Boehm - Hiro of The Platonic Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash

Brian Attebery, as Editor, for the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts
International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts
"Hiro" of the Platonic: Neal Stephenson's "Snow Crash"

Author(s): Carl Boehm
Source: Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, Vol. 14, No. 4 (56) (Winter 2004), pp. 394-408
Published by: International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts
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"Hiro" of the Platonic:
Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash
Carl Boehm
First APPEARING in the late 1970s

and early 1980s, the cyberpunk genre provided a fresh reworking of popular
science fiction motifs. Not merely a literary label, the term "cyberpunk" de-
noted a cultural movement, marking a distinct influence on film, music, and
popular culture in general. One appeal of the movement was that, throughout
this period, cybernetics technology advanced so rapidly that its fictional rep-
resentations had strong possibilities of becoming reality - and soon; as a re-
sult, the unprecedented nature of such accelerated technological advance-
ments became a defining feature of cyberpunk. As Steve Jones observes, "The
clearest statements of cyberpunk ideology come from contemporary science
fiction texts that combine information technology and ideology to construct a
reality in the near future (a time that seems almost parallel to the present rather
than ahead of it)" (81). The near-future projections of the cyberpunk sub-
genre of science fiction (SF) are often more accurate than the more advanced
ideas proposed by other SF authors writing stories set many years in the fu-
ture. As a genre, science fiction (and its sub-genre of cyberpunk in particular)
embodies the massive surge of technological advancement of the last century
and a half. Roughly sixty years separate the Wright Brothers' powered flight
at Kitty Hawk from Neil Armstrong's setting foot on the moon. Communica-
tions have evolved from the worldly to the celestial - from the telegraph dur-
ing the late nineteenth century to telephones in the mid-twentieth century to
contemporary cell phones with satellite hook-ups.
The early cyberpunk fiction was "obsessed with conjecture about what is
to come within our lifetime" (Jones 81). The stories of William Gibson, Bruce
Sterling, Tom Maddox, and Pat Cadigan celebrate how far we have advanced
technologically, at the same time questioning whether we are ready to handle
the consequences of such rapid advancements. But as promising as it seemed,
the literary movement was short-lived, and by the early 1990s had all but
winked out. Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash appeared in 1992, at a time when
many critics claimed that the genre was in serious decline or altogether dead.
A second wave cyberpunk novel, the book generated enough energy to sin-
gle-handedly revive the genre. Stephenson's work strategically mixes ele-
ments of the past and the future: in his story, for instance, Babylonian
mythology serves as a key to a computer virus that proves deadly to both sys-
tem and user. At the center of the narrative, Hiro Protagonist alternates be-
tween the "real" world of the novel and the cyberspace realm Stephenson calls
the "Metaverse." The Metaverse is a virtual metropolis, yet one that lacks any
Vol. 14, No. 4, Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts

