The first Crashings of Snow

"He is supposed to use the intercom to talk to drivers, he could say anything he wanted and it would be piped straight into the Deliverator's car, but no, he has to talk face to face, like the Deliverator is some kind of fucking ox cart driver" (10).

First off, this novel is a great deal of fun. Good choice, Dr. Reid!

"Face to face" immediately caught me, referencing back to Smart Mobs and our discussions. Face to face is slower, more time consuming, and has more meaning than a quick digital message or a soundchip traveling through a medium (i.e. a telephone). We try to come as close to face to face as possible without human contact.

Metaverse is an excellent example of attempting to bridge the "face to face" gap without interacting in real life, and therefore creating a commons. It requires a certain sort of integrity -- people can't create digital selves taller than who they really are. This commons also creates a class hierarchy, with the black and whites and "Wal-Mart Brandys" at the lower end of the technological spectrum. It reminds me of World of Warcraft, an interactive computer game that my boyfriend is quite the fan of. People create characters who play certain roles and have distinctive looks and clothing. They can communicate and work with other characters to do all sorts of questing/killing/noble things. The players all seem to speak their own language, through various abbreviations, commands, and fantastic names of places in the game.

And though Metaverse is conveniently programmed to allow people to run through one another, the opening chapters of the book demonstrate that despite, or perhaps because of, the overload of technological developments, traffic will always be a problem.