Neal Town Stephenson (born October 31, 1959) is an American writer known for his works of speculative fiction.
He is currently Magic Leap's Chief Futurist. ==Early life== Born on October 31, 1959 in Fort Meade, Maryland, Stephenson came from a family of engineers and scientists; his father is a professor of electrical engineering while his paternal grandfather was a physics professor.
Stephenson's family moved to Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, in 1960 and then in 1966 to Ames, Iowa.
Stephenson's family moved to Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, in 1960 and then in 1966 to Ames, Iowa.
He graduated from Ames High School in 1977. Stephenson studied at Boston University, first specializing in physics, then switching to geography after he found that it would allow him to spend more time on the university mainframe.
He graduated in 1981 with a B.A.
Since 1984, Stephenson has lived mostly in the Pacific Northwest and currently lives in Seattle with his family. ==Writing== Stephenson's first novel, The Big U, published in 1984, is a satirical take on life at American Megaversity, a vast, bland, and alienating research university beset by chaotic riots.
Neither novel attracted much critical attention on first publication, but showcased concerns that Stephenson would further develop in his later work. Stephenson's breakthrough came in 1992 with Snow Crash, a cyberpunk or post-cyberpunk novel fusing memetics, computer viruses, and other high-tech themes with Sumerian mythology, along with a sociological extrapolation of extreme laissez-faire capitalism and collectivism.
Magic Leap claims to be developing a revolutionary form of augmented reality, not too different from technologies Stephenson previously has described in his science fiction books. ==Bibliography== ===Novels=== The Big U (1984) Zodiac (1988) Snow Crash (1992) – British Science Fiction Association Award nominee, 1993; Clarke Award nominee, 1994 Interface (1994) with J.
Stephenson at this time would later be described by Mike Godwin as "a slight, unassuming grad-student type whose soft-spoken demeanor gave no obvious indication that he had written the manic apotheosis of cyberpunk science fiction." In 1994, Stephenson joined with his uncle, J.
Magic Leap claims to be developing a revolutionary form of augmented reality, not too different from technologies Stephenson previously has described in his science fiction books. ==Bibliography== ===Novels=== The Big U (1984) Zodiac (1988) Snow Crash (1992) – British Science Fiction Association Award nominee, 1993; Clarke Award nominee, 1994 Interface (1994) with J.
Frederick George, to publish a political thriller, Interface, under the pen name "Stephen Bury"; they followed this in 1996 with The Cobweb. Stephenson's next solo novel, published in 1995, was The Diamond Age: or A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer.
Frederick George, to publish a political thriller, Interface, under the pen name "Stephen Bury"; they followed this in 1996 with The Cobweb. Stephenson's next solo novel, published in 1995, was The Diamond Age: or A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer.
Frederick George, as "Stephen Bury" The Diamond Age: or A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer (1995) – Hugo and Locus SF Awards winner, 1996; Nebula, Campbell and Clarke Awards nominee, 1996 The Cobweb (1996) with J.
It is set in a grim future world of limited resources populated by hard-edged survivalists. This was followed by Cryptonomicon in 1999, a novel including concepts ranging from Alan Turing's research into codebreaking and cryptography during the Second World War, to a modern attempt to set up a data haven.
It is a near-future novel that explores mind uploading into the cloud, and contains characters from 2011's Reamde, 1999's Cryptonomicon, and other books.
. "Communication Prosthetics: Threat, or Menace?" Whole Earth Review, Summer 2001. "Turn On, Tune In, Veg Out".
(The titles and exact breakdown vary in different markets.) The System of the World won the Prometheus Award in 2005. Following this, Stephenson wrote Anathem (2008), a long and detailed novel of speculative fiction.
Op-ed piece on Star Wars, in The New York Times, June 17, 2005. "It's All Geek To Me".
Op-ed piece on the film 300 and geek culture, The New York Times, March 18, 2007. "Atoms of Cognition: Metaphysics in the Royal Society 1715–2010", chapter in Seeing Further: The Story of Science and the Royal Society, edited by Bill Bryson.
It is set in an Earthlike world, deals with metaphysics, and refers heavily to Ancient Greek philosophy. In May 2010, the Subutai Corporation, of which Stephenson was named chairman, announced the production of an experimental multimedia fiction project called The Mongoliad, which centered upon a narrative written by Stephenson and other speculative fiction authors. Stephenson's novel REAMDE was released on September 20, 2011.
Stephenson discusses the legacy of the rivalry between Sir Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz, November 2, 2010. "Space Stasis".
It is set in an Earthlike world, deals with metaphysics, and refers heavily to Ancient Greek philosophy. In May 2010, the Subutai Corporation, of which Stephenson was named chairman, announced the production of an experimental multimedia fiction project called The Mongoliad, which centered upon a narrative written by Stephenson and other speculative fiction authors. Stephenson's novel REAMDE was released on September 20, 2011.
It is a near-future novel that explores mind uploading into the cloud, and contains characters from 2011's Reamde, 1999's Cryptonomicon, and other books.
World Policy Journal, 2011. Essays and Other Writing.
This thriller, set in the present, centers around a group of MMORPG developers caught in the middle of Chinese cyber-criminals, Islamic terrorists, and Russian mafia. On August 7, 2012, Stephenson released a collection of essays and other previously published fiction entitled Some Remarks: Essays and Other Writing.
The campaign's funding goal of $500,000 was reached by the target date of July 9, 2012 on Kickstarter, but funding options remained open and the project continued to accept contributions on its official site.
In 2013, Cryptonomicon won the Prometheus Hall of Fame Award. The Baroque Cycle is a series of [fiction|historical novels] set in the 17th and 18th centuries, and is in some respects a prequel to Cryptonomicon.
This collection also includes a new essay and a short story created specifically for this volume. In late 2013, Stephenson stated that he was working on a multi-volume work of historical novels that would "have a lot to do with scientific and technological themes and how those interact with the characters and civilisation during a particular span of history".
The project ran out of money in September 2013.
He expected the first two volumes to be released in mid-to-late 2014.
The CLANG project ended in September 2014 without being completed.
Stephenson took part of the responsibility for the project's failure, stating, "I probably focused too much on historical accuracy and not enough on making it sufficiently fun to attract additional investment". In 2014, Stephenson was hired as Chief Futurist by the Florida-based company Magic Leap.
Ed Finn and Kathryn Cramer, which includes contributions by Stephenson (preface and chapter "Atmosphæra Incognita"), was published by William Morrow in September, 2014. ===Non-fiction=== "Smiley's People".
However, at about the same time, he shifted his attention to a science fiction novel, Seveneves, which was completed about a year later and was published in May 2015.
On June 8, 2016, plans were announced to adapt Seveneves for the screen. In May 2016, as part of a video discussion with Bill Gates, Stephenson revealed that he had just submitted the manuscript for a new historical novel—"a time travel book"—co-written with Nicole Galland, one of his Mongoliad coauthors.
on June 13, 2017. In June 2019 his next novel Fall; or, Dodge in Hell was published.
on June 13, 2017. In June 2019 his next novel Fall; or, Dodge in Hell was published.
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