In early October, Hack Seasons Convention was held in Singapore, a global gathering of technologists, traders, and innovators to debate the way forward for blockchain and Web3. A spotlight of the occasion was a fireplace chat titled “Media 3.0 Presentation: Storytelling on Chain with Joe Rubin and Neal Stephenson.”
Moderated by Rebecca Barkin, co-founder and CEO of Lamina1, the session featured Joseph Lubin, co-founder of Ethereum and founder and CEO of ConsenSys, and Neal Stephenson, writer and co-founder of Lamina1. The dialogue targeted on how blockchain expertise is reworking media, artistic expression, and the narratives that form trendy tradition.
The dialogue started with an outline of current developments at Lamina1, an interactive media platform owned by each storytellers and followers. Lamina1 not too long ago introduced a partnership with ConsenSys’ Linea blockchain and can launch a brand new mental property (IP) venture “Artefact” on the Linea community.
As IP more and more spans a number of codecs and is accelerated by AI, questions round possession, management, and validation are taking middle stage. Neil Stephenson has researched the social and cultural affect of rising applied sciences over time and highlighted present developments in AI because it pertains to content material creation. He identified that the AI business is very centralized and dominated by a small variety of corporations with the assets to coach fashions at scale. This centralization creates dependence on opaque programs and limits transparency and accessibility. Within the context of content material creation, some AI advocates have proposed lowering the affect and compensation of creators, however the authors emphasised the potential for AI for use to learn creators fairly than to their detriment.
Joe Lubin echoed his issues concerning the centralization of huge expertise and framed the event of the Web3 ecosystem as a response to those buildings. He defined that for hundreds of years, societies have operated below top-down command and management, with authorities and intermediaries managing property rights and privileges. Though such buildings are efficient in constructing civilizations, they are often detrimental to nearly all of contributors. Within the realm of user-generated content material, present fashions may be described as authority-generated. Joe Rubin emphasised that the appearance of decentralized belief, first operationalized by means of blockchain by Satoshi Nakamoto, laid the inspiration for a brand new mannequin of decentralized, user-driven civilization. This method is just not meant to interrupt up present corporations, however fairly to allow a extra decentralized and community-oriented system. Lamina1’s integration with networks like Linea goals to empower customers and foster a golden age of community-value user-generated content material.
Joe Rubin additionally expressed a deep dedication to supporting the humanities, music, and the broader creator economic system by means of decentralization. He emphasised the significance of mental property in enabling artists to turn into impartial and self-reliant. Conventional programs typically favor organizations with authorized assets over creators themselves. Leveraging expertise could make IP configuration extra granular, configurable, and fast, particularly from a copyright and licensing perspective. This shift strikes past a scarcity-driven mannequin to an period of abundance facilitated by automation, AI, and robotics. In such a system, creators can focus extra on creativity and content material technology, and neighborhood mechanisms can reward participation and contributions.
The dialogue then strikes on to the origins of the time period “metaverse”, typically courting again to Neal Stevenson’s novel “Metaverse”.snow crash“,” he mentioned, providing his ideas on how digital developments have unfolded since publication. The writer defined that the ebook was written within the late Nineteen Eighties and early Nineties. On the time, the Web existed, however it was largely unknown to most of the people. When the novel was printed, two main technological occasions occurred in the identical yr. World Huge Net creation and sport launch.doom” Each occasions performed a transformative function in making pc graphics broadly accessible. Though the net offered a platform for exchanging pictures,Doom” Demand for extra highly effective computer systems has elevated and entry to immersive digital experiences has expanded.
Neal Stephenson has identified that within the early days of the Web there was a “hippie grad” part characterised by an idealistic imaginative and prescient of common entry to data. This era was finally adopted by centralization and consolidation, typified by the Web2 platform. In his novel, elements of the Metaverse are managed by centralized firms, whereas different elements stay open and freely accessible. One of the crucial vital however unanticipated results has been the rise of social media algorithms that monitor person habits and manipulate content material to maximise engagement, with far-reaching social penalties that even Neal Stephenson didn’t foresee within the Nineties.
Joe Rubin mentioned that the dystopian components depicted within the novel had been by no means the primary focus for individuals creating new expertise or on the lookout for enterprise capital. What stood out as an alternative was the writer’s vivid depiction of our on-line world, which offered a compelling imaginative and prescient of the capabilities of computing expertise that was starting to mature.
Audio system shared their views on the potential of rising applied sciences. They emphasised the significance of leveraging the most effective elements of those instruments to learn humanity and create a constructive affect on society as digital innovation continues to advance.
Lamina1 unveils “Artefact” on Linea, combining storytelling and fan participation
The dialog turned to Lamina1’s future plans because it prepares to publish its first authentic IP “Artefact” instantly on the Linea blockchain. The venture combines a narrative world with a system designed to encourage fan participation and engagement.
Neil Stephenson shared that the brand new IP advanced primarily based on concepts he beforehand explored throughout a chat in New Zealand. He pointed to the weird scenario through which many individuals are creating AI, whereas others are warning of its potential risks. In nature, evolution happens by means of competitors, and no entity enjoys particular privileges with out going through challenges. Neil Stephenson prompt {that a} related aggressive framework may very well be utilized to AI, permitting programs to evolve by testing their capabilities towards one another. He additional thought of a situation in which there’s a centralized, impersonal AI, versus an AI that’s deployed in a decentralized method by human communities. AI makes use of expertise to learn itself and its neighborhood. This idea served as the idea for Lamina1, a collaborative world-building venture that allowed artists and sport designers to start out constructing their sport universes.
The panel dialogue ended by giving attendees a preview of the brand new IP, giving them an early glimpse into the story world and its interactive options.
