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Neal Stephenson reacts to Facebook name change

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Re: Neal Stephenson reacts to Facebook name change

#31

Post by hgibbs »

woqjl wrote: post #17

Snowcrash was forgettable. Vernor Vinges Rainbows End and stutf in Orson Scott Cards books left a much bigger mark. Esp the way the chimp troupe gets manipulated by the network. We see Vinges "belief circles" all around us.

I thought a lot of the ideas in snowcrash were very interesting - particularly when you consider that the book was published in 1992 and so a lot of the elements that were cutting-edge on release have had time to diffuse into scifi culture. For example, the potential for 'ideas' to be viruses of the mind, or the degree to which thought is shaped by language.

Re: Neal Stephenson reacts to Facebook name change

#32

Post by landonxjames »

hgibbs wrote: post #6

Can anybody recommend authors like Stephenson? He is my favourite author by far and it's going to be a sad day when I exhaust his works.

Peter F. Hamilton’s Commonwealth series[0] and Vernor Vinge’s Zones of Thought[1] both scratch a similar itch to Stephenson novels for me

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Saga

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Fire_Upon_the_Deep

Re: Neal Stephenson reacts to Facebook name change

#33

Post by [deleted] »

Taniwha wrote: post #26
nextaccountic wrote: post #3

He hinted at the revenue model being a big difference between whatever Facebook is building and the plot of his novel "Snow Crash" Can someone fill in the specifics? I guess the trouble is that for Facebook, you're the product, and advertisers are the clients - but, what is the revenue model of the metaverse from Snow Crash?

Well in Snow Crash the metaverse is controlled by a crazy billionaire who controls the brains of his employees by infecting them with memetic viruses .... in Zuckerberg's case ....

[deleted]

Re: Neal Stephenson reacts to Facebook name change

#35

Post by darkmarmot »

hgibbs wrote: post #6

Can anybody recommend authors like Stephenson? He is my favourite author by far and it's going to be a sad day when I exhaust his works.

Check out Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperion_Cantos.

Iain M. Banks is also a lot of fun.

Re: Neal Stephenson reacts to Facebook name change

#36

Post by rel2thr »

wmf wrote: post #14
durovo wrote: post #11

I don't get why the interviewer suggests that the author deserves some compensation. Did metaverse as an idea did not exist before Snow Crash?

Vaguely similar ideas existed in True Names and Neuromancer, but no, the metaverse as we imagine it today did not exist before Snow Crash.

Also Tron, Tron is basically a metaverse I would say

Re: Neal Stephenson reacts to Facebook name change

#38

Post by CamperBob2 »

durovo wrote: post #11

I don't get why the interviewer suggests that the author deserves some compensation. Did metaverse as an idea did not exist before Snow Crash?

I'm reminded of the master-class hissy fit Harlan Ellison threw when The Terminator came out. He sued, claiming ownership of the general concept of robots from the future. I'm not sure how it shook out, legally, but to this day the T1 film credits include the producers' "grateful acknowledgement to the works of Harlan Ellison."

So there's certainly precedent for Stephenson to claim the moral rights to a "metaverse," whatever that is.

Re: Neal Stephenson reacts to Facebook name change

#39

Post by DonHopkins »

Ankaios wrote: post #34

Maybe it's just me, but Facebook seems to have more in common with the Snow Crash virus than with the Metaverse.

Metastasis: The spread of cancer cells from the place where they first formed to another part of the body. In metastasis, cancer cells break away from the original (primary) tumor, travel through the blood or lymph system, and form a new tumor in other organs or tissues of the body.

Re: Neal Stephenson reacts to Facebook name change

#40

Post by DonHopkins »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #38
durovo wrote: post #11

I don't get why the interviewer suggests that the author deserves some compensation. Did metaverse as an idea did not exist before Snow Crash?

I'm reminded of the master-class hissy fit Harlan Ellison threw when The Terminator came out. He sued, claiming ownership of the general concept of robots from the future. I'm not sure how it shook out, legally, but to this day the T1 film credits include the producers' "grateful acknowledgement to the works of Harlan Ellison." So there's certainly precedent for Stephenson to claim the moral rights to a "metaverse,"…

I Have No Trademark But I Must Sue!
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