Analysis Of Neal Stephenson's 'Snow Crash'

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Neal Stephenson’s “Snow Crash” is a book completely different from any other books I have ever read. It takes readers on a journey to the future, by showing them how life has changed, in a good way and bad. There are incidents where we see changes in human behaviors and how people act. Technology plays a key role throughout the whole book mostly because the story is in the high-tech future. The characters are portrayed as some sort of “comic” characters. For example, Hiro has computer hacking, sword-fighting, and sharp mental skills. We also see Y.T., who is a 15 years old girl, working as a courier by delivering mails and packages on her skateboard. She also does crazy amount of things throughout the book, which we don’t see normal 15 year …show more content…

Technology has been come a huge component in everyone’s’ lives these days, especially with cell phones, the internet, digital libraries, and video games. Just like the users in Snow Crash, kids and teenagers in present day also use the internet to browse websites, play games online, and also socialize with people from thousands of miles away in the real world. We also have cell phones, which are somewhat similar to what the gargoyles had that were draped all over their bodies. In the book, gargoyles were working for CIA, and they were watching the users every move and collecting their data. I guess, you can relate this to NSA in today’s world, where they also spy on everyone’s life, while collecting their data, such as emails, phone contacts, and text messages. Digital libraries is one of keys resources Hiro and Y.T. have in the book, and we also have in real life. In present day, people are able to download information, such digital books or digital videos, right onto their laptops, phones, or tablets. We also have eBooks, where we can directly download a book of our choice, right onto our tablets and gain knowledge from it. Just like the program Hiro was able to obtain in the book called, “Earth”, we are also able to use that program in our present day life. We can use Google Earth or Bing Maps, which offers us updated satellite imagery and the ability to browse through street views of …show more content…

Maybe Stephenson was also trying to tell us something about the use of technology and how it can also have negative effects. Today, technology is getting stronger and smarter every day. Someone who can manipulate the power of technologies and abuse it can be a threat to society and many innocent people. “Snow Crash” was the name of the drug in the book, which transmitted computer virus that was able to infect the computer systems of unknown hackers. It also transmitted a disease to the user in real life outside of Metaverse, and affected their central nervous system. It’s not possible that this sort of thing can happen to us, but it does show signs of the negative uses of technology. The closest thing I can imagine, is a cyber-thief or a hacker in real life, stealing personal data of someone else. That personal data can turn out to be credit card information, which than the thief can use to purchase things in real life and externally hurt the victim. It may not be bad as a disease, but the person can have a financial loss. We also get to see Ng, who is a Vietnamese security contractor. Ng, unlike others, is almost like a cyborg. With technology associated with his human body, he is half-robot, half-human. We are pretty far from making cyborgs, but you never know if this prediction can also come true. It’s crazy to think that Neal Stephenson had predicted most of the

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