Set in the early 21st century, "Snow Crash" imagines a bleak future: The global economy has collapsed, and federal governments have lost most of their power to a handful of giant corporations. Here's what the author predicted 29 years ago, and how it compares to the virtual worlds that Meta and other tech companies are trying to build today. Last week, Stephenson told Axios that he has "never had any communication with Zuckerberg." That might be good: If Meta fulfills all of Stephenson's prognostications, its metaverse may not be such an idyllic place to spend the future. And Stephenson now works as virtual reality start-up Magic Leap's "chief futurist," after an advisor stint at Jeff Bezos' space company Blue Origin. Companies like Microsoft, Roblox and Epic Games are also planning their own metaverses. Nearly three decades later, that's essentially the future that Zuckerberg says he's trying to build with Meta - minus the dystopia. In the novel, people use digital avatars of themselves to explore the online world, often as a way of escaping a dystopian reality. Author Neal Stephenson coined the term "metaverse" in his 1992 science-fiction novel "Snow Crash," which envisions a virtual reality-based successor to the internet.
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