NWN Snowcrash Shrine SL Metaverse

Click here to teleport to the location, where I still hold a small parcel of land in Waterhead. And yes, this shrine to Snow Crash was created in 2006 with the approval of Neal Stephenson himself, brought in-world by a metaverse marketing agency at the behest of Penguin, Stephenson's publisher. Many copies were meant to be distributed, but it's possible that I have the only one that's still instantiated in Second Life. It originally contained a readable excerpt of Snowcrash which would appear in a heads-up display when you clicked the shrine, but evidently the scripting which made that possible has been lost to time.

Oh, the giant plant to the left?

That's just a giant cannabis tree which grows after you water it. I've also owned that since 2006, and as an indication of how long that's been, marijuana was still illegal for recreational use in California when it was first hosted on Linden Lab's San Francisco servers.  Now there's at least three legal pot dispensaries in walking distance from Linden Lab.

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3 responses to “If You Want to Pay a Pilgrimage, There’s an Official Virtual Shrine to Neal Stephenson’s Snowcrash in the Pioneering Metaverse of Second Life”

  1. ilsa hesse Avatar
    ilsa hesse

    Do they still give out stickers if you knock on the front door at the LL building?
    when I was there… 5 years ago? I knocked on the door, explained I had been in world since 2006 and that I was a paid account from day 1. they brought me 3-4 stickers and sent me on my way!

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  2. Matt Avatar
    Matt

    Ilsa — what fun! What do the stickers look like?

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  3. DreddPirateBob Avatar
    DreddPirateBob

    1: I am a MASSIVE fan of Snowcrash. 2: I did not know this existed and big shouty 3: Waterhead is pat of the Hidden Lake District and in RL is about ten mile from me. Coinkidink?
    I THINK NOT

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