A Wider Net

With plenty of arguments for asimov and other writers toiling away in the bars of Philadelphia in WWI, my vote is for Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson.

The book birthed the concept of Avatars (virtual representation of someone in cyberspace) and a ‘metaverse/virtual’ world as well as an interesting examination of religion and politics and acceptance within the context of a changing social world. With a virus taking over computers and a chase through both the real and metaverse worlds, the book exposes concepts such as permanent connections to the internet, business and lives existing only in the meta-verse (second life anyone?) and the de-valuation of the IPO (the main character IPOs and then needs to deliver pizzas to make ends meet…ah the bubble predicted…)
The book may have not been the first with these concepts but it is an important piece of science fiction that was able to popularize them.

It is amazing how a good book change still change the way we think.