Neal Stephenson on The Future of the Metaverse

A16z Podcast

Podcast Notes Key Takeaways It’s important to differentiate between the singular “metaverse” and plural “metaverses”The metaverse can be an incredibly diverse range of experiences, but Neal understands it to be a singular metaverse with a wide variety of experiences and not multiple metaverses  Games are the closest things we have to metaverse-like experiences, such as Fortnite, Roblox, and Minecraft Controversy in the gaming-crypto nexus arises from friction between the ideological crypto bros’ desire for interoperability with the game developers’ appreciation for engineering and aesthetics “We absolutely do not need AR and VR in order to build the metaverse.” – Neal StephensonAbout 5-10% of people experience motion sickness when using state-of-the-art VR; imagine trying to popularize television in the 1950s with the caveat that 5-10% of people will throw up into a waste basket within the first 30 minutes of watchingA good way to think about the metaverse is it as a communications medium, and any communications medium is trying to reach the broadest possible audienceThe question of intellectual property when it comes to things like DALL-E is an ethical question that will need to be sorted out eventually The right of refusal must exist in the metaverse; creators must be able to dictate what their IP can and cannot be used for People are endlessly creative in both good and bad ways; technology will continue to be used for good and for evil Neal made his blockchain a proof-of-stake chain because it would have been weird to launch a carbon-intensive chain just after publishing a book centered around climate change “I think the two most important things are carbon and the polarization of society.” – Neal Stephenson 

Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org

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 Lamina1 – a blockchain company oriented toward creators. 

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.

Timestamps:

0:00 - Introduction

1:20 - Tech's highest impact position

4:35 - What is the metaverse?

6:46 - Interoperability

8:52 - Incentive alignment

13:06 - Immersion requirements

16:30 - VR engineering challenges

20:09 - Skeuomorphism

24:17 - Commercial VR/AR applications

27:26 - AI and gaming

30:51 - The value chain

38:13 - Right of refusal

42:05 - Good and bad tech

46:05 - Fighting “free”

49:16 - Building Lamina1

58:07 - Neal’s design designs

1:03:40 - Inspiration for Snow Crash

1:09:16 - Looking ahead from 2022

1:11:59 - Science fiction writing

1:13:46 - Carbon removal

Resources: 

Neal’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/nealstephenson

Lamina1’s website: https://www.lamina1.com/

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