About Snow Crash – The 1990’s Novel Behind Facebook’s New Meta Verse
Everyone must be scratching their heads over the announcement to change Facebook into a global meta verse. Huh? What the heck is that? Do you take selfies, run them through a filter, make up an impressive handle or avatar, call yourself a god or a goddess, and play “meta verse” all day instead of living in the real world?
Where did Zuckerberg come up with this novel concept? That’s right, it does come from a novel. It comes from the 1990’s novel by Neal Stephenson called Snow Crash. I have not read the book, but looked up some reviews and the convoluted story line. The book is pure science fiction.
In the book there are many altered Biblical references to the tower of Babel and various gods. It speaks of how “in the beginning gibbersih was written into the bitmap causing the computer to crash”. Snow crash is a reference to the old fashioned TV screen when it went off air and left a snowy, static looking screen.
The book speaks about the Sumerian language used for programming the brainstem. The goddess Ashera is the personification of the linguistic virus. The god Enhi created a counter-attack causing all humans to speak different languages (idea comes from the Bible).
The plot opens in LA after a complete global economic collapse. LA is no longer part of the US since the world is run by sovereign enclaves each run by big business. The plot revolves around a character named Hiro who is a hacker and a pizza delivery driver for the Mafia. When viewed, the snow crash datafile caused a system wide crash and the viewer to get brain damage.
The book hints of strong narcotics as part of the computer file, and has multiple sub-plots. Quoted from wikipedia “The body that is infected by a virus does not become infected because it understands the virus any more than the body that does not become infected misunderstands the virus. So a world in which everything—from bitmaps to blood—can be understood as a “form of speech” is also a world in which nothing actually is understood, a world in which what a speech act does is disconnected from what it means.”
Now the question is, how does this science fiction odd ball novel manage to become the backdrop to set up a Facebook meta universe? Especially given the fact it was written thirty years ago?
The answer is it doesn’t and it can’t. It is not only a far-fetched marketing campaign, but it is dredged up from the dark side. It is given accolades for having all kinds of brilliant connections on everything from history to linguistics, to anthropology, religion and philosophy, but a quick overview, in my opinion – shows a focus on nothing much but a cult religion.
But regardless of what fantasies a person gravitates toward, how is this book going to be the conceptual construct for a meta verse, which no one fully understands?
First of all, computer programming does not take on a life of its own. There are brilliant programmers, but all it is – is a translation of thoughts into code. It does not invent itself.
The basic reason it cannot be what Zuckerberg claims it will be, is because in order to create a meta verse, first there must be a virtual reality. A virtual reality must be open source, and allow any other programmer to jump in, and possibly even take control. You can rest assured Zuckerberg – has not structured it this way. This is his own little play station version of his own aggrandized pseudo-reality.
Furthermore, the science fiction genre it stems from has a moral code, and this falls outside that moral compass. Why? It has undercurrents of a radicalized and racial purification structure for humanity.
“In contrast, it uniquely risks developing a racialized view of culture.[according to whom?][citation needed] Because, Walter Benn Michaels states, “in Snow Crash, the bodies of humans are affected by ‘information’ they can’t read… the virus, like the icepick [in American Psycho], gets the words inside you even if you haven’t read them”,[16]: 68 culture is not transmitted by beliefs and practices, but rather by physical characteristics, such as blood (or genetic codes).[according to whom?][citation needed]”
Facebook has morphed into a meta universe based on a science fiction novel from thirty years ago, when there is no virtual reality even today. Gamers put on goggles and headphones to enter. The rest of us put on a hat and gloves and go out for a walk in the snow like normal human beings in the real world.
When someone shares a picture of their dog on Facebook – don’t worry. It can’t bite or byte you!
What all this drivel fails to acknowledge – is that human beings produce both language and thoughts. Thoughts stem from our identity and beliefs. There are Universal laws surrounding the development of thoughts. All computer programming stems from human intelligence and thoughts, not the other way around.
Happy New Year! And let’s hope Zuckerberg only manages to crash his own system.
Copyright Valerie J. Hayes and Quiet West (2022). Unauthorised use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author/owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Valerie J. Hayes and Quiet West with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.