And before we had moving 2D graphics in the form of movies and video games we had text descriptions of action with the occasional illustration or even (much later) photograph, which allowed people to build not only deep stories but rich worlds that have caused entire generations of people to enter what amounts to a shared hallucination (maybe more reminiscent of Vurt than Snow Crash). If only there were some way to use networked computers to allow users to navigate a world written by such authors... imagine how egalitarian that could be, without the large production budgets of 3D modelling and graphic artists enforcing large barriers to entry for aspiring contributors! Alas, no such future could ever be possible for The Metaverse--and it is almost ridiculous to imagine such--as the birth of The Internet in the same year as Nintendo invented the modern computer has guaranteed that no one, anywhere, has any interest in reading anything.