39 4 Copyright © 2004, Florida Atlantic University.
law enforcement to maintain order. Hiro assumes the role of defender because
of his programming expertise, which, by default, makes him one of the few
people who can offer protection in this ungoverned realm. Stephenson's Snow
Crash theorizes justice by creating a new locale where morality can be de-
fined, tested, redefined, and tested again. The result of Stephenson's conjec-
tures is an indication of how the human spirit can shape an ethical identity
even in a milieu as uniquely abstract, and potentially untamable, as the
Metaverse.
Like the cyberpunk authors who use near future settings to examine the
parameters of humanity, Plato wrote his Republic, the first extant great West-
ern utopia, using extrapolations not too far in his audience's future. In the
same way that Plato envisions a city-state he intends to be implementable,
Stephenson's Snow Crash presents a vision of a virtual city that is a working
utopia. And like Plato's city-state, the Metaverse can be read as a place where
morality and justice are integral to the survival of its denizens as well as of the
Metaverse itself. The link between the two works is a more natural one than
might be supposed. Besides the Utopian connection and the philosophical in-
terest in justice, some critics have already adopted the Platonic notion of the
binary relationship between absolute truth and the world of false replication to
examine the binary between natural reality and the cyberspace world of vir-
tual existence. Robert Markley suggests that such discussions "emphasize, al-
beit in different ways, that the division between cyberspace and virtual
technologies reflects and reinscribes the oppositions of mind/body,
spirit/matter, form/substance, and male/female that have structured Western
metaphysics since Plato" (2). Although these observations have been made,
no one has attempted to link Plato's ideas of justice with the oppositions of
real world/virtual realm. Snow Crash, I argue, demonstrates that morality can
be brought into the wilds of the virtual world by a champion who values it and
attempts to construct a paradigm for social justice. I will demonstrate that jus-
tice becomes the ideal that the programmers such as Hiro Protagonist (a fitting
name that offers a potential tautology for his purpose in the novel) instill and
defend in their (e)utopia that is the Metaverse, for the "real" world of the
novel is a dystopia due to its lack of justice.
Because the principles Plato deals with often concern the abstract, such as
the transcendent realm of truth, the philosopher often resorts to stories and al-
legories for didactic purposes: "Plato's use of the story to tell truth evolved as
he grew to see the value of the irrational, and perhaps to have less fear of the
irrational" (Rochelle 316). Cyberpunk also trusts in the illuminating powers
of narrative, as its authors treat both the theoretical and the irrational. Their
means of expressing ideals and fears are stories involving a concrete, physical
world (often dystopian) and an ephemeral, virtual realm (sometimes Utopian,
as I will demonstrate). What are we to make of this tenuous existence of
cyberspace, a computer generated plane supported by electrical charges puls-
ing information over high-speed connections? What is cyberspace's relation-
ship to the "real" world, and why are some SF authors so intrigued by it? Scott
Bukatman suggests an answer: "Cyberspace is an abstraction which, diegeti-
395
"Hiro" of the Platonic: Stephenson's Snow Crash
cally and extradiegetically, provides

visibility in the world, the movement
the global computer banks, and the c
the subject" ( Terminal 143). At a mo
portant insight into the nature of
Stephenson's novel, a realm simultan
manding and mutable, a place whi
switched on. How can justice be poss
able? Plato's philosophical quest for
form the quest for justice by Ste
philosophic champion who undertakes
manity (thus creating a virtue-al wor
Cyberpunk and the Platonic

One way to interpret the Metavers
to see the virtual reality as an area w
novel is replaced with what Hiro and
truth: an ordered state upheld by a str
one bit of dialogue regarding Socrate
"There is justice of one man, we say

suppose?"
"Certainly."
"Well, a city is larger than one man?"
"Of course it is," he said.
"Then perhaps there would be a larger justice in the city and easier
to understand. If you like, then we will examine it in the single man,
looking for the likeness of the larger in the shape of the smaller."
(Book II 165)
Plato recognized the dynamics of justice in the city-state as being reliant on

the participation of the individual. This was a forethought in the development
of his theoretical utopia. Hiro Protagonist recognizes that his utopia is in dan-
ger when the "Snow Crash" virus wreaks havoc on the inhabitants of the
Metaverse. Hiro assumes a role similar to that of Plato's "Guardians" or up-
holders of justice in the Republic. The "Guardians" possess a recognition of
the ideal world and can discern the true forms from the shadowy replications.
Raymond Cormier elaborates on the notion of the guardian in light of the "Al-
legory of the Cave":
Plato envisions the golden Guardians or philosopher-rulers in the

allegorical underground as unchained; they must be educated so as
to recognize the connectedness of all knowledge, the ideal Forms,
and understand the realm of knowledge. It is they who will be able
to leave the cave, understand the realm of knowledge, and see and
396 Journal of the Fantastic
even be blinde
what is assum
chained prison
Hiro understa
Metaverse: "H
where you can
where you mi
place. Guns h
post-facto rea
up to his nam
sire to preser
ruminations a
the Metaverse:
They made the place too vulnerable, he realizes now - Therefore,

