The Metaverse & Holodecks

[Yuli Ban]

Everyone wants to own the metaverse including Facebook and Microsoft. But what exactly is it?

The metaverse has been a hot topic of conversation recently, with Facebook and Microsoft both staking claims. But what is the metaverse? And when will it get here?

Author Neal Stephenson is credited with coining the term "metaverse" in his 1992 science fiction novel "Snow Crash," in which he envisioned lifelike avatars who met in realistic 3D buildings and other virtual reality environments.

Since then, various developments have made mileposts on the way toward a real metaverse, an online virtual world which incorporates augmented reality, virtual reality, 3D holographic avatars, video and other means of communication. As the metaverse expands, it will offer a hyper-real alternative world for you to coexist in.

Inklings of the metaverse already exist in online game universes such as Fortnite, Minecraft and Roblox. And the companies behind those games have ambitions to be part of the evolution of the metaverse.

What is the metaverse?
It's a combination of multiple elements of technology, including virtual reality, augmented reality and video where users "live" within a digital universe. Supporters of the metaverse envision its users working, playing and staying connected with friends through everything from concerts and conferences to virtual trips around to the world.

"Right now, we are on the cusp of the next internet," said Matthew Ball, managing partner of venture capital firm Epyllion Industries, in a February 2021 essay on his website.

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Now Disney's Going in on the Metaverse, Too

Probably should have seen this one coming, but now Disney's joining basically everyone else on the metaverse bandwagon.

In its full-year earnings call today, Disney CEO Bob Chapek brought up the idea of the metaverse to shareholders for the first time. He began by pointing out Disney's "long track record as an early adopter in the use of technology to enhance the entertainment experience," offering examples such as Steamboat Willie (one of the first cartoons to be produced with synchronized sound), its historical use of animatronics, and broadly the technological work of Pixar in its animations.

He went on: "Suffice it to say, our efforts today are merely a prologue to a time when we'll be able to connect the physical and digital worlds even more closely, allowing for storytelling without boundaries in our own Disney metaverse. We look forward to creating unparalelled opportunities for consumers to experience everything Disney has to offer across our product and platforms wherever the consumer may be.

[Yuli Ban]

Jim Cramer says these 4 companies are the best ways to invest in the metaverse

CNBC’s Jim Cramer said Wednesday he believes there are four standout stocks that investors should buy if they want to bet on the success of the so-called metaverse.

“Going forward, there will be many companies who try to claim they got a piece of the metaverse,” the “Mad Money” host said. However, for now, he said the best places to turn are Facebook-parent Meta, online gaming platform Roblox, semiconductor company Nvidia and Unity, a video-game software development firm.

The metaverse is an increasingly popular term on Wall Street that refers to immersive digital worlds in which people can connect using various devices. “Will younger people want a piece of this? I can’t be sure. I’m not one of them, but I know money managers love it and maybe that’s more important,” Cramer said.

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AR PIONEER WARNS THAT METAVERSE COULD MAKE “REALITY DISAPPEAR”

Dystopian Prediction
An innovator in early AR systems has a dire prediction: the metaverse could change the fabric of reality as we know it.

Louis Rosenberg, a computer scientist and developer of the first functional AR system at the Air Force Research Laboratory, penned an op-ed in Big Think this weekend that warned the metaverse — an immersive VR and AR world currently being developed by The Company Formerly Known as Facebook — could create what sounds like a real life cyberpunk dystopia.

“I am concerned about the legitimate uses of AR by the powerful platform providers that will control the infrastructure,” Rosenberg wrote in the essay.

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Disney wants to become the happiest place in the metaverse

Mickey Mouse is poised to venture into the metaverse.

Walt Disney CEO Bob Chapek said the entertainment conglomerate is preparing to make the technological leap into a virtual reality world first imagined by science fiction writers.

It is a popular destination these days, ever since Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the future of his company would be devoted to creating a robust, three-dimensional environment where users’ digital avatars would work, hang out and pursue their hobbies.

Other big companies, including game-makers Roblox Corp and Epic Games, and software giant Microsoft Corp, are working on their own metaverses. Disney’s plan was notably devoid of specifics, beyond dropping a buzzword that has animated Silicon Valley.

