<p>Science fiction writer Neal Stephenson predicted the metaverse, wearable tech and artificial intelligence long before those technologies arrived. What does he think of it all now? Host Megan McArdle talks to Stephenson about the future of AI, education and social media — and how his fiction became a window into the culture of Silicon Valley.</p><p><br></p><p><strong style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent;">Timecodes</strong></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent;">0:00 Welcome to Reasonably Optimistic</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent;">0:33 Who is Neal Stephenson?</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent;">1:19 Living in the future</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent;">3:25 Neal's origin story </span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent;">5:18 The disruptive effects of new technology </span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent;">8:18 The premise of </span><em style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent;">The Diamond Age</em><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent;"> </span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent;">14:23 AI’s confident wrongness</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent;">17:43 What AI is good at</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent;">18:56 Is AI good for kids?</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent;">20:03 Fixing education in an AI world </span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent;">23:14 Will AI make nerds less valuable?</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent;">26:44 AI is eliminating entry level jobs</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent;">29:45 How tech founders got political</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent;">34:37 Is Neal Stephenson’s work political?</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent;">36:50 Technology is easier to predict than culture</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent;">40:11 What is Neal Stephenson reasonably optimistic about?</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Subscribe to The Washington Post </span><a href="https://subscribe.washingtonpost.com/acquisition/?s_l=OFFSITE_PODCAST&p=s_v&s_dt=yearly&utm%5B%E2%80%A6%5De-podcast&utm_medium=acq-nat&utm_campaign=podcast-subs" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">here</a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent;">.</span></p>
