Snow Crash Revisited: Grokking a Satire of Mimesis • Hacker News Board

Re: Snow Crash Revisited: Grokking a Satire of Mimesis

#101

Post by guiambros » Thu, Sep 08, 2016, 3:16 AM UTC

vertis wrote: post #39

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We're getting close from the technology perspective, but the storytelling and the "massive" portion of an MMORPG is still not there. Visually impressive, but the social interactions are dull and unsophisticated, without emotional depth. However ambitious MMOs and virtual worlds get, I worry that they'll always run into the same barrier restricting their potential past a certain scale: the MMO experience is made out…

Snow Crash actually deals with this if I remember correctly. When you go out onto the street you're likely to encounter people in the shape of Penises (etc). Most chat and social apps deal with this already by limiting your interactions to selected people that you whitelist. That shouldn't be hard to replicate into VR.

I think you can solve this by limiting anonymity. You won't see people dressed in penises once you're connected to your FB friends.

I know there's valid arguments against forced real identities to be used, but it's always a trade off between signal and noise.

Re: Snow Crash Revisited: Grokking a Satire of Mimesis

#102

Post by gbhn » Thu, Sep 08, 2016, 5:16 AM UTC

throwanem wrote: post #87

1propionyl wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah but you see my adjectives are better...

More convenient, perhaps. It's like programming in a way - why reinvent a wheel you don't have to?

Thanks, that's a useful phrase!

Re: Snow Crash Revisited: Grokking a Satire of Mimesis

#103

Post by usrusr » Thu, Sep 08, 2016, 7:41 AM UTC

steverb wrote: post #14

qwertyuiop924 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heh, yeah. Tron 2 was disapointing to day the least. Stephenson's novels in general are like this, although Cryptonomicon for one certainly has better character development than Snow Crash: they're a disorderly jumble of whatever ideas Stephenson thought were interesting at the time, wrapped in a skin of plot, and enfleshed in the characters that surround, encounter, and explore them. Stephenson sometimes jumps the r…

I think that's a really good synopsis of Stephenson's style, which is in part why I like his writing. There's always these little gems of actual knowledge buried in there. I find them delightful. I'm not super fond of the way he ends things, but the journey along the way always has fun side trails to explore. If you're mad, then sign me up for your newsletter.

I suppose the endings are where he has to stick to the plan while writing, no wonder they feel entirely out of place. He gives just about everyone and everything the reader met on all those pages before their five lines of being part of the ending, as if working off a checklist. This might look like the most awesome showdown ever before it's written, but it rarely turns into a particularly good read.

Re: Snow Crash Revisited: Grokking a Satire of Mimesis

#104

Post by usrusr » Thu, Sep 08, 2016, 7:55 AM UTC

jhbadger wrote: post #67

What I find either funny or depressing (can't decide), are the number of younger people (as in too young to be using computers in 1992) who read "Snow Crash" before reading any other cyberpunk and 1) fail to get that it is actually is a satire of Neuromancer, etc. and 2) think that Stephenson was amazingly prophetic, not realizing that a lot of what he was writing about already existed, albeit in simpler forms. 3D av…

It must be even worse when people are reading the Baroque Cycle after having watched Pirates of the Caribbean, as the Jacks are exactly the same person. Surprisingly, both had been in writing before the other was published.