Snow Crashing Into The Metaverse
Imaginary Worlds12 Mai 2022

Snow Crashing Into The Metaverse

For the last 30 years, the real world has been catching up to Neal Stephenson’s vision of the future in his 1992 novel Snow Crash, which influenced the creators of Google Earth, Second Life, Oculus Rift and more. Now the centerpiece of the novel, a virtual world called The Metaverse, may become a daily part of our lives thanks to Facebook (renamed Meta) and other big tech companies. I talk with Meta’s director of A.I. policy Kevin Bankston, Silicon Valley engineer Stephen Pimentel, Australian National University School of Cybernetics director Genevieve Bell, Yale professor Lisa Messeri, and Grace Ng of the DAO Crash Punks about whether it’s a good idea to use a satirical cyberpunk novel as a blueprint for the future. Plus, actor Varick Boyd reads from Snow Crash. The section on Grace Ng has been updated to reflect the crypto market crash that happened after the episode originally aired in May 2022. This episode is sponsored by Backblaze, VAST Horizon, and Squarespace. Our ad partner is Multitude. If you’re interested in advertising on Imaginary Worlds, you can contact them here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episoder(303)

Books Under Fire

Books Under Fire

Book banning is hitting libraries across America, and many of the titles being banned or challenged are fantasy books or graphic novels – especially LGBTQ content. Malinda Lo has been tracking how her...

5 Jun 202443min

The George Lucas Talk Show

The George Lucas Talk Show

Did you know that in retirement, George Lucas decided to host a live talk show with his sidekick Watto? That’s the conceit of The George Lucas Talk Show starring Connor Ratliff (from the podcast Dead ...

22 Mai 202444min

How Nintendo Leveled Up

How Nintendo Leveled Up

Over the past 40 years, Shigeru Miyamoto has been inventing the modern video game one pixel at a time. From Donkey Kong to Super Mario Bros to The Legend of Zelda, Miyamoto turned wonder and explorati...

8 Mai 202438min

You Are Lone Wolf: A Father/Son Quest

You Are Lone Wolf: A Father/Son Quest

When Joe Dever died in 2016, he hadn’t written the last several books in his Lone Wolf series. The Lone Wolf books take place in a deeply rich fantasy universe, and they’re written as a combination of...

24 Apr 202434min

African Sci-Fi Looks to a Future Climate

African Sci-Fi Looks to a Future Climate

When the writer Nnedi Okorafor coined the term Africanfuturism, she wanted to distinguish sci-fi written about Africa from Afrofuturism, which is focuses on the experiences of Black people in the dias...

10 Apr 202439min

When All Is Said in Dune

When All Is Said in Dune

Back in 2018, I interviewed language creator David J. Peterson about how he invented Dothraki for Game of Thrones and other fictional languages in fantasy worlds. David and his wife Jessie just finish...

27 Mar 202447min

Mother-in-Law of Oz

Mother-in-Law of Oz

The Wizard of Oz is deeply ingrained into our culture. While many people can practically recite the 1939 movie, the original source material isn’t as well known. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank...

13 Mar 202436min

Bonus: Turtles and Toys Outtakes

Bonus: Turtles and Toys Outtakes

In the previous episode, I interviewed documentary filmmaker Isaac Elliot-Fisher about He-Man and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Isaac had so many great anecdotes about the history of those franchises ...

6 Mar 202423min

Populært innen Samfunn

rss-spartsklubben
giver-og-gjengen-vg
aftenpodden
konspirasjonspodden
aftenpodden-usa
popradet
rss-nesten-hele-uka-med-lepperod
rss-henlagt-andy-larsgaard
lydartikler-fra-aftenposten
min-barneoppdragelse
grenselos
wolfgang-wee-uncut
synnve-og-vanessa
frokostshowet-pa-p5
rss-dette-ma-aldri-skje-igjen
rss-dannet-uten-piano
fladseth
alt-fortalt
rss-frekvens-med-anine-olsen
198-land-med-einar-trnquist