Editing Snow Crash

{{Short description|1992 novel by Neal Stephenson}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox book|<!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Novels or Wikipedia:WikiProject_Books -->
| name              = Snow Crash
| title_orig        = 
| translator        = 
| image             = Snowcrash.jpg
| caption           = US paperback cover
| author            = [[Neal Stephenson]]
| illustrator       = 
| cover_artist      = Jean-François Podevin
| country           = United States
| language          = English
| series            = 
| genre             = [[Science fiction]], [[cyberpunk]], [[Postcyberpunk]]<ref>{{cite web |title=You Need To Watch Dynamo Dream |date=28 May 2021 |url=https://consumingcyberpunk.com/blog/tag/post-cyberpunk |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230701091506/https://consumingcyberpunk.com/blog/tag/post-cyberpunk |url-status=usurped |archive-date=July 1, 2023 |access-date=11 March 2024}} {{Better source needed|reason=link a page not a tag category. Also is this a reliable source?|date=August 2024}}</ref>
| publisher         = [[Bantam Books]] (US)
| release_date      = June 1992
| media_type        = Print (hardback & paperback)
| pages             = 480
| isbn              = 0-553-08853-X
| isbn_note         = (first edition, hardback)
| dewey             = 813/.54 20
| congress          = PS3569.T3868 S65 1992
| oclc              = 25026617
| preceded_by       = 
| followed_by       = 
}}

'''''Snow Crash''''' is a [[science fiction]] novel by the American writer [[Neal Stephenson]], published in 1992. Like many of Stephenson's novels, its themes include history, [[linguistics]], [[anthropology]], [[archaeology]], religion, computer science, politics, [[cryptography]], [[memetics]], and philosophy.<ref name="penguin" />

In his 1999 essay "[[In the Beginning... Was the Command Line]]", Stephenson explained the title of the novel as his term for a particular software [[Failure causes|failure mode]] on the early [[Macintosh 128K|Macintosh]] computer. Stephenson wrote, "When the computer crashed and wrote gibberish into the [[bitmap]], the result was something that looked vaguely like [[Noise (video)|static on a broken television]] set—a 'snow crash{{'"}}.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Stephenson |first1=Neal |title=In the beginning ...was the command line |date=2003 |publisher=Perennial |isbn=978-0-380-81593-7 |url=https://archive.org/details/inbeginningwasco00step}}</ref> Stephenson has also mentioned that [[Julian Jaynes]]' book ''[[The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind]]'' was one of the main influences on ''Snow Crash''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.barnesandnoble.com/review/neal-stephenson-anathem/ |quote=I'd had a similar reaction to yours when I'd first read The Origin of Consciousness and the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, and that, combined with the desire to use IT, were two elements from which Snow Crash grew. |title=Interviews – Neal Stephenson: Anathem – A Conversation with James Mustich, Editor-in-Chief of the Barnes & Noble Review |first=James |last=Mustich |work=The Barnes & Noble Review |date=2008-10-13 |access-date=2014-08-06 |publisher=[[Barnes & Noble|barnesandnoble.com]]}}</ref>

''Snow Crash'' was nominated for both the [[BSFA Awards|British Science Fiction Award]] in 1993 and the [[Arthur C. Clarke Award]] in 1994.<ref name="WWE-1993">{{cite web |url = http://www.worldswithoutend.com/books_year_index.asp?year=1993 |title = 1993 Award Winners & Nominees |work = Worlds Without End |access-date=2009-10-24}}</ref><ref name="WWE-1994">{{cite web |url = http://www.worldswithoutend.com/books_year_index.asp?year=1994 |title = 1994 Award Winners & Nominees |work = Worlds Without End |access-date=2009-10-24}}</ref>

