networked worlds

I love speculative fiction like Octavia Butler and Ursula Le Guin 's, which creates alternative versions of reality based on enormous documentary research and invents the foundations of another present, improbable and credible. I'm also constantly on the lookout for situations where reality is surreal, a kind of "magical realism". As a writer of... See more

Any study of worldbuilding would be remiss without mention of Biosphere 2, the experimental facility constructed in Arizona for studying the feasibility of life in a manmade ecosystem. In 1994, Abigail Alling and Mark Van Thillo broke into the complex – or rather, attempted a break-out, and in the process brought the years-long experiment to an... See more

In this human-made apocalyptic context, it seemed to me that interactive participation by the viewer made the more sense, by putting them in a situation of urgency rather than passively absorbing content. The game forces you to make choices and decisions. That's how the world works. This need for real, urgent action is just as true in reality as it... See more

We must confront a pervasive threat: the ethos of pure speculation and financialization. This approach represents a shallow interpretation of what decentralization can offer. It overlooks the deeper, more meaningful aspects of a technology that enables us to connect, collaborate, and build shared experiences across geographies and ideologies –... See more

Proud to have 3FACE enter the @MuseumModernArt collection. And grateful to @outland_art for setting the stage and bridging worlds. It’s never simple nor routine for an institution to collect dynamic art - i.e. art that changes state. But it is this quality of... See more

So all you need to do is understand the mechanics of the software, and the rest is pretty much collage. You don't have to actually build anything. All you have to do is paint the landscape in your own colors. It's perfectly possible to make a very professional game with an army of one. I simply call on a friend and collaborator who knows how to... See more

Stories by Stephenson – which tend, predictably, towards singular heroes who win at technocracy – form the inspiration behind Amazon’s Blue Origin and Facebook’s Metaverse.