the Metaverse is wide open and undefended, like airports in the
days before bombs and metal detectors, like elementary schools in
the days before maniacs with assault rifles. Anyone can go in and
do anything they want to. You can't defend yourself, you can't
chase the bad people. It's going to take a lot of work to change
that - a fundamental rebuilding of the whole Metaverse, carried
out on a planetwide, corporate level. (351)
Like the golden Guardians, Hiro Protagonist will also stand forth to protect
the city-state that is the Metaverse from the villainous antagonists who wish
to plunder its perfect balance.
In Book I of The Republic, Socrates asks Thrasymachos, "Do you think
there is a virtue in each thing which has a work appointed for it?" (153). The
interlocutor's answer, as formulated by Socrates' line of questioning, reveals
that a person must complete his appointed task and nothing else, for other jobs
may be diversions leading to unjust actions. This line of rhetoric is the kernel
of thought that will eventually germinate into the notion of a "guardian"
needed to preserve justice in the Republic. Justice becomes the main impetus
for Plato in the formulation of his utopia, and this idea is represented in Socra-
tes' claim that "the just soul and the just man will live well, and the unjust man
badly. ...But to be miserable is not profitable, to be happy, is" (154).
To pun on the translated words of Plato, Hiro Protagonist functions - and
profits - as an agent of justice in the Metaverse. When L. Bob Rife plants the
"Snow Crash" virus in a bomb sized parcel within the virtual reality, Hiro re-
writes the computer code to render the virus harmless. In place of the window
that would have broadcast the weapon to those looking at the visually trans-
mitted virus code, Hiro leaves a message:
In the Arts 397
IF THIS WERE A VIRUS

YOU WOULD BE DEAD NOW.
FORTUNATELY IT'S NOT.
THE META VERSE IS A DANGEROUS PLACE;
HOW'S YOUR SECURITY?
CALL HIRO PROTAGONIST SECURITY
ASSOCIATES
FOR A FREE INITIAL CONSULTATION (457)
The advertisement reflects the "Guardian" of the Republic who wou

from being a just person by protecting those who are subservient. Plato
defense of the city state could be handled by those who were "the
things which enable a city to be best managed" (Book VII 319) and
guard the laws and habits of the cities" (Book VI 28 1).
Therefore, Plato makes his city-state according to his own ethic
ophy so that in his republic the city-state centers primarily on the need
tice and morality. "Now then," Socrates states in Book II, "Let us im
we make our city from the beginning. Our needs will make it, as
(166). Had he the technology of virtual reality, his utopia might h
ceeded, for a computer "'simply' renders the invisible visible, recon
terminal spaces of the datascape into new arenas susceptible to huma
ence, perception, and control" (Bukatman "Cybernetic" 47). By con
the virtual realm, a programmer can create and maintain a utopia by sim
writing software in response to any problem that may arise in an attem
tablish justice. Porush observes the Utopian impulse behind tech
advances: "It seems self-evident that Utopian longings are part of a
more complex perception of massive change made imminent by a te
cal breakthrough" (124). Technology thrives from the need to
better, and cyberspace allows for incorrigible real-world problems t
edied, even if in only one world.2
Hiro understands the disorder of the physical world, an ironical
owy world that is a reflection of the ideal world he has create
Metaverse, so he reverse engineers a utopia based on justice by unde
the imperfections of his "real" world and thus encoding a truth in t
realm based on those imperfections he finds in the physical world
Hiro best exemplifies both the hero and the "Guardian" tendencies
proficiency in computer language, by translating real world items
directly into the virtual realm. For example, when he is challenged
duel in the Metaverse, Hiro quickly dispatches his opponent. When
mate asks whether Hiro won the sword fight, he boasts, "I'm the
sword fighter in the world." His friend replies, "And you wrote the sof
"Yeah," Hiro admits, "That, too" (104). In the way that Plato philos
searched for truth and justice and tried to implement them into his city
so, too, does Hiro use his proficiency in computer technology to c
sponses to enable what he perceives to be a version of a just realm
technology-driven Snow Crash, language is no longer limited to the
terplay b
son parall
interplay
language
man lang
reality re
This inte
obviously
Metaverse
elderly g
Hiro talk
The comp
iprocity b
about the
machine
the librar
analogy.
The librarian's "history" of human speech incorporates an explanation of
the "Tower of Babel" legend. According to the librarian, Babylon spoke a lan-
guage like that of Eden. All humans once spoke the same Ur-language, he ex-
plains, which in turn controlled human actions directly without the need for
interpretation. All rules, even formulae for procedures such as baking bread,
were written on tablets instead of being committed to memory. The result was
a completely static society, until Asherah, a goddess, discovered a nam-shub
(a clay tablet with a law or code written on it) of the god Enki that worked like
a virus, causing mutations of language into mutually incomprehensible dia-
lects, breaking off transparent communication, but also ending the zom-
bie-like state in which humanity then existed. Babylon's was thus a fortunate
fall: the partitioning of language enabled the progress of society.
Computer language followed a development similar to human linguistic
development. Binary code, made of ones and zeros, is the primal language of
machines, yet it proved to be tedious and monotonous to programmers, who
developed a variety of streamlined controls to generate their code. Hiro states
the parallel succinctly to the Librarian:
When you program in machine language, you are controlling the

