Cyberpunk and Snow Crash

I think Snow Crash not only portrayed the world of cyberpunk, but the corrupt nature of the society that Neal Stephenson believes is dawning.

The protagonist of the story, aptly named Hiro Protagonist, is a pizza delivery man in "Reality." The pizza company he works for, CosaNostra Pizza, is run by the mafia and swears by the '30-minutes or it's free' rule. CosaNostra tends to get its employees as a result of them owing the mafia 'a favor.' Workers live in fear while on the job because their lives are in danger if they do not deliver their pizzas on time. I believe this can be considered a microcosm of the government that is in place today, a government that fuels itself on fear. Stephenson could be hinting that if this type of rule continues, everything including pizza companies could be run in that fashion.

Another distinct part of this future society that Stephenson portrays is the over-capitalistic state of it. Privatization goes to the extreme as jails and even law enforcement take the form of private companies. I believe this is Stephenson's warning of the greedy nature of capitalism.

Something that I thought was funny and also related to an article that we went through during Tara's presentation concerned the avatars that people picked or could construct for the Metaverse. Some didn't take their avatar very seriously and took the form of random things like dongs. However, some people were very concerned about the appearance of their avatar because they dated within the Metaverse. Things similar to this may even exist, but I can see avatar dating becoming something that happens in the future. Unlike the millenial thinker, however, I don't believe it will be a common, everyday occurrence.