Lessons of the Future: Use of Cyberspace (Snow Crash)

In the Cyberpunk category of Science Fiction, the prefix Cyber- suggests that there is a cyberspace involved in the story in one form or another. How we compare this alternate world to our main world is up to us.

To implement a Cyberspace, we first have to name our two worlds or at least the cyberspace. Second, we need to establish how the character jumps from one world to the other. We also have to choose which world to start in, the real world or the computer world. One world is usually hostile while the other is safe. This is not always the case but it helps to establish an interesting contrast and possible juxtaposition in our stories. In the book Snow Crash, The Metaverse is what they call their cyberspace. The characters jump from one world to the other using a hemisphere projection computer with the aid of some VR goggles. The real world is earth and man is it violent. Hiro Protagonist (yes… that is his name) the main character of the book, lives in a public storage unit but in the Metaverse, he is a famous and powerful entity. In the Metaverse, he is unable to be harmed but in the real world, a large mafia-like cult would kill him in a second if he got in the way of their plans.

In Snow Crash, we see the Cyberspace named, the gateways between worlds shown, the hostilities decided, and a contrast established. All of these elements create an extremely deep world to begin telling a story. Without any story at all, we already have some interest established. Remember when writing for Cyberpunk or anything with a virtual world, these elements will serve as a good foundation to create an interesting story.