computer at its brainstem, the root of its existence. It's the tongue
of Eden. But it's very difficult to work in machine language be-
cause you go crazy after a while, working at such a minute level. So
a whole Babel of computer languages has been created for pro-
grammers: FORTRAN, BASIC, COB AL, LISP, Pascal, C,
PROLOG, FORTH. (278)
The wider selection of languages enables the programmer to break away from
the banality of binary code; thus expedience and independence make for
In the Arts 399
faster, better software developmen

ing in some loss of control.
While explaining the concepts of
brarian both come to an understan
form and its replication. Pulling fr
Steiner, one who also theorizes abo
serts that human language impede
interposes itself between apprehens
mirror'" (278). Drawing from his e
same idea about their language:
You talk to the computer in one of

software called a compiler convert
you never can tell exactly what the
ways come out the way you want.
mirror. A really advanced hacker c
ner-workings of the machine - he
working in and glimpses the secret
(278-79)
Hiro recognizes that language of an

one conveys ideas to another, and
cause language itself is a shadowy r
cation of language into the true pr
bestow the title of philosopher upo
of justice, he attempts to discern b
Binary Realities
Plato's dualistic conception of r
structure as the cyberpunk imagin
Protagonist enters the Metaverse in
gory:
The lens can see half of the universe - the half that is above the
computer, which includes most of Hiro.... Down inside the com-
puter are three lasers - a red one, a green one, and a blue one.... In
this way, a narrow beam of any color can be shot out of the innards
of the computer, up through the fish eye lens, in any direction.
Through the use of electronic mirrors inside the computer, this
beam is made to sweep back and forth across the lens of Hiro's gog-
gles, in much the same way as the electron beam in a television
paints the inner surface of the eponymous Tube. The resulting im-
age hangs in space in front of Hiro's view of Reality. (23)
The Meta
ized urba
Crash- ju
yond the
to mainta
mers mak
examine a
fect form
Another
realm of
shapes do
signed to
drons, po
(435). Alt
grammers
ated illus
possible,
know wha
best to re
Not surp
environm
Crash. Th
Oregon, a
longer a u
Stephenso
"The Mew
walled-of
modest h
powered
quire citi
STD's (sev
Before S
punk. Wh
the claim
structur
dystopian
Hugo Ger
ture, for
downfall.
claim. Fr
darkened
gaudy ne
Neuroma
movie Tr
In the Arts 401
hulking machines (often computer

if to say that the machines are over
Stephenson presents a solution to
he juxtaposes a Utopian cyberspa
though Hiro Protagonist is not the
world, he comes to understand ho
regulations to preserve the utopia. He
laws. The lesson comes from a lect
myths written on them delivered by
'There is a great deal of monoton

fair amount of what Lagos descr
ism' - scribes extolling the superior
other city."
"What makes one Sumerian city bet
ziggurat? A better football team?"
"Better me."
"What are me?"
"Rules or principles that control th
code of laws, but on a more funda
Hiro Protagonist does not operate a

his actions are reactions to the vill
acy. Hiro never polices the Metave
tors," as Scott Bukatman calls them
those who need unrestricted freed
maintains the equilibrium between
freedom to rebel but will not push th
she loves so dearly. Therefore, cyb
vents the implosion of utopia.
Any worthwhile utopia will provid
freedom and self-determination wi
unpredictability. Gibson approaches
Continuum." In the story's conclus
"semiotic ghosts," apparitions of id
"really bad media." The character c
day "near-dystopia": that it could b
movie The Matrix, the villainou
Morpheus that the original "matrix
escape from the too ravaged real. T
perfect," and a later, more realistic
Perhaps the most paradoxical feat
apprehended in theory. If a societ
guish, it would have no way of kno
claimed, good can only be defined
topos in SF - in cyberspace, Stephe
gesture. S
in the "re
to the ide
place," th
pun with
ever, the
eral no-p
the potenc
need for t
exists at t
the physi
city-state.
Since the
the city h
once belie
rected or
the sky,
science fic
ring imag
tions to b
three mai
opposing
"move in
facts" (22
Snow Cra
Guardians
The conju
sion of th
defined as
be ideal.
Neuroman
by this te
At the sa
of existen
allows the
ture of th
ingly omn
realm bec
intersect
pare the M
However,
precludes
virtual re
grammers
the Metaverse:
In the Arts 403
Hiro and some of his bud

