In a near-future Los Angeles partitioned into sovereign corporate franchises, Hiro Protagonist delivers pizzas for the Mafia and hacks within the Metaverse, a three-dimensional virtual reality landscape he helped build. When a digital drug known as Snow Crash begins crashing the computers of high-level hackers and causing physical brain damage in the real world, Hiro teams up with a fifteen-year-old skateboard courier named Y.T. to investigate. They uncover a conspiracy involving Sumerian mythology, linguistical neurolinguistic programming, and a fiber-optics tycoon who intends to use an ancient physiological virus to seize control of global human consciousness.
The book attracts readers interested in the intersection of linguistics, computer science, and anarcho-capitalist political theory. It appeals to those looking for a technical blueprint of virtual social spaces and the decentralization of state power. Readers finish the narrative with a framework for understanding how corporate branding and digital architecture can replace civic infrastructure. It offers a mechanical look at how information functions as a biological pathogen and how code shapes physical reality.
Outward-looking and escapist; a moderate read.
Best for readers like The Curious Generalist. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 1992
- Language
- EN
