Crash by Neal Stephenson Neal

¶ … Crash by Neal Stephenson

Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash is one of the central works of the cyberpunk movement, presenting a singular vision of a future dominated by privatization, anarchy, and computers.

The novel was written in 1992 but present some bases for the development of today's virtual reality. Virtual Reality is very fundamental in the novel. Virtual reality started with single-player worlds simulated on a local machine (first 3D games and research projects before that). That is, computer games. The next step (late 1990s) was to have multiplayer worlds, where several participants could interact with limited realism. Another important development were persistent worlds - various virtual worlds such as www.activeworlds.comThere. These persistent worlds are running on clusters of servers (sometimes distributed) and usually allow creation of custom content and programming by users. he next step (2010-2015) is going to be development of more open systems, where content can be moved across platforms and where separate worlds can be linked (for example a room in a virtual building can be simulated on a private server using different simulation software, but would still be accessible for the people walking in the virtual city). Open source may play a role there. Eventually virtual reality worlds will integrate into a global Metaverse running on a distributed grid. For the Snow Crash, virtual reality was the start of the single-player world, an image in which we can include the whole novel, and it also anticipated the progress of the Internet.

From the title it can be observed the connection with the Virtual World and Computers. The meaning of the title "snow crash" is explained as the term for a particular software failure mode on the early Apple Macintosh computer.

The main image in Stephenson's novel is the Metaverse. A Metaverse is a fictional community found in Neal Stephenson's novel Snow Crash and successor to the Internet, because Stephenson thought that Internet might evolve in the future. A Metaverse has some characteristics of a typical community found in the United States but has very enigmatic characteristics as well. The United States is a real life establishment. It is a place of virtual reality. To enter the Metaverse, you begin at an entrance called Port Zero, which is the local port of entry. Here there are no real people. The figures are part of a moving illustration drawn by a computer according to specifications steaming from a fiber optic cable. To make a connection between reality and virtual reality we need fast methods to change what we consider reality. Some technologies already exist: laser scanners and 3d printers for small objects. Some crude methods already exist to quickly generate 3d models of larger real world scenes (using image processing) urban landscapes and indoor environments.

In the novel, Avatars have humanlike qualities, but they are by far not human. Sex is of substance in the novel, but in virtual reality, the experience is only physical in the cyber sense. Real life establishments like Enzo's pizza place can realistically be established, but what is involved to keep the business going is considered virtual. People are designed so they can obtain human facial expressions, but the lives of these avatars are virtual. Fast food establishments like MC Donald's are located in the Metaverse. However the meal cannot be realistically tasted there. There are things like Mr. Lee's Hong Kong that gives a sense of choice to use reality or virtual reality. Mr. Lee preferred to use non-human systems instead of hiring a large human security force-like a real police force.

The Avatars in Neal Stephenson's cyberpunk novel Snow Crash have similar qualities to humans. But Avatars are to be designed with a computer and consist of elite images with vibrant color, or in black and white images. Among people working on virtual reality and cyberspace interfaces, an avatar is an icon or representation of a user in a shared virtual reality.

The main character Hiroaki "Hiro" Protagonist besides swordsmen and former Mafia-employed pizza delivery man is a hacker, a very common notion used today. A hacker is a person who creates and modifies computer software and computer hardware, including computer programming, administration, and security-related items. Hackers improved their skills since the appearance of the novel and now they are able to break high security codes.