==Plot==
===Plot background===
In the 21st century, an unspecified number of years after a worldwide economic collapse, [[Los Angeles]] is no longer part of the United States since the [[federal government of the United States|federal government]] has ceded most of its power and territory to private organizations and [[entrepreneurship|entrepreneurs]].<ref>{{cite book |url=https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674003125 |title=Achieving Our Country: Leftist Thought in Twentieth-Century America |date=9 September 1999 |access-date=10 April 2022 |first=Richard |last=Rorty|series=The William E. Massey Sr. Lectures in American Studies |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=9780674003125 }}</ref> [[Franchising]], individual [[sovereignty]], and private vehicles reign supreme. [[Mercenary]] armies compete for national defense contracts, while private [[security guard]]s preserve the peace in sovereign [[Gated community|gated housing developments]].<ref name="snow-crash">{{cite book |last1=Stephenson |first1=Neal |title=Snow Crash |date=1992 |publisher=Bantam Books|location=New York |isbn=9780553898194 |edition=2003 paperback |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RMd3GpIFxcUC&pg=PA45}}</ref>{{rp|p=45}}  Highway companies compete to attract drivers to their roads,<ref name="snow-crash" />{{rp|p=7}} and all mail delivery is by hired courier.<ref name="snow-crash" />{{rp|p=306}} The remnants of government maintain authority only in isolated compounds, where they do tedious [[Make-work job|make-work]] that is, by and large, irrelevant to the society around them.<ref name="snow-crash" />{{rp|p=176}} Much of the world's territory has been carved up into sovereign enclaves known as Franchise-Organized Quasi-National Entities (FOQNEs),<ref name="snow-crash" />{{rp|p=14}} each run by its own [[big business]] franchise (such as "Mr.&nbsp;Lee's Greater Hong Kong", or the corporatized [[American Mafia]]), or various residential ''burbclaves'' (quasi-sovereign gated communities).  In this future, American institutions are far different from those in the actual United States at the time the book was published; for example, a for-profit organization, the CIC, has evolved from the [[CIA]]'s merger with the [[Library of Congress]].<ref name="snow-crash" />{{rp|p=22}}

===Summary===
Hiro Protagonist is a freelance hacker, and pizza delivery driver for the Mafia. He meets Y.T. (short for Yours Truly), a young skateboard Kourier ([[courier]]), who [[Illeism|refers to herself in the third person]], during a failed attempt to make a delivery on time. Y.T. completes the delivery on his behalf, and they strike up a partnership, gathering intel and selling it to the CIC.

Within the ''[[Metaverse]]'', Hiro is offered a datafile named Snow Crash by a man named Raven, who hints that it is a form of narcotic. Hiro's friend and fellow hacker Da5id views a bitmap image contained in the file, which causes his computer to crash and Da5id to suffer brain damage in the real world. Hiro meets his ex-girlfriend Juanita Marquez, who gives him a database containing a large amount of research compiled by her associate, Lagos. This research posits connections between the virus, ancient [[Sumer]]ian culture, and the legend of the [[Tower of Babel]]. Juanita advises him to be careful and disappears.

The Mafia boss Uncle Enzo begins to take a paternal interest in Y.T. Impressed by her attitude and initiative, he arranges to meet her and offers her freelance jobs. Hiro's investigations and Y.T.'s intelligence gathering begin to coincide, with links between the neuro-linguistic viruses, a religious organization known as Reverend Wayne's Pearly Gates and a media magnate named L.&nbsp;Bob Rife beginning to emerge. Lagos's research showed that the ancient Sumerian [[Proto-Human language|ur-language]] allowed brain function to be "programmed" using audio stimuli in conjunction with a DNA-altering virus. Sumerian culture was organized around these programs (known as ''[[Me (mythology)|me]]''), which priests administered to the populace. [[Enki]], a figure of legend, developed a counter-virus (known as ''the nam-shub of Enki''), which, when delivered, stopped the Sumerian language from being processed by the brain and led to the development of other, less literal languages, giving birth to the Babel myth. L.&nbsp;Bob Rife had been collecting Sumerian artifacts and developed the drug Snow Crash to make the public vulnerable to new forms of ''me'', which he would control. The physical form of the virus is distributed in the form of an addictive drug and within Reverend Wayne's church via infected blood. There is also a digital version, to which hackers are especially vulnerable, as they are accustomed to processing information in binary form.

Hiro heads north to the [[Oregon Coast]], where the Raft, a huge collection of boats containing Eurasian refugees, is approaching the [[West Coast of the United States]]. The center of the Raft is L.&nbsp;Bob Rife's yacht, formerly the [[USS Enterprise (CVN-65)|USS&nbsp;''Enterprise'' nuclear-powered aircraft carrier]]. Rife has been using the Raft as a mechanism to indoctrinate and infect thousands with the virus and to import it to America. Y.T. is captured and brought to Rife on the Raft, who intends to use her as a hostage, knowing her connection to Uncle Enzo. With help from the Mafia, Hiro fights his way onto the Raft and recovers the ''nam-shub'' of Enki, which Rife had been concealing. With help from Juanita, who had previously infiltrated the Raft, the ''nam-shub'' is read out, and Rife's control over the Raft is broken. Rife flees the Raft, taking Y.T., and his mercenary, Raven, attempts to activate the digital form of Snow Crash at a virtual concert within the Metaverse. Hiro is able to neutralize the virus, and Y.T. escapes. At [[Los Angeles International Airport]], Raven ambushes the Mafia and fights Uncle Enzo to a stalemate (though both men are severely injured in the process), while Rife is killed as he attempts to flee the airport on his private jet. Y.T. is reunited with her mother, and Hiro and Juanita reconcile and agree to rekindle their relationship.