[Yuli Ban]

To work for everyone, the Metaverse must be decentralized

What’s in a name? A whole metaverse is what one could be led to believe when looking at the buzz around Facebook’s recent transformation into Meta. In reality, of course, there is more to the new name than that — there is also the whistleblower scandal, alongside the previous controversies tarring the company’s image, as well as the encroachment of rivaling social media platforms that are more popular with young people.

But, if Facebook’s rebranding is easy for skeptics to dismiss as a PR stunt, the same does not go for the Metaverse, simply because entering it requires more than a public announcement. Besides Facebook’s own intention to pour $10 billion into metaverse-related projects just this year, Microsoft is building out its own metaverse and rolling out 3D avatars for teams. Earlier in April, Epic Games, the gaming giant behind the teen favorite Fortnite, raised $1 billion for its metaverse efforts. A lot of big players are revving up their engines to race into the Metaverse, and money tends to make things happen.

For now, though, it remains unclear what exactly money can make happen in this specific case, because it seems unclear what the Metaverse will actually look like.

[Yuli Ban]

What is Holoearth? Hololive’s Ambitious Plan to Bridge VTubers to the Metaverse

Hololive, the talent agency that manages the top VTubers globally, has announced that they are creating a “metaverse” game platform where fans can create their own avatars and interact with their favorite VTubers in an open-world sandbox experience much like MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing games) that have come before.

Virtual beings can exist in practically any virtual world, especially games, with ease. We’ve recently seen this with the popular virtual influencers Janky and Guggimon entering Fortnite. These transmedia moments of a social-first character crossing over into a game platform are exhilarating to fans. After all, if you love following Guggimon on Instagram, why wouldn’t you want to play as him in a game as well?

The weeaboos of this forum should know what Hololive and VTubers are

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There is a lot more than the usual amount of handwringing over AI these days. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and former US Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger put out a new book last week warning of AI’s dangers. Fresh AI warnings have also been issued by professors Stuart Russell (UC Berkeley) and Youval Harari (University of Jerusalem). Op-eds from the editorial board at the Guardian and Maureen Dowd at the New York Times have amplified these concerns. Facebook — now rebranded as Meta — has come under growing pressure for its algorithms creating social toxicity, but it is hardly alone. The White House has called for an AI bill of rights, and the Financial Times argues this should extend globally. Worries over AI are flying faster than a gale force wind.

The concerns point to shortcomings in existing AI implementations and the inherent dangers posed by its use in relation to employment, housing, credit, commerce, criminal sentencing, and healthcare. And yet, there are a multitude of significant advances brought about by AI that would otherwise not be possible — from revolutionizing our understanding of biology to saving energy in data centers, to becoming a new trusted source of career advice, developing computer code, identifying cancers in patients, and even opening up the possibility of communicating with other species. In these areas and more, AI is increasingly adding value to our experience and becoming interwoven into the fabric of daily life.

[Yuli Ban]

Recently there has been a lot of discussion around singularity and whether we soon will be entering a phase where artificial general intelligence will become reality. However, before we delve deep into the philosophical and ethical implications of singularity, we have to understand what it really is, its actual limitations and why it may happen in a way that is different than anticipated.

Singularity is the notion that the exponential acceleration of technological development will lead to a situation where artificial intelligence supersedes human intelligence and will eventually escape our control. Some even predict catastrophic consequences for humanity where machines will become the dominant species on this planet. This may seem a bit far-fetched, at least for the near future, given that advancements in hardware development and robotics are not catching up with software when it comes to artificial general intelligence. However, one can argue that the recent hype and developments surrounding the metaverse will definitely open the door to the rethink of Singularity. But what is the metaverse, and why is it such a big deal?

Recent market analysis has estimated that the metaverse market opportunity could be around $800 billion by 2024. This could be seen as an expected meteoric rise for the metaverse, given such an estimated market size; however, the question that many people are asking is, what is the metaverse?

[Yuli Ban]

You cannot pet a dog in Meta’s new, high-tech virtual reality gloves. But researchers are getting closer.

Meta (formerly Facebook) is known for its high-profile moves into virtual and augmented reality. For seven years, though, it’s been quietly working on one of its most ambitious projects yet: a haptic glove that reproduces sensations like grasping an object or running your hand along a surface. While Meta’s not letting the glove out of its Reality Labs research division, the company is showing it off for the first time today, and it sees the device — alongside other wearable tech — as the future of VR and AR interaction.

