Neal Stephenson on Depictions of Reality

Neal Stephenson on Depictions of Reality

If you want to speculate on the development of tech, no one has a better brain to pick than Neal Stephenson. Across more than a dozen books, he's created vast story worlds driven by futuristic technologies that have both prophesied and even provoked real-world progress in crypto, social networks, and the creation of the web itself. Though Stephenson insists he's more often wrong than right, his technical sharpness has even led to a half-joking suggestion that he might be Satoshi Nakamoto, the shadowy creator of bitcoin. His latest novel, Fall; or, Dodge in Hell, involves a more literal sort of brain-picking, exploring what might happen when digitized brains can find a second existence in a virtual afterlife.

So what's the implicit theology of a simulated world? Might we be living in one, and does it even matter? Stephenson joins Tyler to discuss the book and more, including the future of physical surveillance, how clothing will evolve, the kind of freedom you could expect on a Mars colony, whether today's media fragmentation is trending us towards dystopia, why the Apollo moon landings were communism's greatest triumph, whether we're in a permanent secular innovation starvation, Leibniz as a philosopher, Dickens and Heinlein as writers, and what storytelling has to do with giving good driving directions.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.

Recorded June 14th, 2019

Other ways to connect

Tämä jakso on lisätty Podme-palveluun avoimen RSS-syötteen kautta eikä se ole Podmen omaa tuotantoa. Siksi jakso saattaa sisältää mainontaa.

Jaksot(288)

Shaka Senghor on Incarceration, Identity, and the Gift of Literacy

Shaka Senghor on Incarceration, Identity, and the Gift of Literacy

How do you survive seven years in solitary confinement? The gift of literacy is what saved Shaka Senghor. Reading, journaling, academic study, and writing books was a way to structure and survive an i...

20 Marras 20191h

Lunch with Fuchsia Dunlop at Mama Chang (Bonus)

Lunch with Fuchsia Dunlop at Mama Chang (Bonus)

Three years after her first appearance, Chinese food expert Fuchsia Dunlop joins Tyler to celebrate the release of her latest cookbook and talk all things food and China. This time the conversation wa...

13 Marras 20191h 16min

Ted Gioia on Music as Cultural Cloud Storage

Ted Gioia on Music as Cultural Cloud Storage

To Ted Gioia, music is a form of cloud storage for preserving human culture. And the real cultural conflict, he insists, is not between "high brow" and "low brow" music, but between the innovative and...

6 Marras 20191h 3min

Henry Farrell on Weaponized Interdependence, Big Tech, and Playing with Ideas

Henry Farrell on Weaponized Interdependence, Big Tech, and Playing with Ideas

The one concept most valuable for understanding the news today might be Henry Farrell's theory of weaponized interdependence. Whether it's China's influence over the NBA, the US ban of Huawei, or whet...

23 Loka 20191h 11min

Ben Westhoff on Synthetic Drugs, Dive Bars, and the Evolution of Rap

Ben Westhoff on Synthetic Drugs, Dive Bars, and the Evolution of Rap

Ben Westhoff has written some of Tyler's favorite books on everything from dive bars to the evolution of American rap music to how fentanyl is driving the opioid epidemic. So how does he get it done? ...

9 Loka 20191h

Alain Bertaud on Cities, Markets, and People

Alain Bertaud on Cities, Markets, and People

Markets, Alain Bertaud likes to say, are like gravity: they exist everywhere. But while urban planners are quite good at taking gravity into account, they tend to ignore market forces entirely in thei...

25 Syys 20191h 20min

Samantha Power on Learning How to Make a Difference

Samantha Power on Learning How to Make a Difference

A former war correspondent and UN ambassador, Samantha Power has had her share of tough assignments. But writing a memoir about it all is also a daunting prospect. The format itself is a challenge: ho...

11 Syys 20191h 6min

Hollis Robbins on 19th Century Life and Literature

Hollis Robbins on 19th Century Life and Literature

As a graduate student, Hollis Robbins helped Henry Louis Gates, Jr. unravel a mystery about the provenance of a mid-19th century book. Robbins helped date the book by discovering allusions to popular ...

28 Elo 201950min

Suosittua kategoriassa Koulutus

rss-murhan-anatomia
psykopodiaa-podcast
voi-hyvin-meditaatiot-2
adhd-podi
rss-rahamania
rss-valo-minussa-2
rss-luonnollinen-synnytys-podcast
rss-narsisti
rahapuhetta
kesken
rss-liian-kuuma-peruna
rss-tietoinen-yhteys-podcast-2
rss-niinku-asia-on
filocast-filosofian-perusteet
ihminen-tavattavissa-tommy-hellsten-instituutti
rss-arkea-ja-aurinkoa-podcast-espanjasta
aamukahvilla
jari-sarasvuo-podcast
dear-ladies
rss-vapaudu-voimaasi