The Man Who Sees The Future - EP 94 Neal Stephenson

Neal Stephenson came on the podcast. What else do I have to tell you?

The man has a weird mind portal into how technology will develop and has influenced generations of nerds. As a result, I seem to have spent my career covering things that Stephenson predicted in his best-selling books.

He’s out with a new book now, D: Heavy Water, which served as a lovely excuse to get Neal on the show.

In the episode, we talk space, brain computer interfaces, swords, Hollywood and much more. Oddly, Stephenson says that the rapid development of AI caught him off guard. Go figure.

Anyway. Living Legend. Go listen and watch.

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TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro
1:53 D and the Atomic Race
4:34 Inside the Book Tour
8:21 AI Caught Him Off Guard
11:09 Is This the Singularity?
15:27 AI's Manhattan Project Moment
28:32 Brains, Bodies and Words
38:31 What Actually Worries Neal
40:11 Can Fiction Inspire Progress?
49:56 Why No Snow Crash?
55:06 Jane Austen Meets Fortnite
1:03:21 Inside Early Blue Origin
1:13:43 Rockets, Guns and Giant Towers
1:20:36 Why Radical Rockets Struggle
1:23:05 Swords and Selective Technology
1:27:15 Can AI Fix Education?
1:32:31 Storytelling Versus Predicting the Future