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"Bureaucracies hide their mistakes, because people's careers are tied to those mistakes. Therefore, bureaucracies are a perfect mechanism for perpetuating mistakes."
- Frank Herbert

Hypercard  
  A virtual business card; what one avatar might hand another to introduce themselves.  

Better use the Japanese custom, and use both hands to respectfully receive one of these.

The hypercard is an avatar of sorts. It is used in the Metaverse to represent a chunk of data. It might be text, audio, video, a still image, or any other information that can be represented digitally.

A hypercard might contain all the books in the Library of Congress, or every episode of Hawaii Five-O that was ever filmed, or the complete recordings of Jimi Hendrix, or the 1950 Census.

Or, more likely, a wide variety of nasty computer viruses. If Hiro reaches out and takes the card, the information will be transferred from [the other] guy's system into Hiro's computer.

Technovelgy from Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson.
Published by Bantam in 1992
Additional resources -

Hiro Protagonist (and he is - the protagonist, that is) is naturally reluctant to accept something like this.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from Snow Crash
  More Ideas and Technology by Neal Stephenson
  Tech news articles related to Snow Crash
  Tech news articles related to works by Neal Stephenson

Hypercard-related news articles:
  - DubMeNow Business Cards Update Magically
  - Business Cards Give Way To Bump
  - Tesla Augmented Reality Hypercard

Articles related to Work
Swedes Get 'Chipped' With Vaccine Passports
Meetings To Be Recorded And Scored For Body Language
Would You Get 'Chipped'? Michigan May Ban Employers
Workplace Monitoring Hell, I Mean, Tool For Safe Distancing

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