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 Intro1:53 D and the Atomic Race4:34 Inside the Book Tour8:21 AI Caught Him Off Guard11:09 Is This the Singularity?15:27 AI's Manhattan Project Moment28:32 Brains, Bodies and Words38:31 What Actually Worries Neal40:11 Can Fiction Inspire Progress?49:56 Why No Snow Crash?55:06 Jane Austen Meets Fortnite1:03:21 Inside Early Blue Origin1:13:43 Rockets, Guns and Giant Towers1:20:36 Why Radical Rockets Struggle1:23:05 Swords and Selective Technology1:27:15 Can AI Fix Education?1:32:31 Storytelling Versus Predicting the Future

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