Wagner James Au

Wagner James Au has been covering the idea of the metaverse for decades. He was the first embedded journalist inside the world of Second Life, the early virtual world from Linden Lab. And now he’s back with his own book about the metaverse, the universe of virtual worlds that are all interconnected, like in novels such as Snow Crash and Ready Player One

The author of ‘Snow Crash’ and co-founder of Lamina1 talks about the novel’s long-delayed Hollywood adaptation, and why he finally decided to develop a real-world metaverse of his own.

A Q&A with Wagner James Au, author of “The Making of Second Life,” on why the short-lived success of the first virtual world has lessons for the metaverse.

Taylor Swift has released a new album called Midnights. Over the past several weeks, Swift has presided over a meticulous online rollout: Ahead of the album’s drop, she launched “Midnights Mayhem With Me,” a TikTok video series wherein she released the 13 track names one by one via bingo. This week, she went as far as to release a full launch schedule for fans via Instagram that detailed exactly what would happen at which times and where online—including a “special very chaotic surprise” at 3 a.m. ET last night.

The virtual world, a strange cross between Burning Man and Neal Stephenson’s metaverse, marks its 20th anniversary with no true corporate competitor in sight.