Reasonably Optimistic The sci-fi writer who predicted the future
Dec 10, 2025
Neal Stephenson, a renowned science fiction author and futurist, is known for his prescient views on the metaverse and wearable tech. In this engaging conversation, he reflects on the future of AI and its impact on education, highlighting the challenges of preserving deep learning in a tech-driven world. Stephenson also discusses how AI could disrupt entry-level jobs, redefining career paths in tech. He shares his optimistic vision about carbon removal becoming a significant venture, inspiring the next generation of engineers.
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Plausible Futures Require System Thinking
- Neal Stephenson treats sci-fi as rigorous thought experiments that must be plausible across technology, business and politics.
- He builds worlds by asking "then what?" to trace realistic downstream uses and consequences.
How A Mobile Became The Diamond Age
- The Diamond Age grew from a baby mobile idea and Victorian education research into a book about a programmable book changing a girl's life.
- Stephenson used that small domestic observation to explore elite versus mass education outcomes.
LLMs Are Confident Pattern Matchers
- Stephenson calls modern LLMs “pseudo-intelligence” because they lack reliable internal models of reality.
- Their confident-but-wrong outputs make them useful for aggregation but risky as authoritative sources.