the first development l
hackers. At that time, it
vast blackness. Back t
streetlights around a bla
Since then, the neighb
Street has. By getting on
the whole business. Some
That's why Hiro has a n
to share a 20-by-30 in R
... people in Hire's neig
it's tasteful. The houses
Frank Lloyd Wright rep
(Stephenson SC 25-26)
Whatever one may desir

those with the ability to
utopia against the nostal
a subjectively rendered
Additionally, the "bur
that have horribly devo
ated. First, they are cop
1950s black-and-white t
family living thrown in
with "immense marble
stones. Designed on a com
of things past and forgo
the place for those fami
rather not live there. But
any physical city, since n
stead, the "burb-claves"
Second, because of the
come franchises of "fine l
that a franchise works
branches of "Mr. Lee's G
coast vying for more cu
ited to residential "burb-c
the famous "Uncle Enzo
tee that unless the pizza
personally greet the disa
free trip to Italy. The e
tains a dystopic threat t
Since the programmer h
construction of cyberspac
also create a replication of
part: "the body (suitably
idealized s
most any
disabilitie
space. Ng
(Yours Tr
who do n
Metaverse
very dapp
military-
avatar's p
physical w
armored v
more than
or legs; h
Ng's mech
simulate w
What Ng
bernetic o
ality as w
example o
pian ¿link
The cybor
is not, I a
or conceit
trolling m
and progr
ing revise
brain, mi
medium t
Porush cla
another: "
ture adapt
in turn pr
ing huma
man being
individual
Y.T.
Like Plato's emphasis that morality must be initiated and maintained
within the individual first, cyberpunk literature focuses on the individual as
the locus of preservation. Istvan Csicsery-Ronay posits, "Implosive science
fiction finds the scene of SF problematics not in imperial adventures among
the stars, but in the body-physical/body-social and a drastic ambivalence
about the body's traditional-and terrifyingly uncertain-integrity" (188). His
observation brings us back to the idea of the cyborg, the merging of man and
In the Arts 405
machine. Stephenson's extrapolation