==Background==
Stephenson originally planned ''Snow Crash'' as a computer-generated graphic novel in collaboration with artist Tony Sheeder.<ref>{{cite book |editor-last = Lewis |editor-first = Jonathan P.  |year = 2006 |title = Tomorrow Through the Past: Neal Stephenson and the Project of Global Modernization |publisher = Cambridge Scholars Press |pages = xvi |isbn = 1-84718-061-2 |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=fqwLBwAAQBAJ&dq=%22tony+sheeder%22+%22snow+crash%22&pg=PR16 |access-date = 2021-06-03}}</ref> In the author's acknowledgments Stephenson recalls:

{{blockquote|it became clear that the only way to make the Mac do the things we needed was to write a lot of custom image-processing software. I have probably spent more hours coding during the production of this work than I did actually writing it, even though it eventually turned away from the original graphic concept...<ref name="Stephenson_Page_440">{{cite book |last1=Stephenson |first1=Neal |title=Snow Crash |date=1992 |publisher=Bantam Books |location=New York |isbn=9780553898194 |page=440 |edition=1993 paperback}} This quote is cited to the 1993 paperback edition because the acknowledgments are not included in the 2003 paperback edition available through Google Books.  The 2003 paperback edition also has different pagination from the 1993 paperback edition, with a smaller paper size and page layout resulting in increased pages.</ref>}}

===Ideas and ideologies===
The books themes include [[history]], [[linguistics]], [[anthropology]], [[archaeology]], [[religion]], [[computer science]], [[politics]], [[cryptography]], [[memetics]], and [[philosophy]].<ref name="penguin">{{Cite web |date=2022-01-13 |title=Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson - Penguin Books Australia |url=https://www.penguin.com.au/books/snow-crash-9780241953181 |access-date=2022-01-13 |website= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220113222749/https://www.penguin.com.au/books/snow-crash-9780241953181 |archive-date=13 January 2022 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

''Snow Crash'' takes place under [[anarcho-capitalism]], a theme Stephenson carries over to his next novel ''[[The Diamond Age]]''. As described in both novels and the short story "[[The Great Simoleon Caper]]" (1995), [[hyperinflation]] has sapped the value of the US&nbsp;dollar to the extent that [[Orders of magnitude (numbers)#1012|trillion]]-dollar bills are nearly disregarded, and the [[Orders of magnitude (numbers)#1015|quadrillion]]-dollar note is the standard "small" bill.<ref name="snow-crash" />{{rp|p=241}} This hyperinflation was created by the government overprinting money due to loss of tax revenue, as people increasingly began to use [[electronic currency]], which they exchanged in untaxable [[Cryptocurrency|encrypted online transactions]]. For physical transactions, most people resort to alternative currencies such as the yen or "Kongbucks" (the official currency of Mr.&nbsp;Lee's Greater Hong Kong). Hyperinflation has also negatively affected much of the world, resulting in waves of desperate refugees from Asia who cross the Pacific in rickety ships hoping to arrive in North America.

The ''[[Metaverse]]'', a phrase coined by Stephenson as a successor to the Internet, constitutes Stephenson's early 1990s vision of how a [[virtual reality]]–based Internet might evolve shortly. Resembling a [[massively multiplayer online game]] (MMO). The Metaverse is populated by user-controlled [[Avatar (computing)|avatars]], as well as system [[Daemon (computer software)|daemons]]. Although there are public-access Metaverse [[Computer terminal|terminals]] in ''Reality'', using them carries a social stigma among Metaverse [[denization|denizens]], in part because of the poor visual representations of themselves as low-quality [[Avatar (virtual reality)|avatars]]. Status in the Metaverse is a function of two things: access to restricted areas such as the Black Sun, an exclusive Metaverse club, and the sophistication of one's avatar.

