@vrhermit I've come to expect techbros reading cautionary cyberpunk, missing the point, and concluding, "I should build this," but the author jumping in and saying, "time to make this dystopic science fiction a dystopic science reality" - that's a new one for me.
@SyndicWill yeah, it’s gross. I cringed so hard I think I pulled something.
@SyndicWill goddamn it Neal
@SyndicWill implying anyone involved in this had ever been a hero
@SyndicWill It doesn't surprise me. Snowcrash wasn't very good social criticism and gets credit for inventing ideas that had been in circulation so long it was actually satirizing them.
And more to the point, Cryptonomicon, probably the second worst novel I ever finished reading, was a protagonist making a big deal out of setting up a file server, like it was a world-historic feat. It was absolutely a prologue to Web3 stupidity.
@FoolishOwl yeah you're right. Stephenson benefited form a halo effect from the cyberpunk genre as a while, but snow crash didn't really have much other than veneer. The setting in a corporate fiefdom society didn't really play much of a role in the story as I recall
@SyndicWill layer 1 blockchain? They slapping copper around now? 🤡
@fink you see we need one central decentralized layer on which all the other decentralized layers depend.
@SyndicWill yes that makes totally sense 🙈
@SyndicWill Yikes