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/
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Find us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16z
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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.
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.
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Francisco Gimeno - BC Analyst Neil Stepheson, a famous science fiction writer, coined the word "metaverse". This interesting interview shows his ideas about what Metaverse should or could be beyond science fiction, but also beyond AR or VR (maybe...). What is clearer now is that a full Metaverse tech is far from being implemented, but it's fascinating that from science fiction ideas new techs are aligning to develop the idea of Metaverse, with all the good and bad things which can occur in that experience of digital life. Neil speaks abut the Metaverse, not a bunch of metaverses, which can exist but inside of the Metaverse, similar as we live through many experiences inside our normal existence, but all belonging to our personal only life. Anyway, changes are happening so fast that is difficult to understand what the Metaverse will be, what are we going to experience and which kind of challenges, from tech to ethical ones are going to arise. Nice interview.