==Characteristic technologies==
{{Anchor|Rat Things}}
{{Anchor|Smartwheels}}
{{Anchor|Reason}}
Various fictional technologies are employed in this world and help define it, including skateboards and motorcycles with adaptive "Smartwheels",{{rp|p=28}} cybernetic guard dogs known as "Rat Things",{{rp|p=248}} and a prototype portable [[railgun]] weapon named "Reason".{{rp|p=361}}

===Metaverse===
{{see also|Metaverse}}
Stephenson's "Metaverse" appears to its users as an [[urban area|urban]] environment, developed along a single hundred-meter-wide road, the Street, that runs around the entire 65,536&nbsp;km (2<sup>16</sup>&nbsp;km) circumference of a featureless, black, perfectly spherical [[planet]]. The virtual [[real estate]] is owned by the Global Multimedia Protocol Group, a fictional part of the real life [[Association for Computing Machinery]], and is available to be bought and buildings developed thereupon.<ref name="snow-crash" />{{rp|p=24}} Access to the metaverse is through L. Bob Rife's global [[Fiber-optic communication|fiber-optic network]], which grew from a collection of small [[cable television]] franchises into a global telecommunications monopoly and superseded the [[Plain old telephone service|traditional telephone system]].<ref name="snow-crash" />{{rp|p=115}}

Users of the Metaverse gain access to it through personal terminals that project a high-quality virtual reality display onto goggles worn by the user,<ref name="snow-crash" />{{rp|p=23}} or from low-quality public terminals in booths (with the penalty of presenting a grainy [[black-and-white]] appearance).<ref name="snow-crash" />{{rp|p=41}} Stephenson also describes a [[subculture]] of people choosing to remain continuously connected to the Metaverse by wearing portable terminals, goggles and other equipment; they are nicknamed "[[gargoyle]]s" due to their grotesque appearance.<ref name="snow-crash" />{{rp|p=123}} The users of the Metaverse experience it from a [[First person (video games)|first-person perspective]].

Within the Metaverse, individual users appear as avatars of any form, with the sole restriction of height, "to prevent people from walking around a mile high".<ref name="snow-crash" />{{rp|p=41}} Transport within the Metaverse is limited to analogs of reality by foot or vehicle, such as the [[monorail]] that runs the entire length of the Street, stopping at [[256 (number)|256]] ''Express Ports'', located evenly at 256&nbsp;km intervals, and ''Local Ports'', one kilometer apart.<ref name="snow-crash" />{{rp|p=37}}

===Distributed republics===
Distributed republics are loosely connected state-like entities dispersed across the world. The concept was reused by Stephenson in ''[[The Diamond Age]]''.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Chartier |first1=Gary |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0EYHEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT360 |title=The Routledge Handbook of Anarchy and Anarchist Thought |last2=Schoelandt |first2=Chad Van |date=2020-12-30 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-351-73358-8 |language=en |quote=In both ''Snow Crash'' and his later book, ''Diamond Age'', Stephenson describes ''distributed republics''—fluid governments that range across the world, occupying many various places at various times and following wherever their citizen-customers go.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Burstein |first1=Dan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uaQXvZG4P5cC&pg=PA97 |title=The Tattooed Girl: The Enigma of Stieg Larsson and the Secrets Behind the Most Compelling Thrillers of Our Time |last2=Keijzer |first2=Arne de |last3=Holmberg |first3=John-Henri |date=2011-05-10 |publisher=St. Martin's Publishing Group |isbn=978-1-4299-8367-9 |pages=97 |language=en |quote=In Neal Stephenson's ''Snow Crash'' and ''The Diamond Age'', the concept of a "distributed republic" is introduced; it means a "nation" where citizens and physical assets are scattered around the globe, often changing, in many loosely connected anarchist communities.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Perry |first=Richard Warren |date=2000 |title=Governmentalities in City-scapes: Introduction to the Symposium |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24497832 |journal=Political and Legal Anthropology Review |volume=23 |issue=1 |pages=65–72 |doi=10.1525/pol.2000.23.1.65 |jstor=24497832 |issn=1081-6976 |quote=A projection of this simulacral vision of "home" into an imagined Southern California future is offered by Neal Stephenson in his 1992 novel ''Snowcrash''. In his Tomorrowland, as in the ideal futurology of today's globalizing market liberalism, there no longer exists any single overarching national state-structure of governance that orders, regulates, or frames the proliferation of suburban enclaves. Instead, there are loose associations—"parallel distributed republics"—of spatially dispersed, but otherwise utterly identical "Burbclaves". These are "FOQNEs" or "Franchise-Organized Quasi-National Entities", each one a "city-state with its own constitution, a border, laws, cops, everything".|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

