John Carmack: Doom, Quake, VR, AGI, Programming, Video Games, and Rockets | Lex Fridman Podcast #309

Co-founded by John Carmack, notable for revolutionizing gaming technology with titles like Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, and Quake.

The company formerly known as Facebook, where John Carmack worked on VR/AR and still consults as CTO, investing heavily in the metaverse vision.

Electronics retailer where John Carmack first encountered computers and wrote his first programs on TRS-80 systems.

Aerospace manufacturer founded by Elon Musk, admired by Carmack for its ambitious goals and Elon's deep technical involvement.

Carmack discusses Microsoft's initial 'terrible' D3D API, which later improved, and acknowledges their growth track and role in the industry.

An early employer of John Carmack, a unique company with a monthly subscription software model before widespread internet, where Carmack did contract programming.

A game publisher known for its successful shareware model in the early days of PC gaming, which partnered with id Software for Commander Keen.

Mentioned in the context of efficiency challenges in large tech companies and their tendency to cancel projects.

John Carmack's personal aerospace company, which he funded with his own money, contrasting his commitment level with Elon Musk's all-in approach.

Elon Musk's neurotechnology company, suggested by Carmack as a potential avenue for linking animal intelligence with human communication.

An AI research laboratory notable for its general learning progress in game situations and breakthroughs like AlphaZero and protein folding.

A game construction kit aimed at kids, cited as a successful capability-first play in the virtual world space, achieving significant scale.

Elon Musk's electric vehicle and clean energy company, mentioned in the context of self-driving car development and its pragmatic approach to AI.

Social media platform, mentioned as one of Elon Musk's many ventures, raising concerns about him being stretched too thin.

An AI research organization that attempted to recruit John Carmack, and whose early progress greatly influenced his interest in AI.

A self-driving technology company, noted for its interesting progress in autonomous driving, though with a different approach than Tesla's data-hungry method.

A revolutionary game developed by id Software known for its side-scrolling mechanics. John credits Tom Hall with much of its design and backstory.

A pioneering first-person shooter game developed by id Software, credited with profoundly impacting players' understanding of 3D graphics and performance.

A seminal first-person shooter game by id Software, known for its graphical innovation, multiplayer, and modding capabilities, marking a shift to '2.5D' game engines.

A Nintendo game that John Carmack and Tom Hall cloned the first level of to demonstrate their new scrolling technology, leading to the formation of id Software.

A series of role-playing games that Carmack mentions hacking as a teenager to modify game parameters.

A game that used Ken Silverman's Build engine, a different technology from id Software's BSP trees, proving there isn't 'one true way.'

A game franchise by Activision, cited as an example where iterating and improving the same game annually can be both loved by players and profitable.

A popular VR rhythm game that was an unexpected success, thriving by playing to VR's strengths (controllers) and avoiding comfort issues, offering short, engaging gameplay loops and fitness benefits.

A popular game with enormous user creativity, contrasting with Meta's approach to the metaverse, demonstrating that capability-first approaches aren't the only path to scale.

A highly influential first-person shooter by id Software that introduced a true 3D engine, advanced lighting, in-game programming, and client-server multiplayer.

John Carmack's preferred language for 'serious programming', often used in a 'C-flavored' style, appreciating its ability to build large systems despite its complexity for handovers.

A language John Carmack uses for AI/ML work, acknowledging its convenience and quick development capabilities but noting its significant performance inefficiencies for raw computation.

A language developed by Google, praised by Carmack for its simplicity and ease of use, similar to C, making it popular for rapidly onboarding programmers.

A modern programming language mentioned by Carmack, which he has limited experience with but is widely discussed for its safety and performance features.

A widely used language that runs much of the world, whose underlying engineering is phenomenal despite its non-optimal aspects for large applications due to lack of type systems.

Microsoft's integrated development environment, preferred by John Carmack for its powerful debugger features which he considers crucial for understanding complex systems.

A command-line debugger on Linux/Unix platforms, which Carmack notes is often only used by programmers at their wits' end due to its unfriendly interface.

An operating system developed by NeXT, founded by Steve Jobs, which id Software adopted for its stable UNIX-based development platform and amazing graphical interface.

The programming language used by NeXT, which had elements that later became part of macOS development and its tools.

An open standard graphics API championed by John Carmack, crucial for mobile industry acceleration before the rise of Metal and Vulkan.

Microsoft's proprietary graphics API, initially 'terrible' but later improved, which competed with OpenGL.

A cloud computing service offering GPUs, which Carmack used for his AI experiments, but found he was underutilizing due to psychological barriers.

A highly successful modern game with massive user-generated content, an example of a 'Turing complete design' space.

A video conferencing software known for its usability and high-quality experience, which VR meeting platforms aim to surpass.

John Carmack served as CTO, helping to define the technological path for virtual reality and was later acquired by Facebook (Meta).

An early line of personal computers by Radio Shack where John Carmack wrote his first program and learned basic programming concepts.

A personal computer that John Carmack loved and clung to, instrumental in shaping a generation of American programmers.

John Carmack's preferred drink, a ritualistic part of his programming routine.

Tesla's advanced driver-assistance system, which Carmack believes deserves more credit for its progress in multitask learning and general AI problems, even though it's not a full AGI.

A specialized AI supercomputer purchased by John Carmack to overcome his reluctance to run more experiments on Google Cloud, serving as a 'forcing function' for his AI work.

Founder of SpaceX and Tesla, whom John Carmack respects for his deep technical involvement and willingness to commit entirely to ambitious projects like space exploration and electrification.

Co-founder of Apple and NeXT, admired by Carmack for his passionate leadership and micro-management in design, although Carmack noted his technical limitations.

Co-founder of id Software, regarded by Carmack as a polymath with skills in programming, design, art, and sound, but also notes differences in work ethic which led to their parting ways.

An editor at Softdisk publishing and later co-founder of id Software, credited by Carmack as the main creative mind behind early id Software games like Commander Keen.

Founder of Apogee Software, who saw the potential in id Software's games and championed the shareware model, initially contacting John Romero via 'fan mail.'

Founder of Origin Systems, mentioned as one of the game hackers from the formative book 'Hackers'.

One of the original researchers who developed BSP trees, whom John Carmack later met while working on Quake.

A strong programmer and graphics expert hired by Carmack at id Software, instrumental in optimizing Quake's challenging graphics engine.

Co-founder and Chief Scientist of OpenAI, who provided John Carmack with a reading list that helped him kickstart his understanding of modern AI.

Podcaster and comedian, who considers Quake a definitive part of his life, and whom Carmack mentioned discussing martial arts with.

Co-founder of Stack Overflow, with whom John Carmack has a $10,000 bet regarding the widespread adoption of level 5 self-driving cars by 2030.

CEO of OpenAI, who attempted to recruit John Carmack, inspiring his deep dive into machine learning literature.

Former Director of AI at Tesla, admired by Carmack for his programmer-centric approach to machine learning, blog posts, and educational work, whom Carmack has offered to work with.

A Jiu-Jitsu instructor with whom John Carmack trained for years, noted for his fluid, 'flow like water' style of grappling.

A book recommended by Carmack for technical exploration of Wolfenstein 3D, for which he wrote the forward.

A formative science fiction book that introduced the concept of the 'metaverse,' influencing John Carmack's vision for virtual worlds.

The headquarters of Judo in Japan, where John Carmack trained and experienced a different, more enveloping style of Judo.