Neal Stephenson, author of Snow Crash, discusses the ‘metaverse stock price’ in conversation with The DeanBeat.

We got a sense recently for the “metaverse stock price” as it stands in 2024 at our recent GamesBeat Next 2024 event.

Neal Stephenson talked about that notion as he did a talk about how to make sci-fi come true and turn the dreams for an open metaverse into reality. Stephenson famously coined the word “metaverse” in his novel Snow Crash that debuted in 1992. I read the novel back then and I was honored to co-moderate a fireside chat with Stephenson at our recent GamesBeat Next 2024 event.

Riz Virk, author of the Simulation Hypothesis, which is about whether we’re living in a simulation, joined me as co-moderator. I’m pretty sure our talk with Stephenson was real, and that Virk is also a faculty associate at Arizona State University, founder of Play Labs, and venture partner at Griffin Gaming Partners.

Stephenson has written many science fiction novels, but he joined us in a session entitled “The science fiction future that we want.” And he is dedicated to turning some of his ideas, like the metaverse, into science fact. He is cofounder of Whenere, which is making a game where users can use AI to enhance their storytelling. Whenere is what creators would use to create linear narratives. And Stephenson is also cofounder of Lamina1, a Web3 company focused on fair compensation for digital creators.

We started out with his definition of the metaverse, which for him has a spatial element, and then we strayed into discussions of the “metaverse stock price” and whether games like Fortnite, Minecraft and Roblox count as metaverse applications.

We also discussed Whenere’s attempt to let users create their own stories, first around Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice universe (which is no longer copyrighted). Interestingly, Stevenson said he doesn’t use AI to write because he “knows how to write.”

Asked about the kind of science fiction future he wants, he said he is concerned about “carbon” and the fact that so many people don’t know what is real. (Given recent events, I can relate to the latter one). We even talked about digital twins and the notion that the metaverse might be inside Microsoft Flight Simulation 2024. We quizzed him about his newest novel Polostan, about the pre-atomic bomb era, and whether it has parallels to our era ahead of general artificial intelligence. And we asked if there would be a Snow Crash 2 or a Snow Crash film.

Here’s an edited transcript of our fireside chat with Stephenson. You can also watch the video in this post.