Neil Stephenson joins Magic Leap, a startup in Augmented Reality

One of the classics of science fiction in the cyberpunk genre, Neil Stephenson, has been hired by Magic Leap for the position of Chief Futurist (Chief Futurist).

Neil Stephenson is the author of the cult works Avalanche (Snow Crash, 1992) and Kryptonomicon (Cryptonomicon, 1999), winner of the Hugo Award. According to critics, the merit of Stevenson lies in the exhaustive description in the novel “Avalanche” of a new type of commercial matrix in the form of the Metaverse as the pinnacle of technological progress.

Magic Leap is one of the most mysterious startups in the field of augmented reality. Two months ago, the company received $ 542 million in venture capital financing in Round B, a significant portion of the funds came from Google.
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At the same time, little is known about the technology that Magic Leap is working on. In brief, this is something like “Google Glass on steroids” - a way to imperceptibly impose computer-generated images on the “matrix” of the real world. Exactly what Neil Stevenson described as far back as 25 years ago. Unfortunately, technology is not evolving as quickly as it seemed.

Technology Magic Leap combines a helmet with optical projectors, a set of lenses and cameras. They work in such a way that it turns out an augmented reality that you really want to believe in. At least, the presentation of the technology convinced investors to invest more than half a billion dollars in a startup.

She also convinced Neal Stevenson: “I saw something on that optical table that I had never seen before — something that only Magic Leap, as far as I know, can do,” he says. - and that was pretty cool. But I am amazed no longer by what Magic Leap has done, but by what it is starting to do. Magic Leap has collected a set of technologies — some tried and tested, others incredibly advanced — to create a synthesized light field that hits the retina in the same way that light reflects from real objects in the outside world. ”



“Magic Leap combines physics, biology, software code and design together to create a system that should open doors to creative people,” said Stevenson. - Anyone who reads, watches, studies or plays video games will be able to use the results of their work. I have never seen or heard of a company that brought scientists, engineers, and artists together in the way Magic Leap did, and I'm glad to be a part of it. ”