Excursus to the roots of “Second Life” – “Snow Crash” by Neal Stephenson

Approximately three years ago, I read a book called “Snow Crash” by Neal Stephenson. The book was written 15 years ago, but one specific part of the novel has never been as current as now. I will not go into details concerning the plot of the story, I barely want to concentrate on the fact that Stephenson writes about the so-called “Metaverse”.

Astoundingly, Stephenson’s portrayal of this “Metaverse”, which is an advancement of the internet, is amazingly similar to the virtual world “Second Life”. “Metaverse”-users can enter the world via their own computers or facilities similar to telephone booths by using some sort of spectacles. The users appear in this virtual world in form of avatars, which they can design by themselves.

The book itself was highly influential on our internet, as we know it. For example the term “avatar”, which refers to an interactive representation of a human in a virtual reality environment, was popularised by Neal Stephenson's novel. Further, according to its creators, “Uru”, a computer game, which allows avatar customization so that the player can be himself, was inspired by “Snow Crash”.

A rather large part of the story takes place in the “Metaverse” and the reader gets the impression that the life in this virtual world is much more important to some figures in the book than their life in the real world. Therefore, I am asking myself, if this relates to or in near future is going to relate to “Second Life”-users, individuals as well as in this case public relations professionals.