@ChrisMayLA6 @bookstodon Yes, exactly. I cribbed from the excellent Jack Womack in his afterword to the reissue of #neuromancer that "the gold of imagination might be transmuted into silicon reality" (Womack. 2004) in my MA work.

Michael Abrash confirmed they were inspired by Snow Crash in /Masters of Doom/.

Everything I've seen in the intervening 15 years has confirmed the process. There's variance, to be sure.

But the inspiration is there.