From: cde1mdb@cabell.vcu.edu (Matthew D. Balara)
Subject: Re: CULTURE: virtual reality as presented by _Snow Crash_
Date: Thu, 3 Jun 1993 20:00:30 GMT
Organization: Virginia Commonwealth University



	Just had to say something about this since I've heard so much
about it...

>        I think SnowCrash contains one of the *most* plausible and complete
>descriptions of a virtual world.  If I were going to design a world, I think
>it would end up *a lot* like the MetaVerse.

	I had a few problems with the c-space proposed in _Snow_
_Crash_.  Here're my 2 pennies:

	- With the advanced tech available in the novel, does a laser
projected world that can be interrupted by anything that passes
between the user and his computer make much sense?  Wouldn't it be
just as easy and infinitely more useful if the laser was projected
from within the goggles?

	- I was kind of disappointed that the way in which movement
was controlled was never really discussed.  There was a suggestion
that real world movement was mimicked in the Metaverse (during the
sword fight with the Nipponese businessman) but there were strong
contradictions of this also (like goggling in and moving about in the
M-verse while travelling at 100+ mph on a motorcycle in the real
world).

	- Who would want to ride a monorail in c-space?  Since there
is no physical constraint to movement, why should movement be limited
by either walking or riding public transport?  I do think there should
be a feeling of motion and distance travelled as Michael Benedikt
suggests in _Cyberspace:_First_Steps_, but why limit it to something
as slow and boring as a monorail?  I think the author fell into the
trap of creating another little real world, falling far, far short of
the potential of c-space.  We already have a real world. I can
understand real world referrences, so a user wouldn't feel totally
alien in c-space, but the mirror universe, the Metaverse
(Mirrorverse?) of _Snow_Crash_, struck me as purely a place where
users would act out impossible fantasies, not define a new community,
which to me is one of the most exciting potential futures of c-space.
This was my biggest problem with the technology in the novel. Let's
make something new.

	All of this aside, the book *is* very funny, interesting and
enjoyable.  I would highly recommend it as an entertaining read.  If
anything it's a great example of someone thinking hard about what's
going on and could go on soon, I just think he took a wrong thought
turn somewhere.  :)

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	Matt Balara                "It's not my goddamn planet,
	cde1mdb@cabell.vcu.edu      understand, monkeyboy?!"
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