At a simplified level, Meta’s haptics prototype is a glove lined with around 15 ridged and inflatable plastic pads known as actuators. The pads are arranged to fit along the wearer’s palm, the underside of their fingers, and their fingertips. The glove also acts as a VR controller. The back features small white markers that let cameras track how the fingers move through space, and it’s got internal sensors that capture how the wearer’s fingers are bending.

[Yuli Ban]

Metaverse bull market

The promise of a "metaverse" is being used by companies across entertainment, tech and gaming to lure developers and excite investors.

Why it matters: While each company defines metaverse differently, the broad concept of bringing people together in a virtual interactive world seems to have taken over the chatter in Hollywood and Silicon Valley.

By the numbers: The word "metaverse" has been mentioned 128 times so far this year during investor presentations, compared to just 7 times last year, according to data from corporate research company Sentieo.

[Yuli Ban]

The metaverse is the next venue for body dysmorphia online

In Facebook’s vision of the metaverse, we will all interact in a mashup of the digital and physical worlds. Digital representations of ourselves will eat, talk, date, shop, and more. That’s the picture Mark Zuckerberg painted as he rebranded his company Meta a couple of weeks ago.

The Facebook founder’s typically awkward presentation used a cartoon avatar of himself doing things like scuba diving or conducting meetings. But Zuckerberg ultimately expects the metaverse to include lifelike avatars whose features would be much more realistic, and which would engage in many of the same activities we do in the real world—just digitally.

“The goal here is to have both realistic and stylized avatars that create a deep feeling that we’re present with people,” Zuckerberg said at the rebranding.

[Yuli Ban]

Mark Zuckerberg wants us to believe he’s figured out how we’ll socialize in the future. On October 28, he outlined his vision for the metaverse, a virtual environment where we can hang out, shop, and work. Yet its realization depends on Facebook and various other companies jumping into the metaverse space to develop the technologies it will depend on, and requires the public to buy into a vision where we spend more time sitting at home with virtual reality headsets on instead of going out into the physical world.

Silicon Valley has a long history of big dreams that are not realized, from the libertarian utopia that the internet was framed as in its early days to the ubiquitous autonomous vehicles that were supposed to have replaced car ownership by now. The metaverse is likely to suffer the same fate, but that doesn’t mean it will have no impact at all. As Brian Merchant has explained, the tech industry is in desperate need of a new framework to throw money at after so many of its big bets from the past decade have failed, and the metaverse could be poised to take that place.

In the few weeks since Zuckerberg’s keynote address, other companies have embraced aspects of the metaverse, but also have shown how malleable the term can be. On November 2, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella made his own metaverse pitch centered around enterprise and gaming. He cast a wide net arguing the concept encompassed existing video chat and collaboration tools, as well as games like Halo and Minecraft, and that those metaverse applications would be enhanced by virtual environments. As Nadella put it, the metaverse allows Microsoft to “embed computing in the real world, and to embed the real world into computing.”

I’m not sure that’s as attractive a statement as Nadella wants us to believe, but his focus on games and work may be a good reflection of what the metaverse could ultimately amount to. It remains to be seen whether we’ll all be pushed into virtual environments similar to how internet use has become a mandatory part of getting by in the modern world, but it’s much easier to see how video game companies and our workplaces could incentivize or even mandate our participation.

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Nvidia CEO says the metaverse could save companies billions of dollars in the real world

Companies are investing money into the creation of the so-called metaverse because it may ultimately save them significant chunks of change in the real world, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Friday.

In an interview on “Mad Money,” Huang painted a vision of connected, virtual reality universes that go beyond facilitating recreation and commerce. Rather, Huang said he believes businesses can lean on the metaverse — or omniverse, which is Nvidia’s preferred term — to reduce wastefulness and increase operational efficiency.

“We waste a whole bunch of things to overcompensate for the fact that we don’t simulate. We want to simulate all factories in metaverses, in this omniverse. We want to simulate plants in omniverse. We want to simulate the world’s power grids in the omniverse,” Huang said.

