Snow Crash

The OG Metaverse novel is still as smart, hilarious, rollicking, and inspirational as it was 30 years ago.

I’m amazed at how many technologists talking about the concept have not read it and realized how influential and prophetic it actually is, envisioning scenes of virtual life that have since become commonplace for millions of Internet denizens.

Often pigeonholed as a standard dystopian sci-fi tale, Snow Crash is too sly, satirical, and kinetic to fit that category. And reading it will clarify why so many people in tech have yearned to build something like the Metaverse for decades, even referencing it… show more.

Snow Crash was written as the Cold War came to an end and imagines how globalization and cyberspace might develop across the United States.

There is not much left of the U.S. besides the “Feds,” who can barely keep their act together. There are only four things the United States can do better than anyone else: music, movies, microcode, and high-speed pizza delivery. 

The country is littered with FOQNEs, Franchise-Organized Quasi-National Entities, and Burbclaves, which are thematic near-sovereign, gated communities. And, by the way, this is where Zuckerberg got the term “Metaverse.” Stephenson should sue.

Stephenson is credited for coining the suddenly ubiquitous term, the “metaverse” in his first big novel, Snow Crash which came out in 1992 about a near future where everybody is always online in virtual reality. Beyond its novel ideas about technology, and galaxy brain ideas about how memes can infect human brains in the same way that viruses infect computers, the part that got me is its ideas on how society is organized which echoes my own work on how game theory helps us understand political institutions. It helps us understand the fundamental building blocks of government and what might… show more.

Cyberpunk meets old noir. It's sci-fi but dipped in lonely isolation with a cast of characters who skateboard and shoot themselves into and out of impossible predicaments. The book was published in 1992 and described and predicted the aether-connected world we now all live in. Stephenson coined the phrase 'Metaverse' in this book.

I thought it was perfect that the main protagonist is named Hiro Protagonist in the story to make it clear I should not overthink things as I got to enjoy the action-filled adventure.

And I learned a lot about the deadly career of a pizza delivery boy.

The story jumps between a dark future real world and the VR world of the Metaverse, keeping you guessing as it plays with your sense of reality.

Watching as Hiro makes his way through a crumbling and unfair society, ruled over by the wealthy and corrupt I felt made for a powerfully relevant… show more.

The protagonist is a pizza-delivery man and hacker named Hiro Protagonist. I couldn’t stop laughing and couldn’t stop reading after that! The worldbuilding, the humour, and all the kitschy weirdness it features had an incredible impact on me. Besides, the Metaverse is amazingly described. I also appreciated for a male-authored story from the ‘90s to mention a device like the Dentata. I won’t spoil what it is….

A futuristic cyberpunk indictment of capitalism and privatisation, Snow Crash is a wild ride from start to finish. Less dense and more accessible than some of other Stephenson’s novels, Snow Crash still pays homage to Stephenson’s love of linguistics, with the story centering on a digital language-based virus (disguised as a drug) that allows brain function to be programmed and controlled. But the real draw of this novel are the characters, the punk vibes, and the fun (almost satirical) story development: with mafia-employed, pizza deliverer, Hiro Protagonist navigating the metaverse, 21st Century Los Angeles, and Mr. Lee’s Greater Hong… show more.

When my dad first gave me this foundational cyberpunk novel as a teen, I was obsessed and inspired — and apparently so were many of today’s billionaire tech gods (this is the book that gave us the phrase “metaverse,” after all). Samurai swords, ancient curses, the Mafia, floating cities, robot dogs, pizza, what’s not to love? I’m kinda skeptical of how its inspiration is playing out in Silicon Valley, but its humor, imagination, and attitude still stick with me and are a worthy benchmark for anyone trying to build fictional worlds of their own.

Today, everyone’s buzzing about “The Metaverse” and the steady integration of our offline and online lives. Stephenson’s novel introduced this concept, and it really impacted my thinking and research on virtual social identity as consumers spend more and more of their lives enmeshed in virtual worlds rather than in the physical space. A very prescient vision of the future of marketing and consumer behavior.

I heartily recommend Snow Crash to anyone who wants a laugh, wants to learn, and be uplifted. A young man called Hiro Protagonist who delivers pizzas and strings stories for the CIA, and a younger skate courier lady named YT, team up in the altered and partitioned suburbs of Los Angeles. 

Stephenson initially intended this as a graphic novel, so the scenes are extremely visual. We explore the Metaverse, since Hiro is a coder who helped to develop the online worlds where cool people meet and do business without leaving home. Snow Crash is a spreading computer virus that harms… show more.