[eli_gottlieb]

I really do feel the need to ask, these days: am I the only technologist completely uninterested in transforming real life into Snow Crash? As far as massive-world 3D games go, I still see more artistry in the Assassin's Creed series (for all its flaws) or even something more fantastic like Pokemon Snap (safari games are the idea that stay with me for VR implementation: make something that does not already exist rather than copying meatspace) than in these weird attempts to create a "virtual reality" or even just large-scale game world modeled off... Times Square.

Not only can I already visit Times Square in real life, I choose not to. Ditto on the more branded, corporatized, ad-infested portions of the internet (ie: the "downtown internet" approved by official, polite society).

Many scifi novels (insofar as Snow Crash can even be called "fiction" rather than "prediction" these days :-() are written to make fun of wacky technologists and our just-somewhat-off-target ideas, you know.

Now, to end on a zog note rather than zig or zag, here's an idea: someone figure out the massive-game or VR equivalent of 4chan. There's something people will actually want to use. (For all the official disapproval from all sectors, 4chan and 2chan are massively popular and influential. They are offering something users want: anonymity, obscurity, simplicity, and freedom!) EDIT: http://kazerad.tumblr.com/post/96020280368/faceless-together