#the metaverse

[mandatoryrollercoaster]

All the Futures

[soultea]

I don't think we as a society talk enough about the fact that Patchy the Pirate is canon in the Big Time Rush (TV) universe.

[dinosaurgiantpenny]

These silicon valley dorks never figured out that Snow Crash is a parody and not like, a cool exciting future to live in.

[libraryofbaxobab]

August 20, 2024:

This is so fucking funny.

I read this because of Dan Olson's description of it in his marvelous video "The Future Is A Dead Mall" and I was curious about how the original Metaverse was actually conceptualized.

This strikes me as a very intelligent author said "How can I write the dumbest book possible?" This should not imply that the book is bad! Just like, the Cool Guy mode was turned up to 11 and everything was so awful and gritty and dystopian that it became silly. I laughed out loud. I read introductory paragraphs to my friends. I live-reacted on Snapchat because this story is HILARIOUS and it is played one hundred percent straight. Every character takes themselves soooooo seriously riding around on their little high-tech skateboards through openly racist anarcho-capitalist neighborhoods, spouting barely-comprehensible yet extremely-plausible futuristic skater slang. Masterpiece of hilarity, no notes.

What I will offer a note on, is the weird second half gets wayyy into religious mysticism? Really took me out of it. I didn't care about whatever central mystery the characters were researching. I wanted more big dumb car chases, more "hacker" shit (in this world, "hacker" just refers to... anyone who can code), more pointless Mafia side-quests, more strikingly accurate depictions of today's technology dreamed up all the way back in 1992. In short, I wanted to see more of this world.

Weirdly enough, we didn't even spend a lot of time in The Metaverse™️ for this book being the thing that named the concept. It made it even funnier for me that this story's outside world more closely resembled our real life failed "Metaverses" in that everything was compartmentalized, financialized to the extreme, and governed only by corporations; meanwhile the Original Metaverse was a fantasy of a walkable city with public transportation and no cars. Incredibly insightful social commentary.

I had an absolute blast reading this, and even my friends howled when I read them selected passages in my best Cool Guy voice.

8.5/10 #WhatsKenyaReading

[gothcroissant]

what would it take to make the future of the internet desirable?

[odinsblog]

[transmissionsfromthebattlefield]

A futuristic cityscape? aurora borealis? in the computer lab.