By her own description, Krista Kim has always been fascinated by the intersection of human existence and digital reality. Kim is a world-renowned digital artist who was one of the first to build and sell virtual real estate—in the form of an NFT known as the Mars House, a virtual structure that offers the possibility of becoming real. The home and all its furnishings are designed to be built using tempered printed glass, should the owner (who paid more than $500,000 for the NFT) choose to do so. Kim also happens to be a VOGUE Singapore metaverse editor, the founder of a movement called Techism and an avid humanist. We caught up with the multi-hyphenate in Vancouver following a panel she appeared on at TED 2023. In spite of the relatively dire predictions at this year’s TED around the future of humanity as a result of the growing prevalence of AI, Kim remains hopeful and positive about what’s coming next.

Read my interview with Krista Kim at CoolHunting.