# Snow Crash *Snow Crash* (1992) by [[Neal Stephenson]] is the cyberpunk satire that coined the word **metaverse** and popularized **avatar** as the term for a virtual self. It is among the most directly consequential SF novels for the actual technology industry. ## What it is Set in a near-future America where the federal government has collapsed and life is run by private franchises and mafias, the novel follows Hiro Protagonist — pizza-delivery driver and elite hacker — between physical reality and the Metaverse, a shared 3D virtual world accessed through goggles. The book is a *dystopia*: its privatized, atomized, corporate-feudal America is a warning, not a roadmap. (Note: Stephenson popularized but did not coin "avatar" — Richard Garriott's *Ultima IV* and Lucasfilm's *Habitat* used it first.) ## Why it matters here When [[Mark Zuckerberg]] renamed Facebook "Meta" around a metaverse vision, he built on Stephenson's coinage — though without citing the book by name and while distancing the project from its dystopian source. Stephenson, who went on to become [[Blue Origin]]'s first employee, says he has "never had any communication with Zuckerberg." *Snow Crash*'s adoption as a product roadmap, stripped of its satire, is a centerpiece example in [[Science Fiction and the Tech Elite]]. ## See also - [[Neal Stephenson]] — the author - [[Science Fiction and the Tech Elite]] — the hub - [[Neuromancer]] — the other foundational cyberpunk novel