Are the language elements in Snow Crash supported by science?

After reading Snow Crash, I have to wonder if any of the premise or main/supporting plot points are backed by any science, or even plausible based on our current understanding.

For example:

The whole idea of a metavirus, the metavirus coming from outside of earth, the nam-shub, being able to program humans with with a primitive base language, a biological virus being implemented as code, hackers being susceptible because of certain pathways...etc.

Little seems to actually be based on science, even at the time it was written. Was it just speculation to further the plot or is there something to it?

Answer

No, not by any current science nor science at the time. Most of Snow Crash is made up of very interesting pseudo-science or promising (in 1992) proto-science.

As to the idea of a human "base language" - the search for a "universal language" has been a common theme of myths, occult groups, pseudoscience, and pre-analytic philosophy since time immemorial. The reality is that it is a completely open question in modern, fact-based linguistics as to whether there is even a single genesis of language in humans. Let alone something as detailed and universally applicable as what's present in Snow Crash. Most modern linguists and psychologists also believe that language evolved continuously from non-language, i.e. there wasn't a primate who "could not" speak, and then her child who "could" - rather that communication grew gradually more complex over generations.

When Snow Crash was written, the field of memetics was popular. Depending on who and when you ask, memetics is either an excellent explanation of cultural transfer, a reasonable model of cultural transfer not tied strongly to reality, or a useless field that, at its best, provides a more complicated explanation for things we could already explain. "Memetics" survives today primarily as a way to alert someone they're going to be looking at cute cat pictures; one thing about a protoscience, is that very few successfully play out into real sciences.

The bare idea that language acts can influence people's views and actions is of course true, but by no measure can that statement, at that level, be called science.

Comments

Did the gatekeeper and the keymaster get intimate in Ghostbusters?

According to TVTropes ( usual warning, don't follow the link or you'll waste half your life in a twisty maze of content ): In Ghostbusters, it's strongly implied that Dana Barret, while possessed by Zuul the Gatekeeper, had sex with Louis Tully, who was possessed by Vinz Clortho the Keymaster (key, gate, get it?), in order to free Big Bad Gozer. In fact, a deleted scene from the movie has Venkman explicitly asking Dana if she and Louis "did it". I turned the quote into a spoiler since it contains really poor-taste joke, but the gist of it is that it's implied that as part of freeing Gozer , the two characters possessed by the Keymaster and the Gatekeeper had sex. Is there any canon confirmation or denial of this theory (canon meaning something from creators' interviews, DVD commentary, script, delete scenes etc...)? Answer The Richard Mueller novelisation and both versions of the script strongly suggest that they didn't have sex (or at the very l...

Why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize Missy right away?

So after it was established that Missy is actually both the Master, and the "woman in the shop" who gave Clara the TARDIS number... ...why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize her right away? I remember the Tenth Doctor in The Sound of Drums stating that Timelords had a way of recognizing other Timelords no matter if they had regenerated. And Clara should have recognized her as well... I'm hoping for a better explanation than "Moffat screwed up", and that I actually missed something after two watchthroughs of the episode. Answer There seems to be a lot of in-canon uncertainty as to the extent to which Time Lords can recognise one another which far pre-dates Moffat's tenure. From the Time Lords page on Wikipedia : Whether or not Time Lords can recognise each other across regenerations is not made entirely clear: In The War Games, the War Chief recognises the Second Doctor despite his regeneration and it is implied that the Doctor knows him when they fir...

story identification - Animation: floating island, flying pests

At least 20 years ago I watched a short animated film which stuck in my mind. The whole thing was wordless, possibly European, and I'm pretty sure I didn't imagine it... It featured a flying island which was inhabited by some creatures who (in my memory) reminded me of the Moomins. The island was frequently bothered by large winged animals who swooped around, although I don't think they did any actual damage. At the end one of the moomin creatures suddenly gets a weird feeling, feels forced to climb to the top of the island and then plunges down a shaft right through the centre - only to emerge at the bottom as one of the flyers. Answer Skywhales from 1983. The story begins with a man warning the tribe of approaching skywhales. The drummers then warn everybody of the hunt as everyone get prepared to set "sail". Except one man is found in his home sleeping as the noise wake him up. He then gets ready and is about to take his weapon as he hesitates then decides ...

warhammer40k - What evidence supposedly supports Tau as related to the Necrontyr?

I've heard of rumours saying that the Tau from Warhammer 40K are in fact the Necrontyr. Is there anything that supports this statement, in WH40K canon? I just found this, on 1d4 chan 1 : Helping Necrons? Or are they Necrontyr descendants? An often overlooked issue is that Tau have no warp signatures, just like Necrons, hate Warpspawns and Warp in general, just like Necrons, have the exact same skull shape,stature and short lives, and the overwhelming need for Technology and beam weapons, JUST LIKE NECRONS. GW may have planned a race that simply prepares a pacified, multiracial galaxy for Necrons to feast upon, supported by Ethereals that have a C'tan phase blade. Then there is a reference of "dark seed in east" by the Deceiver, so the tricky C'tan might give Tzeentch the finger in the JUST AS PLANNED competition. Or maybe GW just has so little creativity that they simply made a new civ conforming to an Old One's standards without knowing it. Is this the connec...

Blog

Search This Blog