==Literary significance and criticism==
''Snow Crash'' established Stephenson as a major science fiction writer of the 1990s. The book appeared on ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine's list of 100 all-time best English-language novels written since 1923.<ref name="time_top_100">{{cite magazine |url=https://entertainment.time.com/2005/10/16/all-time-100-novels/slide/snow-crash-1992-by-neal-stephenson/ |author=Lev Grossman and Richard Lacayo |magazine=TIME |title=All-Time 100 Novels |date=2005-10-16}}</ref> Some critics have considered it a parody of [[cyberpunk]]<ref>{{cite book | last = Nakamura | first = Lisa | year = 2002 | title = Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity, and Identity on the Internet | publisher = Routledge | pages = 69–70 | isbn = 0-415-93836-8 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=pw0PK97lbrkC&pg=PA69 | access-date = 2009-12-05}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last = Brooker | first = M. Keith |author2=Thomas, Anne-Marie  | year = 2009 | title = The Science Fiction Handbook | publisher = John Wiley and Sons | pages = 278–286 | isbn = 978-1-4051-6206-7 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=uW9xST9UsOIC&pg=PT286 | access-date = 2009-12-05}}</ref> and mentioned its satiric or absurdist humor.<ref>{{cite book | last = Wolfe | first = Gary K. | year = 2005 | title = Soundings: Reviews 1992–1996 | publisher = Beccon | page = 130 | isbn = 1-870824-50-4}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last = Westfahl | first = Gary | year = 2005 | title = The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy: Themes, Works, and Wonders, Vol. 3 | publisher = Greenwood Publishing | page = 1235 | isbn = 0-313-32953-2 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=M_3kNDKhxIcC&pg=PA1235 | access-date = 2009-12-05}}</ref>

In his book ''The Shape of the Signifier: 1967 to the End of History'', [[Walter Benn Michaels]] targets Stephenson's view that "languages are codes" rather than a grouping of letters and sounds to be interpreted.  Michaels contends that this basic idea of language as code is central to the construct of ''Snow Crash'' ("... a good deal of ''Snow Crash''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s plot depends upon eliding the distinction between hackers and their computers, as if—indeed, in the novel, just because—looking at code will do to the hacker what receiving it will do to the computer"<ref name="michaels">{{Cite book |author=Michaels, Walter Benn |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nW0iAQAAQBAJ |title=The Shape of the Signifier: 1967 to the End of History |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=2004 |isbn=0691118728 |location=Princeton, N.J. |access-date=}}</ref>{{rp|68}}), but at the same time, trivializes the role of meaning in linguistic works.<blockquote>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.<ref name=michaels/>{{rp|69}}</blockquote>

Rorty's ''[[Achieving Our Country]]'' summarizes the content of ''Snow Crash'',<ref>{{cite book |last1=Van Grondelle |first1=Vincent |title=Reinventing The Leftist Movement |date=8 Jun 2018 |page=15 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325645824 |access-date=12 March 2024}}</ref> using it as an example of modern culture that "express the loss of what he [Rorty] calls 'national hope'... the problem with ''Snow Crash'' is not that it isn't true—after all, it's a story—but that it isn't inspirational".<ref name=michaels/>{{rp|74}} This lack of inspiration is offset by something else ''Snow Crash'' and other works like it offer:<blockquote>These books produce in their readers the 'state of soul' that Rorty calls 'knowingness', which he glosses as a 'preference for knowledge over hope' (37)";<ref name=michaels/>{{rp|74}} this preference for knowledge "contribute[s] to a more fundamental failure to appreciate the value of inspiration—and hence of literature—itself".<ref name=michaels/>{{rp|74}}</blockquote>

