What the metaverse is and how it will work

Facebook warned it would take 10 to 15 years to develop responsible products for the metaverse, a term coined by writer Neal Stephenson for his 1992 science fiction novel “Snow Crash.”

People have dreams of hacking the world now like Hiro Protagonist.

Ian Bogost at The Atlantic has the best description hands-down of what the metaverse is and what it means:

In the simplest explanation, the metaverse is just a sexy, aspirational name for some kind of virtual or augmented-reality play. Facebook owns a company called Oculus, which manufactures and sells VR computers and headsets. Oculus is also making a 3-D, virtual platform called Horizon—think Minecraft with avatars, but without the blocks. Facebook, Apple, and others have also invested heavily in augmented reality, a kind of computer graphics that uses goggles to overlay interactive elements onto a live view of the world. So far, the most viable applications of VR and AR can be found in medicine, architecture, and manufacturing, but dreams of its widespread consumer appeal persist. If those dreams become realized, you’ll probably end up buying crap and yelling at people through a head-mounted display, instead of through your smartphone. Sure, calling that a metaverse probably sounds better. Just like “the cloud” sounds better than, you know, a server farm where people and companies rent disk space.

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You can see why Zuckerberg, plagued by months and years of criticism of his decidedly low-fidelity social networks and apps, might find an escape hatch appealing. The metaverse offers a way to leave behind worldly irritants and relocate to greener pastures. This is the rationale of a strip miner or a private-equity partner: Take what you can, move on, and don’t look back. No wonder fictional worlds with metaverses are always trashed.

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2021/10/facebook-metaverse-name-change/620449/

Facebook is already way behind in metaverse development, but with their money, they can buy their way in. The bigger question is who would choose the FB metaverse. Facebook has already lost younger generations, and those will be the first metaverse users. By the time Facebook's older user base catches on to the idea, there will already be established and popular metaverses. People will go to the metaverses with the most users. I can't see them going to a Facebook version, especially as they will be behind, and as nobody trusts Facebook anymore anyway.

Don't knock it until you've tried it. If those Oculus headsets become lighter so that you don't feel like you're wearing your laptop on your head, it will revolutionize communications, events, travel... you name it. Think "Minority Report" and that opening scene.

It has to eventually incorporate smell and physical sensations to be truly immersive, but I'm sure they're working on that.

The metaverse is Minecraft or Animal Crossing with VR.

Unfortunately the VR may have unresolvable issues if they cannot fix the headaches, discomfort and any long term issues with the visors. We really aren't designed to wear them. In a few years the media will be running stories of children horribly injured, falling over their dog whilst wearing them, with calls to ban Facebook to protect the children. And the dogs.

There are no privacy issues with Facebook because it is voluntary. Nobody is forcing you to go on social media. If you don't want anyone to know anything about you, don't sign up. Facebook is being blamed for the flaws in human nature as an indirect method of taking down Web 2.0, because Web 2.0 empowers us at the expense of governments. The only way it can avoid this, and being given the roll of global censor, is by switching to a distributed model and avoiding contact with user derived content. There are better advertising models for it to adopt. 'AI' is a dead end for much of what it is currently being applied to.

'role', not 'roll'. It's late here.

Facebook does absolutely nothing to prevent phishing schemes and other fraudulent scams , yet has "fact checkers" censoring trivial memes as well as political speech .

A virtual reality in a Facebook world would be nightmare straight out of the Twilight Zone.

No thanks!

Wait, wait, wait..

15 years would be along time for AI advancement. By then something else may pop out to rival metaverse.

So go on and dream to live in virtual world, and do away with this dirty, obnoxious, unacceptable and unbearable world of 'reality' if you can ..

The “metaverse” is the greatest fraud for investors since Enron.

FB. AI. VR. Mark Zuckerberg. Take a good look a the man. What he actually represents. Other than the cash - nothing worthwhile to emulate in terms of a life, if stripped away of his material riches.

Metaverse. That's quaint. As are eight-tracks. The man needs to spend more time outdoors. Instead of reflecting on his image - which is borne of some queer imagining.

More meme buzzwords.

Doesn't matter.

It’s not even new. I’ve already played around with such in the 90’s , a virtual world in which you walk here and there as an avatar of your choice and given parameters or attributes, talking and exploring with other similar present avatars. Was a bit slow and needed quite a graphics hardware, but it worked. And now it’s only combined with those 3D and AR/VR equipment, also that not new and already available in the 90’s and a first revival some years ago when it again missed the great breakthrough. My estimates are, it’s very highly interesting and everyone wants to have it and try out, but finally, after a very few weeks, you then need a good dust cloth as well a great remembrance of the far corner where you have thrown that useless bs into, to find it again when you have some time to try your expensive investment again before throwing it into the garbage finally.

It is going to be the prison of humanity, addiction on steroid.

I don't mind if most people will be sitting at home with a helmet on their head. Win-win.