Interesting Transitions

“Interesting things happen along borders—transitions—not in the middle where everything is the same.” (122)

The concept of transition between pure states can be found throughout Snow Crash. The transitional state between flesh and technology is approached by the Rat Things, a biological component within a highly altered machine, gargoyles, the information hoarders who are physically in Reality but live plugged into the Metaverse, and in the hackers like Hiro himself, who forgo their physical being to participate and socialize within a fictional realm. And, indeed, the most interesting questions of the novel appear along these transitional states. When considering the fate of Fido, or dogs like him, Y.T. implies that an organic life in reality was a better fate, while Ng argues for existence as a Rat Thing, liberated by technology and living in a canine simulated reality (248). This undefined border between natural life and existence as “other” hearkens back to “The Matrix,” begging the question, if the rat things could choose between the red and blue pills, which would they pick? Is life as part of a machine, like the existence Ng has created for himself, a desirable thing?

Gargoyles live on the border between virtual and real, much like Ng lives on the border between human and machine. But while Ng profits from his duality, the gargoyles seem to suffer, looked down upon by all of the voices we hear in the novel. The attempt to use technology while in reality, in effect, is seen as negative while the opposite attempt, that of Ng, is positive. Does this suggest that life in a simulated environment, removed from unalterable truths like physical ability or race, would be better than a current existence in a world where elements cannot be arbitrarily changed? Is the true self one that is constructed from our mental personality and freed from the trappings of physicality?

The border we discussed with Neuromancer, between flesh and machine, is apparent again in Snow Crash. Just like Case, Hiro sees an erotic appeal to entering the technological network (23). This entanglement of pleasures of the flesh (sex) with inhuman technology challenges the assumed givens of either experience. With Hiro, the disconnect between virtual experiences and ones in reality affects his sword fighting at one point, as he notes that a neck does not slice as clean in reality as it does in the Metaverse. This juxtaposition between a result that Hiro can write, manipulate and control (a situation that adapts to him) against one that he must simply experience and work to maneuver through (a situation he must adapt to) shows the appeal of power within the Metaverse. For people in the real world, natural laws must be followed. For those in the virtual world, natural laws do not exist. The transition of control of ground rules from an external source to one internal to humanity is where interesting things happen. This virtual ownership really does attract human beings in the real world, as Stephenson implicitly predicts, as evidenced by the huge amount of dedicated MMORPG players.