===Influence on the World Wide Web and computing===
''[[Habitat (video game)|Habitat]]'', the 1986 [[virtual environment]], applied the [[Sanskrit]] term ''[[avatar (virtual reality)|avatar]]'' to online virtual bodies before Stephenson. However, the success of ''Snow Crash'' popularized the term<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Gerhard|first1=Michael|last2=Moore|first2=David|last3=Hobbs|first3=Dave|date=2004|title=Embodiment and copresence in collaborative interfaces|url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1071581904000126|journal=International Journal of Human-Computer Studies|language=en|volume=61|issue=4|pages=453–480|doi=10.1016/j.ijhcs.2003.12.014|issn=1071-5819|quote=It was first used in the context of virtual worlds in the pioneering Habitat system of the mid 1980s (Morningstar and Farmer, 1991) and popularized by Stephenson's (1992) science-fiction novel Snow Crash.|url-access=subscription}}</ref> to the extent that ''avatar'' is now a term for this concept in computer games and on the [[World Wide Web]].<ref>{{cite dictionary |quote=''Computing'' and ''Science Fiction''. A graphical representation of a person or character in a computer-generated environment, ''esp''. one which represents a user in an interactive game or other setting, and which can move about in its surroundings and interact with other characters. |title=avatar, n. |dictionary=Oxford English Dictionary |url=http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/13624 |at=§Draft Additions September 2008 |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2018}}</ref>

The novel's Central Intelligence Corporation—the result of a merger between the [[Library of Congress]] and [[Central Intelligence Agency]]—operates a wiki-like private knowledge base known as the Library. However, unlike [[Wikimedia]], contributors to the Library (stringers) are paid if their contributions are used, making the Library more of an information marketplace than a public knowledge repository.

Many [[virtual globe]] programs, including [[NASA World Wind]] and [[Google Earth]], bear a resemblance to the "Earth" software developed by the CIC in ''Snow Crash''. One Google Earth co-founder claimed that Google Earth was modeled after ''Snow Crash'', while another co-founder said that it was inspired by ''[[Powers of Ten (film)|Powers of Ten]]''.<ref name="google_earth1">[http://www.brownianemotion.org/2006/07/24/notes-on-the-origin-of-google-earth/ Avi Bar-Ze'ev (from Keyhole, the precursor to Google Earth) on origin of Google Earth]. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081012224315/http://www.brownianemotion.org/2006/07/24/notes-on-the-origin-of-google-earth/ |date=2008-10-12 }}.</ref> Stephenson later referenced this in another of his novels, ''[[Reamde]]''.<ref>{{cite book |title=Reamde |first=Neal |last=Stephenson |authorlink=Neal Stephenson |publisher=William Morrow |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-06-210642-1 |page=38|quote=The opening screen of T'Rain was a frank rip-off of what you saw when you booted up Google Earth. Richard felt no guilt about this, since he had heard that Google Earth, in turn, was based on an idea from some old science-fiction novel.}}</ref>

Stephenson's concept of the Metaverse has enjoyed continued popularity and influence in high-tech circles (especially [[Silicon Valley]]) ever since the publication of ''Snow Crash''.<ref name="Park">{{cite news |last1=Park |first1=Gene |title=Silicon Valley is racing to build the next version of the Internet. Fortnite might get there first. |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2020/04/17/fortnite-metaverse-new-internet/ |access-date=9 October 2020 |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=17 April 2020}}</ref><ref name="Economist">{{cite news |title=Brain scan: A novelist's vision of the virtual world has inspired an industry |url=https://www.economist.com/technology-quarterly/2020/10/01/a-novelists-vision-of-the-virtual-world-has-inspired-an-industry |access-date=9 October 2020 |newspaper=The Economist |publisher=The Economist Newspaper Limited |date=1 October 2020 |location=London}} This article was published in print on page&nbsp;11 of ''the Economist's'' technology quarterly special section, which ran in the center pages of the printed issue dated 3&nbsp;October 2020.</ref> As a result, Stephenson has become "a sought-after futurist" and has worked as a futurist for [[Blue Origin]] and [[Magic Leap]].<ref name="Economist" />

Software developer [[Michael Abrash]] was inspired by ''Snow Crash''{{'}}s Metaverse and its networked 3D world. He left [[Microsoft]] for [[Id Software]] to write something in that direction, the result being ''[[Quake (video game)|Quake]]''.<ref name="Valve">{{cite web |url=http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/abrash/valve-how-i-got-here-what-its-like-and-what-im-doing-2/ |title=Valve: How I Got Here, What It's Like, and What I'm Doing |publisher=Valve}}</ref> The story for the [[3DO Interactive Multiplayer|3DO]] game ''[[Immercenary]]'' was also heavily influenced by ''Snow Crash''.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/making-a-prototype-of-the-future-the-development-of-i-immercenary-i- |title=Making a Prototype of the Future: The Development of Immercenary |website=Gamasutra |date=19 September 2012 |access-date=6 August 2013 |first=John |last=Szczepaniak}}</ref> A direct video-game adaptation of ''Snow Crash'' was in development in 1996,<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Snow Crash |magazine=[[GamePro]] |issue=95 |publisher=[[International Data Group|IDG]] |date=August 1996 |page=57}}</ref> but it was never released.

