Metaverse's Daemon's, and Hypercard's....oh my!

Ok, first I must just say that I thoroughly enjoyed the fact that Stephenson referred to minivans as "bimbo boxes"--it just made me laugh. Now, onto more important and relevant matters.

I found this book overall to be one that although was set in the future, is not really that far away and brings up some points for discussion.

First, one point that I think is already an issue. On p. 10 the pizza guy actually gets ticked b/c communication can be piped into the car and he gets annoyed that the owner wants to come talk face to face like he is "some kind of ox cart driver."

The guy would rather use a technological mode of communication than face-to-face. I would argue with the use of e-mail and texting that that has already occurred. People(myself included) use it as a barrier and a way to actually avoid face-to-face interaction.

Also problematic to me is when he discusses on p. 64 the interaction of business men in the Metaverse. They dress up their avatars and actually conduct meetings. This gives a whole new meaning to commuting or a Global Virtual Team! They "consider it as good as face-to-face" yet they "more or less ignore what is being said-a lot gets lost in translation, after all." He later goes on to say that they pay attention to nonverbals--but yikes. Do we want the businessmen of tomorrow conducting important deals through a computer generated avatar. They don't even pay attention to what is being said--yet it is as good as face-to-face---what?! Does anyone else think this could be a breakdown in our commerce system if this is the future of business?

I actually think this alternative universe, Metaverse, sounds kind of cool, but I just wonder about the psychological ramifications...if you can do whatever you want in there--how does that affect life in Reality?

I would also like to discuss the hazy meanign of of the word library on p. 22. He says that everything got put into maching readable form.With the emergence of everything going online--do you ever think the library as we know it will disappear? Is reading a book that was sent to you on your Iphone and then you read it really the same experience?

This might be a stretch, but do you think that in essence Facebook has become a bit like the Metaverse? Let me explain.

On p. 24 "Hiro spent a lot of time in the Metaverse. it beats the s...t out of the U-Stor-It." I know that most of us wouldn't ever think we were as far gone as the people that create avatars and live in Second Life are, but when we get on Facebook we can portray whatever person we want to be. Even the pictures we upload can tell something about ourselves and the "life" we want to portray in the cyber world. Example...I can upload pics of me at my aunt and uncle's million dollar lake home that looks like I'm livin' it up..but in reality I have no apartment and live with my other aunt and uncle in CR and am completely stressed out trying to finish my Master's and look for a job so I can rent an apartment...but to anyone else it looks like I just get to spend the time of my life in luxury. I thought I'd ffer an example from my own real vs. virtual life and how maybe that isn't so far of a stretch from what Stephenson was discussing.