Because the "Snow Crash" virus is
when the individual's avatar in virtua
virus passes through the eye and dire
"It [the virus] opens a portal between
the cybertech supporting the virtual w
of the categories natural and artifici
simulated reality of cyberspace" (au
puters have the ability to program
hancing the species beyond its natural l
primitive, near catatonic state.
The "Snow Crash" virus displays a d
the novel, the physical and the virt
spreads the virus by intermingling "coc
cessed blood serum taken from peop
ingly, in the virtual world of the M
looking at a bitmap, a digitalized pic
image appears as the white static of
digits create a snowy image. This ad
Babylonian formulas (the nam-shubs
guage, alters the nature of cyberspac
less replication, for now the very tec
in communicative abilities can alter t
The result in the victim is glossolalia
emulating the Ur-language of the B
mental capacities.
Science fiction literature deals with
a philosopher grapples with morality
ities and problems that the near future
tions is the concept of a moral identi
humanity and as far as humanity can
lose sight of our moral identity. In a m
disappointment in those who nev
cyberspace: "It serves them right, he re
that could happen was that a virus m
and force you to ungoggle and reb
value placed on virtual reality, there
defend himself and his community. T
virtual realm from the darker vision
world plagued by haunting visions o
which is a blank slate for idealistic th
plemented and defended by Hiro and
Notes
1 Stephenson, I believe, has a special penchant for creating characters that resem-
ble comic book heroes. In Zodiac, the protagonist, Sangamon Taylor, refers to him-
self as the "Toxic Spiderman." Like Hiro, Taylor is a defender of the environment
who leads a frugal lifestyle but has advanced knowledge of biological and chemical
sciences. He, too, is similar to Plato's "Guardian."
2 Even for those programmers who do not design but only operate in cyberspace,
the draw of the self-satisfying, other world proves overwhelming. Case, the computer
hacker of Gibson's Neuromancer, obsessively longs for the cyberspace realm of the
"matrix." At the beginning of the novel, Case has been shut out of the matrix as pun-
ishment for information theft.
A year here and he still dreamed of cyberspace, hope fading
nightly. All the speed he'd taken and the corners he'd cut in Night
City and still he'd see the matrix in his sleep, bright lattices of logic
unfolding across that colorless void.... The Sprawl was a long
strange way home over the Pacific now, and he was no console
man, no cyberspace cowboy.... But the dreams came on in the Japa-
nese night like li ve wire voodoo, and he'd cry for it, cry in his sleep,
and wake alone in the dark, curled in his capsule in some coffin ho-
tel, his hands clawed in the bedslab, temperfoam bunched between
his fingers, trying to reach the console that wasn't there. (5)
Case's compulsion to return to cyberspace sounds similar to drug withdrawal because
the hallucinatory experience of "jacking in" or projecting oneself into the virtual
world is described as euphoric, psychedelic, and self-indulgent.
3 The "burb-claves" being a satirized form of the suburbs of the '40s and 4 50s also
stresses my point that the "real" world of the novel is a shadowy corruption of the
ideal Metaverse. One cannot think of the "burb-claves" as a comparison with a previ-
ous time for the purpose of recognizing a utopia, for they stand as a mockery of past
idealistic living.
Works Cited
Bukatman, Scott. "The Cybernetic (City) State: Terminal State Becomes Phenom-
enal." Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts 2.2 (1989): 46-60.
- . Terminal Identity . Durham; Duke UP, 1993.
Cormier, Raymond. "The Closed Society and Its Friends: Plato's Republic a
Lucas's THX-1 138." Literature/Film Quarterly 18.3 (1990): 193-97.
Clute, John and Peter Nicholls. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. New York: S
Martin's, 1995.
Csicsery-Ronay, Istvan, Jr. "Cyberpunk and Neuromanticism." Storming the Reali
Studio. Larry McCaffrey, ed. Durham: Duke U P, 1991. 182-93.
Gibson, William. "The Gernsback Continuum." Burning Chrome. New York: Ace,
1987. 23-35.
- . Neuromancer. New York: Ace, 1984.
In the Arts 407
Haraway, Donna. "A Manifesto for

Feminism in the 1980s." The Norton
B. Leitch, ed. New York: W. W. Nor
Jones, Steve. "Hyper-Punk: Cyberpun
Popular Culture 28.2 (1994): 81-92
Markley, Robert, ed. Virtual Realities
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The Matrix. DVD. Dirs. The Wachowski Brothers. With Keanu Reeves and Laurence
Fishburne. Warner Brothers, 1999.
Novak, Amy. "Virtual Poltergeists and Memory: The Question of Ahistorcism in
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408

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Brian Attebery, as Editor, for the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts

International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts

"Hiro" of the Platonic: Neal Stephenson's "Snow Crash"

First APPEARING in the late 1970s

Vol. 14, No. 4, Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts

cally and extradiegetically, provides

Cyberpunk and the Platonic

"There is justice of one man, we say

Plato recognized the dynamics of justice in the city-state as being reliant on

Plato envisions the golden Guardians or philosopher-rulers in the

396 Journal of the Fantastic

They made the place too vulnerable, he realizes now - Therefore,

In the Arts 397

IF THIS WERE A VIRUS

The advertisement reflects the "Guardian" of the Republic who wou

398 Journal of the Fantastic

When you program in machine language, you are controlling the

In the Arts 399

faster, better software developmen

You talk to the computer in one of

Hiro recognizes that language of an

400 Journal of the Fantastic

In the Arts 401

hulking machines (often computer

'There is a great deal of monoton

Hiro Protagonist does not operate a

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In the Arts 403

Hiro and some of his bud

Whatever one may desir

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machine. Stephenson's extrapolation

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In the Arts 407

Haraway, Donna. "A Manifesto for

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