The online virtual worlds ''[[Active Worlds]]'' and ''[[Second Life]]'' were both directly inspired by the Metaverse in ''Snow Crash''.<ref name="usatoday-rosedale-interview">{{cite news
|url=https://www.usatoday.com/printedition/money/20070205/secondlife_cover.art.htm
|title=The king of alter egos is surprisingly humble guy |publisher=[[USA Today]] |access-date=2007-02-20 |first=Kevin |last=Maney |date=2007-02-04 }}</ref>

Former [[Microsoft]] Chief Technology Officer [[J Allard]] and former [[Xbox Live]] Development Manager Boyd Multerer claimed to have been heavily inspired by ''Snow Crash'' in the development of Xbox Live, and that it was a mandatory read for the Xbox development team.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Pitts |first1=Russ |title=the birth of xbox live |url=http://www.polygon.com/features/2013/11/11/4849940/xbox-live-millennium-e |website=Polygon |date=11 November 2013 |access-date=31 August 2016}}</ref>

===Possible film or television adaptation===
The novel was [[Option (filmmaking)|optioned]] shortly after its publication and subsequent success, although to date, it has never progressed past pre-production.<ref>{{cite news |title=Joe Cornish to direct adaptation of sci-fi novel Snow Crash |newspaper=The Guardian |date=15 June 2012 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/jun/15/joe-cornish-direct-adaptation-snow-crash |access-date=11 March 2024 |last1=Pulver |first1=Andrew }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Joe Cornish Bringing Snow Crash To TV |date=29 September 2017 |url=https://www.empireonline.com/movies/news/joe-cornish-bringing-snow-crash-tv/ |access-date=11 March 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Snow Crash (TV) Movie |date=October 2017 |url=https://www.movieinsider.com/m10389/snow-crash |access-date=11 March 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Evangelista |first1=Chris |title='Snow Crash' TV Series in the Works at HBO Max |website=[[IMDb]] |url=https://www.imdb.com/news/ni62722891/ |access-date=11 March 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=JOE CORNISH EXPLAINS WHY A SNOW CRASH MOVIE CRASHED, SAYS IT COULD BE REVIVED |date=22 January 2019 |url=https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/joe-cornish-explains-why-a-snow-crash-movie-crashed-says-it-could-be-revived |access-date=11 March 2024}}</ref> Canadian science fiction director [[Vincenzo Natali]] in particular has argued against a two-hour feature film adaptation because of a perceived lack of fit with the form; since the novel is "tonally all over the place", he feels that a mini-series would be a more suitable format for the material.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://blog.moviefone.com/2010/05/25/interview-vincenzo-natali-explains-how-to-crack-neuromancer/ |title=Interview: Vincenzo Natali Explains How to Crack 'Neuromancer', 'Snow Crash' and 'High Rise' |author=Peter Hall |date=25 May 2010 |work=AOL Moviefone |access-date=25 November 2012 |archive-date=15 January 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120115152458/http://blog.moviefone.com/2010/05/25/interview-vincenzo-natali-explains-how-to-crack-neuromancer |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In late 1996, it was announced that writer-director [[Jeffrey Nachmanoff]] would adapt the novel for [[The Kennedy/Marshall Company]] and [[Touchstone Pictures]]. [[Marco Brambilla]] was attached to direct the film.<ref>{{cite news | title = Nachmanoff to script 'Snow Crash' | publisher = '[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]' | url = https://www.variety.com/vstory/VR1117466053.html?categoryid=38&cs=1 | access-date = 2009-11-27 | first=Ted | last=Johnson | date=1996-12-02}}</ref> In June 2012, it was announced that English director [[Joe Cornish]], following his 2011 debut film ''[[Attack the Block]]'', had been signed as director of a future film adaptation for [[Paramount Pictures]].<ref>{{cite news | title = Joe Cornish signs up for 'Snow Crash' | website=[[Deadline Hollywood]] | url = https://deadline.com/2012/06/attack-the-blocks-joe-cornish-lands-snow-crash-at-paramount-286692/ | date=2012-06-15}}</ref> In 2013, Stephenson described Cornish's script as "amazing", but also warned that there was no guarantee that a film would be made.<ref>{{cite news | title=Neal Stephenson on tall towers and NSA cyber-spies | author=Leo Kelion | date=2013-09-17 |work=BBC News | url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24116925}}</ref> In July 2016, producer [[Frank Marshall (producer)|Frank Marshall]] said that filming could start in 2017.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://collider.com/snow-crash-movie-update-joe-cornish/ | title='Snow Crash' Producer Frank Marshall Says Movie Could Start Shooting Next Year | date=July 27, 2016 | author=Adam Chitwood | website=[[Collider (website)|Collider]]}}</ref>

