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ecoody 's review for:
Snow Crash
by Neal Stephenson
This book is what I thought (hoped) Infinite Jest would sort of be like. I started it with the hope that I could understand tech bros differently, but ended up into the wall-to-wall religious studies themes. Why did no one tell me this book is a Babel myth?! There are LONG nerdy essays in here that are essentially slightly fictionalized religious studies essays. I dug it.
But, the person that read this and thought: “Let’s make a Metaverse with floating people so we can have meetings” really missed out on a liberal arts education. First, what necessitates the Metaverse is social dysfunction. Second, class in the Metaverse is in total crisis. Third, people being in BOTH worlds at the same time is a huge part of the appeal: it’s mostly Augmented Reality, not exclusively Virtual Reality. Fourth, one of the points made in the book is just HOW much the people who made the Metaverse needed to think it through more clearly as a social space— if only Musk had read that part. And, really damningly, the climax of the book… I won’t spoil, but let’s just say it’s not an endorsement in my reading.
But, the person that read this and thought: “Let’s make a Metaverse with floating people so we can have meetings” really missed out on a liberal arts education. First, what necessitates the Metaverse is social dysfunction. Second, class in the Metaverse is in total crisis. Third, people being in BOTH worlds at the same time is a huge part of the appeal: it’s mostly Augmented Reality, not exclusively Virtual Reality. Fourth, one of the points made in the book is just HOW much the people who made the Metaverse needed to think it through more clearly as a social space— if only Musk had read that part. And, really damningly, the climax of the book… I won’t spoil, but let’s just say it’s not an endorsement in my reading.