on the cyber-culture past and present; on operating system tyrannies and downloaded popular revolutions; on the Internet, Disney World, Big Bangs, not to mention the meaning of life itself.</P>