- [[SecondLife (online virtual world)]] is a [[virtual world]] developed by [[Linden Lab]].
- The founders of Linden Lab were inspired by Neal Stephenson's science fiction novel Snow Crash.
- Snow Crash is credited as the first work to introduce the concept of [[avatars]] and [[metaverses]].
- Snow Crash takes place in the near future in the U.S., where the power of government has weakened and [[franchise nations]] have become powerful."
- Franchise states have their own laws and security regimes, and the power of the president does not extend to them.
- A similar structure can be seen in Metaverse, where certain areas are set up so that only certain members can enter.
- [[gated city]]
- The worldview of Snow Crash reflects [[libertarianism]], an ideology that advocates minimal state intervention.
- In the work, the metaverse and the real world exist in parallel and do not intersect.
- The protagonist, Hiro, is a pizza delivery man, but also a prominent [[hacker]] who writes the code for the combat rules in the metaverse.
- The story begins with a viral attack in Metaverse
- Hiro's friend Da5id is infected with the Snow Crash virus and is sent to the hospital in the real world
- Hiro begins a dialogue about Sumerian culture with Metaverse's Artificial Intelligence Librarian
- Five thousand years ago, in Sumerian culture, society was controlled by "mee" (rules and algorithms).
- The "Me" programmed human behavior and was the foundation of society.
- Media King L. Bob Reif Plots to Rule Using 'Me'
- Sumerian god Enki rewrote "Me", causing language diversification and self-consciousness
- LIFE tries to spread two viruses around the world - one rewrites the human brain and the other destroys the brains of computers and hackers
- Raif's goal is to increase his followers and eradicate the [[power elite]] of hackers.
- Hiro boards the aircraft carrier Enterprise to foil Raif's plan.
- Key themes and observations from "Snow Crash:"
- This work deals with two themes:
- Law Programming
- Programming the Mind
- About the programming of the law:
- In Metaverse, each area owner is free to rewrite the rules in code to maintain order.
- This is similar to object behavior coding using Linden Script Language in Second Life, for example.
- On the programming of the mind:
- The ancient Sumerian technique of "mee" is described as programming the mind.
- This is influenced by Chomsky's view of language and Richard Dawkins' meme theory.
- At present, however, programming of the mind is not yet possible.
- Deciphering the work:
- Snow Crash intersects artificial language (programming), natural language, neural language (me), biological language (DNA), and social language (religion, memes) to depict the relationship between cyberspace and the state.
- The power of information in a near-future society:
- Like the franchised temples of ancient Sumer, which used mee to program the mind, the franchised cultural controllers in the near future society will program the manual.
- This can be interpreted as a critique of [[consumer culture capitalism]].
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