Thirty years ago, the science fiction writer Neal Stephenson invented the concept of the metaverse. Now, he is intent on building it in real life. We must hope his constructive feats are more uplifting than his imaginary fears — the metaverse he depicted in 1992’s Snow Crash was an escape hatch into an alternative virtual world from the hellscape of 21st-century Los Angeles. The novel’s main character, Hiro Protagonist, lived in a shipping container, worked as a pizza delivery driver and tried to survive in a brutal anarcho-capitalist world disfigured by menacing monopolists, economic collapse and environmental degradation.
30年前，科幻作家尼尔•斯蒂芬森(Neal Stephenson)创造了元宇宙的概念。现在，他打算在现实生活中建造元宇宙。我们必须希望他的建设性壮举比他想象中的恐惧更令人振奋——他在1992年小说《雪崩》(Snow Crash)中描绘的元宇宙是从21世纪洛杉矶地狱般的世界进入另一个虚拟世界的逃生口。小说的主角阿宏(Hiro Protagonist)是个披萨速递员，住在集装箱里，试图在一个残酷的无政府资本主义世界里生存，那个世界正面临险恶的垄断、manbetx20客户端下载 崩溃和环境恶化。