Thread: "Snowcrash and Permutation City"

--------------090808080801060802040009
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

You read it in one sitting=E2=80=BD That's impressive, especially with some=
of=20
the challenging concepts involved. As far as simulations within=20
simulations, I don't recall it going very deep, but then as a=20
programmer, I'm used to increasing computer power allowing for endless=20
layering of technologies.

Just so this conversation doesn't go completely off-topic, Egan's book=20
"Diaspora" is sort of a follow-up to Permutation City, and involves some=20
people choosing to modify themselves in order to live in some=20
higher-dimensional universes, so there seems to be no limit to how deep=20
this rabbit hole goes!

BTW, I would like to suggest that everyone sign your messages because=20
Yahoo no longer seems to include the sender's address. Thanks all!

-Melinda

On 2/27/2015 2:04 AM, Vasily Vladimirovich Vylkov vasily@gatech.edu=20
[4D_Cubing] wrote:
>
>
> I read through the whole of Permutation City in one sitting. Wow --=20
> thanks again for the link. At some point it gets kind of tiring (how=20
> many simulations within simulations within simulations could there=20
> be...) but overall I haven't been so engrossed in a book since I read=20
> Hyperion (Simmons) or maybe Murakami (e.g. Norwegian Wood); it had=20
> that sort of dreamlike melancholy.
>
> On Tue, Feb 24, 2015 at 1:08 PM, Vasily Vladimirovich Vylkov=20
> > wrote:
>
> That Snow Crash book was more than a little over-the-top Tarantino
> spaghetti western B-movie style bombastic, but I think I will also
> give Stephenson the benefit of the doubt -- that it was a
> stylistic choice to write that way, and not necessarily
> amateurish. (I do remember being bewildered at first, at how
> blatantly unrealistic some of the action was! : )
>
> On Fri, Feb 20, 2015 at 8:00 AM, David Vanderschel
> DvdS@Austin.RR.com [4D_Cubing]
> <4D_Cubing@yahoogroups.com > wrote:
>
> Melinda's comment got me curious about Second Life. I had
> never paid much attention. Then I found a contradiction of
> Melinda's claim from Second Life creator Philip Rosedale
> himself, here:
> http://freakonomics.com/2007/12/13/philip-rosedale-answers-your-s=
econd-life-questions/
>
> Q: Have you ever read Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson? I
> don=E2=80=99t know much about Second Life but it sounds simil=
ar to
> the Metaverse in the fiction novel.
>
> A: When Snow Crash came out, I was already really intent
> on the idea of creating a virtual world like Second Life =E2=
=80=94
> I had been thinking about it and doing what small
> experiments I could since I was in college. But Snow Crash
> certainly painted a compelling picture of what such a
> virtual world could look like in the near future, and I
> found that inspiring.
>
> I guess I am only quibbling about the definite article. He
> did find it inspiring, but he had already been inspired; so it
> was not _the_ inspiration.
>
> Unlike Melinda, I did not find Stephenson's writing to be
> amateurish. However, I did take it to be deliberately absurd
> and satirically comical. I liked Snow Crash a lot, laughed a
> lot. I still occasionally recommend it to people.
>
> Regards,
> David V.
>
> On 2/9/2015 7:10 PM, Melinda Green melinda@superliminal.com
> [4D_Cubing] wrote:
>> Snowcrash's metaverse was the inspiration for Second Life
>> which I helped develop for a couple of years.
>
>
>
>
>
>=20


--------------090808080801060802040009
Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable



">


You read it in one sitting=E2=80=BD That's impressive, especially with =
some
of the challenging concepts involved. As far as simulations within
simulations, I don't recall it going very deep, but then as a
programmer, I'm used to increasing computer power allowing for
endless layering of technologies.



Just so this conversation doesn't go completely off-topic, Egan's
book "Diaspora" is sort of a follow-up to Permutation City, and
involves some people choosing to modify themselves in order to live
in some higher-dimensional universes, so there seems to be no limit
to how deep this rabbit hole goes!



BTW, I would like to suggest that everyone sign your messages
because Yahoo no longer seems to include the sender's address.
Thanks all!



-Melinda