Snow Crash circa 1977
Perhaps it’s because I’m reading Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash, but this is a great mind exercise of how to explain World of Warcraft to someone from the year 1977…
I’m trying to work out how I’d go about explaining this news item from WOWinsider to someone thirty years ago, in 1977, and it is making my head hurt because there are too many prior assumptions nested recursively inside it to unpack easily. (Unless the person in 1977 who I’m trying to explain it to is John Brunner, who I think would get it first time.)
Okay, let’s take it from the top:
There exists a vast, global data network for exchanging information between computers. It’s called the internet. It’s used by corporations and governments and other groups such as people who like to dress up as furry animals to keep tabs on us…
Good stuff. Go read this now (and then read Snow Crash and be amazed at how predictive it was of WoW and Second Life).
