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Neal Stephenson on the Future of the Metaverse

When Neal Stephenson coined “the metaverse” three decades ago, his book Snow Crash was found on the shelves of “science fiction”. While the book remains in that category, many of its concepts are now found in reality… Fast forward to 2022, where numerous companies are now building toward their version of the metaverse, including Neal himself, working on his latest venture Lamina1, drawing on his experience as a builder at MagicLeap, Blue Origin, and more. While the present metaverses don’t perfectly mimic that from Stephenson’s early imagination, we get the unique opportunity to discuss the various design decisions that he’s making, but also the intersection between the metaverse and gaming, the involvement that AR/VR might play, the evolving role of IP, how artificial intelligence fits in, what he’s building and why, and where he gets all of his ideas from. Topics Covered: 0:00 - Introduction 1:20 - Tech's highest impact position 4:45 - What is the metaverse? 7:04 - Interoperability 9:17 - Incentive alignment 14:00 - Immersion requirements 17:37 - VR engineering challenges 21:35 - Skeuomorphism 26:07 - Commercial VR/AR applications 29:44 - AI and gaming 33:38 - The value chain 42:02 - Right of refusal 46:25 - Good and bad tech 51:08 - Fighting “free” 54:44 - Building Lamina1 1:05:26 - Neal’s design designs 1:11:48 - Inspiration for Snow Crash 1:18:21 - Looking ahead from 2022 1:21:45 - Science fiction writing 1:23:36 - Carbon removal Resources: * Neal’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/nealstephenson * Lamina1’s website: https://www.lamina1.com/ Stay Updated: * Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/a16z * Find us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16z * Subscribe on your favorite podcast app:https://a16z.simplecast.com/ * Follow our host: https://twitter.com/stephsmithio Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

Neal StephensonguestSteph Smithhost

Nov 22, 20221h 28mWatch on YouTube ↗

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EPISODE INFO

Released: November 22, 2022
Duration: 1h 28m
Channel: a16z
Watch on YouTube: ▶ Open ↗

EPISODE DESCRIPTION

When Neal Stephenson coined “the metaverse” three decades ago, his book Snow Crash was found on the shelves of “science fiction”. While the book remains in that category, many of its concepts are now found in reality… Fast forward to 2022, where numerous companies are now building toward their version of the metaverse, including Neal himself, working on his latest venture Lamina1, drawing on his experience as a builder at MagicLeap, Blue Origin, and more. While the present metaverses don’t perfectly mimic that from Stephenson’s early imagination, we get the unique opportunity to discuss the various design decisions that he’s making, but also the intersection between the metaverse and gaming, the involvement that AR/VR might play, the evolving role of IP, how artificial intelligence fits in, what he’s building and why, and where he gets all of his ideas from. Topics Covered: 0:00 - Introduction 1:20 - Tech's highest impact position 4:45 - What is the metaverse? 7:04 - Interoperability 9:17 - Incentive alignment 14:00 - Immersion requirements 17:37 - VR engineering challenges 21:35 - Skeuomorphism 26:07 - Commercial VR/AR applications 29:44 - AI and gaming 33:38 - The value chain 42:02 - Right of refusal 46:25 - Good and bad tech 51:08 - Fighting “free” 54:44 - Building Lamina1 1:05:26 - Neal’s design designs 1:11:48 - Inspiration for Snow Crash 1:18:21 - Looking ahead from 2022 1:21:45 - Science fiction writing 1:23:36 - Carbon removal Resources:
Neal’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/nealstephenson
Lamina1’s website: https://www.lamina1.com/
Stay Updated:
Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/a16z
Find us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16z
Subscribe on your favorite podcast app:https://a16z.simplecast.com/
Follow our host: https://twitter.com/stephsmithio
Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

SPEAKERS

Neal Stephenson
guest
Science fiction author (Snow Crash, Termination Shock) and co-founder of Lamina1; formerly worked with AR company Magic Leap.
Steph Smith
host
Podcast host at a16z who introduces the episode and interviews Neal Stephenson about the metaverse.

EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of a16z, featuring Neal Stephenson and Steph Smith, Neal Stephenson on the Future of the Metaverse explores neal Stephenson on Metaverse Interoperability, Creator Value Chains, and Carbon Stephenson argues the metaverse is a single, interconnected space rather than many separate ones, and that mashup-style games like Fortnite, Roblox and Minecraft are the closest on-ramps today.

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