How a 90s Novel Predicted the Internet, Still Unmade in
From Gigabyte to Metaverse: Inside the World of Snow Crash
The future. Often imbued with glowing neon, sky-high skyscrapers, and mind-bending technology. Science fiction has long catered to our fascination with what’s to come, offering various blueprints for the future. Some, like Star Trek, paint an optimistic picture. Others, like Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, delve into a more gritty, cyberpunk reality, warning us about the potential pitfalls of unchecked technological advancement and corporate greed.
Snow Crash released in 1992, and it’s a shockingly accurate portrayal of our present-day digital landscape. From the term itself – Metaverse, Stephenson’s vision for an interconnected digital reality now belongs to Meta (formerly Facebook), responsible
for connecting billions
through a virtual worldscape. These are not coincidences, Stephenson countered, not
simply remarkable coincidences. Stephenson, ahead of his time
predicted many of things we take
for granted today.
Today’s Landscape Re
But Snow Crash goes beyond just foresight into popular culture. Delivering pizza is now a pursuit in
the Metaverse through apps like DoorDash and Uber Eats
, mirroring Hiro, the protagonist, a pizza delivery man who navigates a dystopian world driven by mega corporations and overflowing with digital innovations. Then there’s the concept of “Smartwheels," adaptive cars…something like
that
, in model 3, predict
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But Stephenson’s has always been about more than predicts, warnings about a future controlled
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