Neal Stephenson
Neal Stephenson has been programming computers since 1974. He developed a particular fascination with using them to make pictures in the late 1970s when someone made the mistake of giving him access to a vector graphics terminal. He acquired a Macintosh as soon as that device hit the market and programmed it to generate imaginary fractal landforms as part of a solo project to make a role-playing game. In due course this led him into an ambitious computer graphics project in the late 1980s that culminated in the writing of Snow Crash and the fateful coining of the term Metaverse. In all, he has written or co-written some 20 books, mostly of science or historical fiction.
In parallel with that he has pursued a career in technology, working at Blue Origin, Intellectual Ventures Labs, and Magic Leap. In 2022 he co-founded Lamina 1 of which he is now chairman. Crater Productions is the vehicle through which he pursues transmedia adaptations of his intellectual property.
Karen Laur
After stints as restaurateur to the D.C. punk scene, high-end wallpaper designer, and carriage driver, Karen Laur became Employee #17 at Valve Games. Joining as a texture artist, she focused particular attention on developing a coherent visual and narrative world for the game Half-Life.
She left Valve to make a game about horses, a dream not yet realized, and worked in the Bay Area for Forterra and There.com delving deeply into the development of virtual worlds and “serious” games.
In the early 2010's she worked as art director and producer at Subutai, Neal’s transmedia startup in Seattle. From 2014 to 2020 she was employed as a creative director at Magic Leap, where she conceived the idea for Baby Goats, an augmented reality application that populated the user's environment with realistic animated baby goats. From the spring of 2020 onwards she has worked with Stephenson on a series of projects in the realm of interactive media and virtual production.
Advisors
Mark Long
Founder and CEO, Neon/Shrapnel
Jamil Moledina
VP of Games and Media, Lamina 1
Richard Taylor
Co-founder, Creative Director, and CEO, Weta Workshop