[pilarphosol]

I think it’s hilarious that they went and changed their name to their worst idea.

The term “metaverse” comes from Snow Crash, which is a dystopia. They would know this if they actually read.

[yamtaddle]

I like it when companies just come out and wear "evil" on their sleeve. Like Palantir. Better than when they try to hide it, anyway.

[jayd16]

Snow Crash is a a dystopia because of hyper capitalism not because of the metaverse. It's like worrying about space travel because 2001 had a runaway AI.

[yifanl]

The metaverse did empower malicious advertisements to selectively target people (and put them in a coma) in Snow Crash iirc, so maybe it's really just a pivot deeper into that side of adtech.

[pilarphosol]

True, but the reason there was so much demand to live in the metaverse is that the real world was so odious.

[s1artibartfast]

The physical world of snow crash was a dystopian hellhole. The metaverse of snow crash was still step up from that physical world, at least for the protagonist. They were a corporate pizza boy slave in the real world, but in the metaverse they were cool and had power and agency.

[r00fus]

Mark loved Snow Crash. He does actually read. That's the really sad part.