Saturday, April 21, 2012

The A to Z of Fiction to Reality: Snow Crash, Second Life, and Submarines


After all the talk about Jules Verne, how could I not mention submarines?
The thing is, though, despite frequently having the idea of the submarine attributed to him, Verne actually didn't dream these up. In fact, the Nautilus, Nemo's submarine in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, is named after one of the first submarines from almost a century before Verne wrote about it.
And that nautilus was named after this one:

And the interior:

Even though Verne wasn't the originator of the submarine (actually, it was another of those things that da Vinci had sketches for), he was the first to write about them in the way that he did, a tool for exploration and a tool for combat. It's fairly safe to say that he helped form the concept of what the submarine would be used for in the 20th century.

Snow Crash

Let me start out by saying that Neal Stephenson did not come up with the idea for virtual reality, nor did he come up with the idea of the multi-verse. Neither did Marvel Comics, but they've probably done more to promote the idea of the multi-verse than anyone else. However, Stephenson, through his novel Snow Crash, did introduce the concept of the Metaverse. And this is a novel I now feel like I need to read. It was like one of Jung's unconscious ideas coalesced in Stephenson's brain and came out as this concept of the Metaverse.

In Snow Crash, the Metaverse is a virtual reality world that has... well, not replaced the Internet, become the Internet. Since I do actually believe we're heading toward virtual reality (and I believe that it's in virtual reality that mankind will face its greatest challenge (not zombies, not cyborgs, not even genetically engineered viruses)), I think this idea of the Metaverse is fascinating (did I say I need to read this book? Oh, I did...).

My point is this, after the book came out in 1992, a text-based game was launched in '93 called The Metaverse. In '95, Active Worlds was launched, and it was based entirely on Snow Crash. There were some others, but the big one was Second Life in 2003. You have heard of Second Life, right? It's hard to be online and not to have heard of it, even if you haven't "played" it. Just for the record, I have not. But there have been laws passed in some countries to control the exchange of money, real money, on this "site."

Second Life was created by Philip Rosedale who, at one point, gave the credit for the idea to Stephenson's novel (I wish I could find that article again, but, basically, he said "I got the idea after reading Snow Crash); now, of course, he only says he was "aware" of the novel but the idea for Second Life was completely his own. I will point out, though, that they did introduce a Snow Crash sub-world into Second Life.

Snow Crash continues to influence the development of the world wide web. It was Snow Crash that popularized the term "avatar." Google Earth was modeled after Snow Crash, and Google Earth is just cool. I used it for research while I was writing The House on  the Corner. From that standpoint, it's also influencing Google's driverless car. And I'm not even going to list all the software that's been developed or is being developed in order to bring about this virtual idea of the Metaverse.

By the way, Time named it in their top 100 English-language novels written since 1923. Not top 100 sci-fi novels, just top 100 novels. Did I mention the need to read this? Will we look back as a society a few decades from now and point at Snow Crash as a turning point? Will we just see it as part of the natural evolution of things? Will it have faded out of importance entirely? It's hard to say, but here, now, 20 years after its release, we are still feeling its impact.

And, now, something completely unrelated:
As I have mentioned many times, Briane Pagel has this big Star Wars blogfest going on. We're just past the halfway mark, now, and I'm no longer in the lead. I got whammied. If you like me, though, you can go over and comment and let him know that I sent you, and we'll both get some points for it. But that's just an aside. Here's the real bit:
There's this indie movie called Yellow Hill that's trying to get funded. It's starring Bai Ling, and she's also producing it. They're asking for donations of just $5 to help them reach their funding goal of $6,000. For a movie $6,000 is pretty near to nothing, but it's still $6,000.
Anyway, Briane is trying to help these people out, and I support him in that. And, well, he's giving 1000 points to anyone who posts about the Yellow Hill thing, and, well, I need the points. But, still, I do support him in his support of this movie project! So click on the link and check it out.


  1. So da Vinci imagined the submarine? Wow.

  2. I always wanted a submarine as a kid. No one ever got me one, but that doesn't mean that dream has ever gone away. One day. And I hate to say this, but I've never read Snow Crash. Yikes. But I will go to the bookstore and rectify that immediately.

  3. I thought I heard somewhere they tried to use a submarine way back in the Revolutionary War. The Confederates also had one they tried to use to break the Union blockade, so close to working subs have been around for a while.

  4. I know you're not talking to me, but I Haven't heard of Snow Crash before. I'm very familiar with Google Earth, though. I used it extensively for research of, before I actually went there. :P

  5. I've never heard of Snow Crash. But it sounds like a truly landmark book!

  6. I haven't read Snow Crash either, although I am a HUGE fan of Stephenson. He writes about the most heady books that continue to be published. It's really good stuff.

  7. I went over and commented. I just said that you'd sent me...let me know if I needed to do something else for you to get credit.

  8. Alex: Yeah, da Vinci imagined SO many things. It was pretty incredible.

    S.L.: Hey, I never read it, either. The one big thing this series has done is remind me to read a bunch of stuff I never got around to.

    Grumpy: Yeah, they did, but it didn't amount to much more than an upside down boat with a pocket of air captured in it. I -think- it sunk, but I don't remember for sure.

    L.G.: blah blah blah Wales blah blah blah
    But Google earth is great for that!

    Golden Eagle: Well, I plan to read it soon. As soon as I can remember to go look for it.

    Rusty: Well, I haven't read anything by him, so I'm going to start with Snow Crash.

    S.L.: Thanks! I don't think he gave me the points, yet, so I will check on it. Want to make sure you get your points, too.

  9. I know this comment is kind of late, but I'm just catching up with all the A to Z backlog...

    Neal Stephenson is one of my favourite authors and Snow Crash was the first workof his that I read. (Kind of a long story how I heard about it on CBC and didn't find it until a few years later in a discount bin, but I won't get into that...)

    I adore him but some people can't get into his stuff. He is very long-winded and super-geeky. Snow Crash and Cyrptonomicon are two of my all-time favourite novels but I could NOT read The Baroque Cycle. I quite enjoyed The Diamond Age and was ok with Zodiac. I'm actually reading REAMDE right now and quite enjoying it. (Haven't gotten to Anathem yet but it is on the list.)

    Two things I'd maybe 'warn' you about him is that he will go on at lenght on terribly facinating but completely irrelivant themes at times. Also, he's not good with endings. His books are epicly absorbing to the point that after 900 pages you still want more but then they just kind of stop.

    Bennywho, based on your other writing on this blog I highly suggest you check him out. Especially Snow Crash and The Diamond Age. Also, YouTube some of his lectures when you have time.

  10. Bonnie: Hey, don't worry about lateness! All of my posts are open to comment at any time.

    I don't mind tangents as long as they're well written and interesting.