The Metaverse

[Jarhead0331]

I've been calling that something like this would be the future of everything since my first experience with VR. Whomever controls this space will one day control everything.

[z1812]

^ Thanks for posting this. Very interesting. A Brave New World for sure...................well maybe just a New World.  ;)

[al_infierno]

Zuckerberg:  "I thought I was supposed to be the robot."

That was actually a good one.  :D

Interesting stuff, thanks for posting.  Looks like Earth 2 finally has some real competition.  :-"

[SirAndrewD]

I would've scoffed at the VR stuff before yesterday.

[solops]

Zuck is behind the times. Stardock created the Metaverse years ago.

[Con]

This depresses me
There are already no boundaries with the teams I lead 12 time zones away meaning I am in meetings at 10pm to midnight local time and Fridays and Sundays bleed into each other.
Making VR easier and combing social/work will further erode the barrier separating work from life.  Executives already have no problem demanding work at any 24 hour period and this will make it worse.  Unless we come up with new ways to limit work from reaching into our lives I would recommend to my kids that they find a job that requires physical presence (nurse/doctor etc) so that they dont get enslaved into the virtual hamster wheel.
Con

[al_infierno]

This depresses me
There are already no boundaries with the teams I lead 12 time zones away meaning I am in meetings at 10pm to midnight local time and Fridays and Sundays bleed into each other.
Making VR easier and combing social/work will further erode the barrier separating work from life.  Executives already have no problem demanding work at any 24 hour period and this will make it worse.  Unless we come up with new ways to limit work from reaching into our lives I would recommend to my kids that they find a job that requires physical presence (nurse/doctor etc) so that they dont get enslaved into the virtual hamster wheel.
Con

In addition to that, the idea of Facebook being responsible for such a space is absolute nightmare material.  It's an established fact now that they're down with hateful and divisive content on their platform as long as it makes them more money.

[Gusington]

^Very true.

[ArizonaTank]

While I agree that it is coming, I think we have many years before we get to the place where the metaverse is everything. 

I still don't think the technology is in the place it needs to be for something like the "metaverse" to take over life as we know it.

Current VR technology is still too expensive, and too cumbersome. Like driverless cars, I think the technology is still a work in progress.

Until VR is as easy to use as a pair of glasses VR will still be on the fringe IMHO. But I do think the day is coming...it may just take 20 years.

[Jarhead0331]

While I agree that it is coming, I think we have many years before we get to the place where the metaverse is everything. 

I still don't think the technology is in the place it needs to be for something like the "metaverse" to take over life as we know it.

Current VR technology is still too expensive, and too cumbersome. Like driverless cars, I think the technology is still a work in progress.

Until VR is as easy to use as a pair of glasses VR will still be on the fringe IMHO. But I do think the day is coming...it may just take 20 years.

Agreed, for the most part, but the battle for control of this certain future is already underway. I think that is the key take away for me. Because the main players in the fight are Behemoths like Facebook, they can afford to put the technology out at relatively affordable prices. The Quest 2 is $299 and although it isn't the most powerful headset on the market, it is definitely one of the most popular and one of the most flexible given the fact that it is completely wireless.

Whether it is 5 years, 10 years or 20 years, I don't know, but either way, this technological transition is definitely during our lifetimes.

[ArizonaTank]

My bet is on 20 years...:) 

But if somebody comes along with some killer tech like a practical version of Google glass, we can get there in 10 years (why 10 years? because that is about how long it took to get smartphones in almost everyone's hands).

While being first is an advantage, I don't necessarily think the early bird always gets the worm either.

Easy examples are: Sony's Betamax and Prodigy. Both staked out early claims in their areas, and should have dominated...but both eventually lost out to rivals.

It's also interesting that the discussion about who will own the Metaverse happened once before almost 30 years ago...and things just did not work out the way that everyone foresaw.

Prodigy, AOL and Compuserve are interesting exhibits. When the novel "Snow Crash" came out about 30 years ago, it coined the idea of a "Metaverse" and the technical / financial press at the time thought one of the "Big Three" consumer networks would naturally own it; there was even hyper-ventilating about tech company monopolies owning us all. At the time the functionality of Prodigy or Compuserve seemed within striking distance of what "Snow Crash" described as the Metaverse, minus the VR part (the reality was it was very far away...but the underpinnings were certainly there).

But the flow of technology just couldn't be easily understood and certainly not controlled. The "Big Three" were based on proprietary networks...then the Internet that was based on completely open standards started to explode that model...oops. The Big Three could have shifted their business models and easily had Netflix's, Amazon's, and Google's thrones....but instead they stuck to their outdated visions and today are footnotes.

I think similar sand pits await "Meta". Particularly because unlike driverless cars, the infrastructure required (except for the UI device) is likely already in place (ie. the Internet, 5G and UDP).

It is possible Zuck might be beat at his own game. But the guy or gal who does it may not be part of some mega-tech corporation. They might still just be a 16 year-old working out of their parent's backroom in Daretown, New Jersey, or Ansan, South Korea for that matter.