In August 2017, [[Amazon Studios]] announced that it was co-producing an hour-long science fiction drama television show based on ''Snow Crash'' with Paramount. The announcement stated that the television show would be executive produced by Cornish and the Kennedy/Marshall Company's [[Frank Marshall (producer)|Frank Marshall]].<ref>{{cite web | date=September 28, 2017 |author=Debra Birnbaum  |url=https://variety.com/2017/tv/news/amazon-studios-lazarus-snow-crash-ringworld-1202576048/ |title=Amazon Increases Production Spending for 2018, Developing Three New Sci-Fi Series |work=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] }}</ref> In December 2019, it was announced that [[HBO Max]] had acquired the series with Paramount continuing to produce and Cornish remaining executive producer.<ref>[https://deadline.com/2019/12/snow-crash-sci-fi-drama-series-hbo-max-michael-bacall-joe-cornish-paramount-tv-1202809103/ 'Snow Crash' TV Series Adaptation From Michael Bacall & Joe Cornish In Works At HBO Max From Paramount TV], [[Deadline Hollywood]], December 13, 2019.</ref> HBO Max passed on the project in June 2021, and it reverted to Paramount and Kennedy/Marshall.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/14/neal-stephenson-on-termination-shock-geoengineering-metaverse-.html | title=Neal Stephenson on his new geoengineering climate change thriller and coining the term 'metaverse' | date=Nov 14, 2021 | first=Matt | last=Rosoff | publisher=[[CNBC]]}}</ref>

==Influence==
Google co-founder [[Sergey Brin]] called ''Snow Crash''  one of his favorite novels. One of the developers of [[Google Earth]] noted The Metaverse as an influence.<ref name="Wired">{{cite news |last=Rogers |first=Adam |date=26 October 2021 |title=Sci-Fi Icon Neal Stephenson Finally Takes on Global Warming |url=https://www.wired.com/story/sci-fi-icon-neal-stephenson-global-warming/ |url-access= |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211029012331/https://www.wired.com/story/sci-fi-icon-neal-stephenson-global-warming/ |archive-date=29 October 2021 |access-date=1 January 2024 |website=Wired.com}}</ref> The concept of the Metaverse also inspired the rebrand of [[Facebook]] to Meta Platforms Inc. in 2021, and spurred author [[Neal Stephenson]] himself to found a company in 2022 called Lamina1 to support the creation of [[virtual worlds]] using [[blockchain]] technology.<ref name="Wired2">{{cite news |date= 16 September 2022 |last=Levy |first=Steven |website=Wired.com |title= Neal Stephenson Named the Metaverse. Now, He's Building It | url=https://www.wired.com/story/plaintext-neal-stephenson-named-the-metaverse-now-hes-building-it/ |access-date = 29 February 2024}}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Novels|Science Fiction}}
<!--A WORD OF EXPLANATION SHOULD BE GIVEN HERE, ABOUT WHY WE ARE OUTREFERENCING TO THESE APPARENTLY UNRELATED ARTICLES. ADD AN ANNOTATION EXPLAINING EACH.-->
* ''[[Neuromancer]]''<!-- one of the earliest and best-known works in the cyberpunk genre -->
* [[Neurotheology]]
* ''[[Videodrome]]''

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite journal |last=Handrahan |first=Matthew |date=2015 |title=Essential Read: ''Snow Crash'' |url=https://archive.org/stream/SciFi_Now_Issue_No._104/SciFi_Now_Issue_No._104_djvu.txt |department=Book Club (column) |journal=[[SciFiNow]] |volume=104 |pages=84–87 |access-date=November 27, 2017}}

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
* {{ISFDB title|id=1182|title=Snow Crash}}

{{NealStephensonBooks|state=expanded}}
{{Extended reality|state=collapsed}}
{{Authority control}}

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