The sci-fi writer who predicted the future
Science fiction writer Neal Stephenson predicted the metaverse, wearable tech and artificial intelligence long before those technologies arrived. What does he think of it all now? Host Megan McArdle talks to Stephenson about the future of AI, education and social media — and how his fiction became a window into the culture of Silicon Valley.
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Show Notes
Science fiction writer Neal Stephenson predicted the metaverse, wearable tech and artificial intelligence long before those technologies arrived. What does he think of it all now? Host Megan McArdle talks to Stephenson about the future of AI, education and social media — and how his fiction became a window into the culture of Silicon Valley.
Timecodes
0:00 Welcome to Reasonably Optimistic
0:33 Who is Neal Stephenson?
1:19 Living in the future
3:25 Neal's origin story
5:18 The disruptive effects of new technology
8:18 The premise of The Diamond Age
14:23 AI’s confident wrongness
17:43 What AI is good at
18:56 Is AI good for kids?
20:03 Fixing education in an AI world
23:14 Will AI make nerds less valuable?
26:44 AI is eliminating entry level jobs
29:45 How tech founders got political
34:37 Is Neal Stephenson’s work political?
36:50 Technology is easier to predict than culture
40:11 What is Neal Stephenson reasonably optimistic about?
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