Sunday, March 30, 2008

The origin of Google Earth

The Earth application from Neal Stephenson's novel, Snow Crash, while not entirely responsible, was definitely inspirational in the creation of Google Earth.

Snow Crash inspires Google Earth
http://www.brownianemotion.org/2006/07/24/notes-on-the-origin-of-google-earth/

What other technologies or concepts have been linked to or inspired by this book?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_Crash
http://slashdot.org/books/99/10/18/1049244.shtml

Hackers attack epileptics
http://gizmodo.com/373768/hackers-attack-epileptics-forum-with-snow-crash+like-seizure-inducing-gifs

Motorcycle airbag
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/03/24/wearable-air-bag.html

Snow Crash inspired Second Life then comes to Second Life
http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/generalfiction/story/0,,1930135,00.html

Sintered Armorgel
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/top/new-flexible-ski-armor-hardens-on-impact-155142.php

Smartwheels -> Michelin Tweel
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/03/automobiles/03cars.html?ex=1262494800&en=f8f420df5ca1261d&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt

The Deliverator becomes real
http://blog.tribalpizza.com/2007/07/the-birth-of-th.html
http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=1163

At least we will have a job in the fictional future:

"When it gets down to it
- talking trade balances here - once we've brain-drained all our technology
into other countries, once things have evened out, they're making cars in
Bolivia and microwave ovens in Tadzhikistan and selling them here - once our
edge in natural resources has been made irrelevant by giant Hong Kong ships
and dirigibles that can ship North Dakota all the way to New Zealand for a
nickel - once the Invisible Hand has taken all those historical inequities
and smeared them out into a broad global layer of what a Pakistani
brickmaker would consider to be prosperity - y'know what? There's only four
things we do better than anyone else
music
movies
microcode (software)
high-speed pizza delivery"

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