The more you read of Snow Crash, the more you might be forgiven for forgetting that it was published in 1992, before the Internet really became a thing. The book predicts the Dot Com boom and bust, coined the term avatar for your online appearance, and even correctly predicted some of the effects that server lag would have on online communication. There is a lot in Snow Crash that could still come to pass, given the complete collapse of the world economy and the subsequent privatization of all services, but Neal Stephenson's vision of the future of the Internet… will probably not.
The Metaverse is the internet, but an immersive, 3D, VR version of it. Our current internet may get there some day, but it is unlikely that, when it does, it will be strung out in a geographic line, forcing visitors to ride a tram to get from site to site. Yes, the look of your avatar will be of utmost importance, but the hottest spot for sophisticated online nightlife, the place everyone wants to get in to, is not likely to be a bar run by one of the programmers who started the thing in the first place. That might be the most outlandish piece of nerd fantasy in the whole novel.
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Eric Limer 
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