Ori Inbar (left) and Neal Stephenson talk about Snow Crash at AWE USA.
Ori Inbar (left) and Neal Stephenson talk about Snow Crash at AWE USA.
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Notes from the metaverse with Neal Stephenson and Ori Inbar

Neal Stephenson has hit the speaking circuit heavily in the past year since he cofounded his Lamina1 blockchain infrastructure startup. But he’s always thoughtful in his appearances, and today’s fireside chat with Ori Inbar, founder of Augmented World Expo, was another good example.

Here’s a rundown of some interesting things that Stephenson and Inbar said in their opening talks. Inbar noted that while Stephenson was recognized for coining the word “metaverse” in his sci-fi novel Snow Crash 30 years ago, Stephenson said there were other earlier inspirations for the ideas around it like Habitat.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.