Even Neal Stephenson was blindsided by the AI boom. The author of Snow Crash, The Diamond Age and Cryptonomicon joins Ashlee Vance to discuss the singularity, powerful tech companies, and what actually worries him about the future. His new novel, D: Heavy Water, explores the years leading up to the atomic bomb. He sees a familiar dilemma in today’s AI race with China: nobody wants to slow down if the other side might get there first.

Neal explains why he still writes with a fountain pen, what brain computer interfaces might leave behind, and why imagining a hopeful future takes work. We get into the long wait for a Snow Crash movie and Whenere, his project for letting people tell their own stories inside fictional worlds, starting with Jane Austen in Fortnite. He also takes us inside the early days of Blue Origin with Jeff Bezos, including the origins of its tortoise emblem and the giant launch tower he still wants someone to build.

Then there’s the question readers of The Diamond Age keep asking: can we finally make its illustrated primer? Neal has been paying attention to what teachers actually need. Giving a gifted kid an extraordinary tool is one thing. Building something that helps everyone is a much harder problem.

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