To people familiar with science fiction of the early 90s, the rechristening of Facebook as Meta was an ill-omen. Whilst Mark Zuckerberg’s stated aim is to “bring the metaverse to life and help people connect, find communities and grow businesses,” the realisation of the metaverse in this form brings about an unwelcome sense of déjà vu.

The name ‘Metaverse’ is a creation of Neal Stephenson, who coined it in his seminal work, Snow Crash, as the name of the embodied digital world in which he set his story. Snow Crash is the root of a lot of contemporary visions of virtual reality, from goggles and body tracking, to digital currency and customizable avatars. But by adopting its name, Meta has perhaps jumped the gun; Snow Crash is very much a cautionary narrative.

Stephenson’s Metaverse ultimately becomes heavily commercialised, overrun by digital billboards, and controlled by corporations

Initially a hackers’ playground, Stephenson’s Metaverse ultimately becomes heavily commercialised, overrun by digital billboards, and controlled by corporations. The parallels between this, and Meta’s own growth from a consumer focused social network to a monolith of algorithms and data collection are uncomfortable at best, and paint a bleak future of Meta’s idea for a monetised virtual world.

Neal Stephenson seeks to upend the misunderstanding of his work by presenting an alternative form: Lamina1

Lamina1 aims to use blockchain technology to hand power back to the people, giving online communities the tools and infrastructure to build their own, more immersive internet. Although it makes no mention of Stephenson’s fictional history, lacking the VR headsets and digital hub around which Snow Crash was centred, the goal speaks to its message; Stephenson’s repeated desires for a decentralised digital community unbound from market forces.

Stephenson seems well aware of Lamina1’s possibility as a counter-cultural metaverse, imploring creators and consumers alike to align themselves with Lamina1 in order to fight for agency and ownership, an economy that facilitates creatives and allows them to access their market directly without going through publishers or financiers.

This perspective is a breath of fresh air in a technology space stagnant with monopolisation, and Neal cuts a sympathetic figure to those that wish to realise the potential of a nascent internet that seemed so limitless when Stephenson was first writing. The white paper puts significant emphasis on how the project intends to foster a “large, thriving and engaged community” through online spaces such as Discord, Twitter and Reddit, who will be looked to for the design and tooling of Lamina1.

Stephenson seems well aware of Lamina1’s possibility as a counter-cultural metaverse

However, drawing upon such a disparate source of input looks to be one of Lamina1’s more significant challenges. Whilst there is something to be said for the crowd-sourcing of ideas, the allure of the “rebel effort devoted to an open metaverse” loses lustre if it cannot find itself a stable vision and direction. Indeed, in a global economy that seems increasingly hostile to independent artists, the “well-funded giants” may win out over Stephenson’s idealism through sheer reliability.

Lamina1’s instability is not fully the fault of Stephenson’s idealism though. The project’s interlacing with the concept of the blockchain and cryptocurrency may be necessary to achieve the fully self-sufficient, creator led market that Stephenson dreams of, but, as the paper itself acknowledges, “today’s crypto user experience comes up short” leading to “not only delayed adoption but [also] distrust”. Whilst Lamina1 has partnered with Avalanche, “the most environmentally-efficient [cryptocurrency]”, potentially mitigating some of the environmental effects, it still faces the large amount of both misinformation and misunderstanding around cryptocurrency and the blockchain.

With the meteoric rise and fall of bitcoin and NFTs, blockchain technology has earned a less than favourable reputation in the mainstream, and if Lamina1 really hopes to foster a new reality of internet commerce and interaction it will need to clarify many of its underpinning principles in order to encourage mainstream adoption.

Ultimately, Stephenson’s success would be a landmark for creatives everywhere, but he has a long uphill struggle to get there.

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