[Yuli Ban]

Why TIME Is Launching a New Newsletter on the Metaverse

It’s hard to go online these days without seeing someone yelling about the metaverse, whether in rapture or derision. Depending on whom you ask, it’s the inevitable future of the Internet or a billionaire’s flight of fancy; a gaming utopia, an “infinite office,” a brand strategy, an NFT playground, a sci-fi illusion. Virtually every news outlet—including this one—has published articles attempting to make sense of it all. The noise around the term “metaverse” is now loud and constant enough to render it almost meaningless.

So what, exactly, is the metaverse? Why did Mark Zuckerberg make it his new life’s work, and why are other tech companies pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into their own competing visions? What role will cryptocurrencies and the blockchain play in this future? And most importantly, how is any of this going to impact your life?

I’m going to try to unpack all of that and more in a new weekly newsletter, Into the Metaverse. I come to you with a background in reporting on the intersection of culture and business, and I admit I still have a lot to learn—having descended only two or three rungs down the rabbit hole. Over the past year, however, as I’ve dived into the curious phenomenon of NFTs, I’ve talked to many people—from Metakovan to Trevor McFedries to Steve Aoki—who are devoting their lives to building the metaverse block by block. I’m hoping this newsletter will spotlight the work of others at the forefront of the metaverse: to show how their efforts are already bringing about significant change, and how a new kind of arms race has emerged that will define how we engage with the Internet and each other in the decades to come.

[Yuli Ban]

Want to glimpse our metaverse future? Theme parks are already on the case

The promise of augmented reality so far has largely been just that — promises of a future seen through filters for our mobile phone apps or simple games that place characters with little movement on our camera screens. But if this whole metaverse thing — the concept of a persistent, evolving online world that we don’t log into as much as live inside — is ever going to take off, we’re going to need more.

Our theme parks, which increasingly are centered on the concepts of games and play, may offer a glimpse of where the future is heading.

In the not too distant future Universal Studios Hollywood will import a “Mario Kart"-themed ride from Japan that is centered on augmented reality, an attraction designed to create the illusion that we’re interacting with virtual objects and characters. Unlike most AR-enhanced mobile phone apps, where the images are tailored to an individual’s screen, the use of visor-like glasses will allow all guests on the ride to engage with the digital creations in real-time.

And earlier this month the Walt Disney Co. quietly announced that it is “in conversations” with Illumix, a Redwood City, Calif.-based AR firm that has been rooted in games (“Five Nights at Freddy’s AR: Special Delivery”) and e-commerce but is quickly expanding into physical realms. Illumix tech offers a range of experiences, including entertainment that merges physical and digital effects as well as more personally grounded character interactions.

[Yuli Ban]

Christians are terrified of the metaverse

What virtual reality should Jesus join? None. At least that’s what numerous Christians are arguing. They’re convinced the metaverse is going to steal their souls.

On Oct. 28, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg made two announcements. First, Facebook has rebranded as Meta. Second, it’s creating the metaverse, an immersive virtual reality connected to the internet.

“From now on, we are going to be metaverse first, not Facebook first,” Zuckerberg said.

Virtual reality is far from a new concept. People have been virtually hanging out with anime characters, attending concerts, and learning how to dodge linebackers for years.

So what’s special about the Meta metaverse? Nothing really. As CNN reported yesterday, multiple companies have created metaverses.

The only thing different about Meta’s version is the brand behind it. (The Meta metaverse also doesn’t technically exist yet.)

That’s different enough to a bunch of Christians. They’re convinced that any metaverse created by the company formerly known as Facebook is going to be a highway to Hell—literally.

A collective freakout began almost immediately. The day after Zuckerberg’s announcement, a headline in Catholic publication Crisis Magazine blared, “Christians, Beware the Metaverse.” In a piece sprinkled with transphobia and complaints about the youths, writer David Larson made some valid points about the potential invasions of privacy and addictive qualities of the metaverse.

Then Larson kicked on the hysteria by arguing that the metaverse will control our minds like the internet has. It’s a somewhat faulty thesis because if there’s one thing the internet has proven itself capable of doing over the last several decades, it’s clearly uniting society.

Speaking of giant tech companies, Larson wrote, “They would almost certainly continue to tell us which opinions are to be mocked and despised and which are to be approved and celebrated.”

Larson theorized that the tech companies behind the metaverse would even intentionally stop people from preaching the gospel or getting heterosexually married and procreating.

[Yuli Ban]