Saturday, November 8, 2014

Snow Crash and Assorted Ramblings on Virtual Reality

Slip a calculator into one of your jumpsuit pockets and grab a plank it’s time for Snow Crash! Neal Stevenson’s 1992 novel is one part earnest, philosophical techno thriller and two parts schlocky nineties action movie and comedic satire.

In the world of Snow Crash the Federal Government has been thoroughly decentralized. It now delegates the vast majority of its former duties and territories to corporations and their spiritual brethren in various criminal organizations. But this grungy, anarchic world is really only the embellishment to the real reality of the story. The Metaverse (or what modern folk today might know as “The Internet”) is the more functional of the two realties. It is a virtual cyberspace where for an elite group of hackers anything is possible. Many of the characters we meet in Snow Crash prefer to live here, including the main character, who goes by the cringe inducing pseudonym Hiro Protagonist. Hiro is a master hacker and an original architect of the Metaverse back in the primordial times of about a decade prior. Because of his elevated status Hiro has the power to bend this reality to his will.

Aspects of Stevenson’s cyber-reality reflect the current state of the Internet; he anticipated the importance of the Internet in day-to-day social interactions, and he seemed to be aware of the potential implications of interconnected surveillance technology, interestingly, he also describes software very similar to Google Earth. Even at its most hokey (virtual reality public transport system?) the Metaverse idea is nothing less than entertaining. With some hindsight the main problem with the Metaverse is Stevenson’s complete adherence to virtual reality as the future user experience of the Internet.

The problem with this form of interaction and the Metaverse writ large is obviously one of practicality. Why go through all that trouble with a 3d avatar when a few clicks or swipes will suffice in so-called flatland? Stevenson’s term for the kind of 2d interfaces that are currently the norm (and perhaps a clever nod to Edwin A. Abbott's novel), that remain essentially unchanged in premise since the nineties. With hindsight it’s clear that Stevenson underestimated the power of a clean and powerful GUI. So far immersive virtual reality is largely the stuff of videogame power fantasies and insubstantial tech demos. The Internet landscape as it has emerged is far more scattered and far more subtly tinged with sinister corporate and government influence than Stevenson could have imagined in 1992.

The innate complications involved in simulating a compelling all-encompassing reality are what doomed projects with Metaverse-esc aspirations like Second Life and PlayStation Home. It could be argued that the closest analog we currently have to the reality of the Metaverse is Facebook. Whether/how Facebook’s core functionality would work in an immersive virtual reality is debatable but the company’s recent acquisition of Oculus VR is an interesting wrinkle. For the immediate future there is still plenty of virtual reality to be had, albeit operating in a more limited capacity.

The Metaverse closely resembles the modern MMO videogame format. These games can be staggeringly intricate but their limited scope and utility allows them to empower the player within a more limited construct of the virtual world. Eve Online is a fascinating example of  an extraordinarily sophisticated reality on a colossal scale. So colossal in fact that, it’s economy is worth more in real currency than some many modestly-sized nations. With the emergence of new virtual reality technology and real-time rendering techniques that are quickly approaching what Stevenson describes in Snow Crash it is not out of the question that we could some day experience a reality as believable as the Metaverse. The last hurdle is whether the general public is willing to strap something like a headset on their face for multiple hours a day. Considering how fast smartphones and tablets have caught on it's certainly not out of the question, nor is it that large of a jump functionally speaking.

The final question then emerges if virtual reality does catch on who will be using it? Snow Crash does a great job in answering this question on many levels. The world of Snow Crash is a clearly delineated technocracy. The lower classes jack into the Metaverse through public terminals and are given glitchy low-resolution avatars. While middle-class males like Hiro and corporate entities comprise the upper strata of the Metaverse. What emerges is a system that leads to systematic discrimination against the techno-illiterate, ostensibly the poor and the elderly. The entire purpose of creating an immersive cyber-reality is to create a place for complete ideological and creative sovereignty. It should be a place where the individual is free from the constraints of society and the natural universe. Cyber-reality becomes dangerous when it begins to parallel real reality too closely and in doing so replicates the systemic limitations. Perhaps a cyber-reality that is completely uninhibited is impossible until we solve the problems in our immediate reality. 

*Edit: In a strange coincidence I just stumbled upon this Verge article today by Adi Robertson that touches on a lot of the same points as my post; she gives a great general overview of where VR tech is at now and where it could potentially end up. Here is a excerpt on the potential future of VR:

"...some of the most exciting possibilities involve blending the physical world with VR. Sharing experiences will become more intense, and online research takes on a whole new meaning. And then there's the entire field of augmented reality, where virtual and physical elements combine. If we figure out how to actually get there, the possibilities are endless."

1 comment:

  1. I find it interesting that you bring up MMOs with regards to the subject of a virtual reality world. I agree that they're a valid example of such a thing with their own economies and culture contained within themselves. The bit about EVE Online's currency worth is interesting-- it brings up the question of what defines the inherent worth of virtual currency in terms of MMOs, and other kinds of online games? Even though you may not be able to pay rent or buy groceries with it, I find that many players in these games take their online careers very seriously and value their net worth maybe as much as they do in the physical world. After all, different people have different set of skills, and some of us are definitely more suited to the culture of an online economy over the economy of the country they live in. In general, I'm interested to see if that aspect of gaming culture will integrate more into the 'real world' more than it has already as time progresses.

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