Does the Idea of the Metaverse Appeal To You?

[kyphysics]

Unless you've been living in a cave, you likely know Facebook changed its name to Meta (for metaverse) and there has been ubiquitous discussion of the concept of the metaverse from technological to social/cultural perspectives in recent months. Bill Gates, for example, has said he thinks most office meetings will be held in the metaverse within two to three years: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/09/bil...ost-most-virtual-meetings-in-a-few-years.html

A 3-D virtual reality world is interesting, but I cannot see myself getting "lost" or living in that world like some people imagine. The real world seems so much more exciting...and...real. lol Sure, hanging out in a 3-D virtual coffee shop could be very cool. But, real coffee shops feel even better. Plus, I worry about privacy and getting hacked in a virtual coffee shop. Security of the metaverse will seem a huge deal.

What are your thoughts on the appeal of the metaverse for either work and/or leisure in your life? Are you anxiously awaiting it? Is it "whatever" *eye-roll* to you? Thoughts?

 

[DennisN]

A 3-D virtual reality world is interesting, but I cannot see myself getting "lost" or living in that world like some people imagine. The real world seems so much more exciting...and...real.

I agree.

Virtual worlds are not for me (hmm... I'm saying this on an internet forum... interesting... :) )

This virtual escapism trend in general has been going on for quite a while now. And some people are extreme escapists, I know a few.

From my point of view it seemed to start to accelerate when massive online multiplayer games became popular. And it has escalated further with social media platforms (youtube, facebook, instagram etc) which also can function as a semi-virtual realities (seemingly real, but not quite real). Pretty much like TV can do, but with the difference that everyone can produce content to be broadcasted.

As with many types of technologies (and media consumption) there can be both good and bad side effects of using it. That's how I think about it.

Edit:

Unless you've been living in a cave, you likely know Facebook changed its name to Meta (for metaverse) [...]

I had not heard about it. Now I will retreat to my cave.

My interest in facebook started with a quite mild and brief excitement, and it has gradually lost more and more appeal to me. I only use it too keep in touch with some friends I know well and that don't live nearby. And I never get into any arguments with anyone there. By reading heated discussions between others on various topics, I've seen how toxic it can so easily become on facebook for some reason.

 

[Fervent Freyja]

I probably won’t use it much. I’m more interested in trying to find forerunner companies for the Metaverse.

 

[kyphysics]

I probably won’t use it much. I’m more interested in trying to find forerunner companies for the Metaverse.

What do you mean by "forerunner companies" there?

 

[kyphysics]

I agree.

Virtual worlds are not for me (hmm... I'm saying this on an internet forum... interesting... :) )

This virtual escapism trend in general has been going on for quite a while now. And some people are extreme escapists, I know a few.

I had not heard about it. Now I will retreat to my cave.

My interest in facebook started with a quite mild and brief excitement, and it has gradually lost more and more appeal to me. I only use it too keep in touch with some friends I know well and that don't live nearby. And I never get into any arguments with anyone there. By reading heated discussions between others on various topics, I've seen how toxic it can so easily become on facebook for some reason.

It's interesting, because pretty much anything can be used for escapism - from drugs to video games. That part, I realize won't be anything new. It's just that from a sensory perception perspective, the metaverse adds a 3-D and interactive layer that maybe older forms of media/technology don't offer.

TV is just 2-D and, yes, while the internet with Zoom, Facebook, multi-player video games, etc. are interactive, they may not have that 3-D element. Well, video games these days probably do, but you're sort of constrained by the video game environment. If, instead of having an interactive 3-D virtual world with video game constraints, you have one designed for more every day life scenarios, that can definitely be more appealing to non-gamers.

The main thing for me is still that the real world seems so much more interesting and enjoyable. Plus, you don't have to wear a headset that could be cumbersome. I'd think over time they'd shrink and/or make that thing more and more weightless. But, if it's at all a decently heavy headset, it'd seem to take away a lot of the appeal of a virtual world. I would ideally want to be so immersed in the experience as to not remember I have a headset on (that could distract or remind me of the outside world the entire time).

I predict - just as with the advent of the internet - that sexual concepts will be a huge part of the metaverse. It will be interesting to see what money can buy also in the metaverse. Will wealthy people be able to buy super luxurious metaverse experiences that the average person cannot? What would it be like if so?

Lots of interesting questions to be had.

 

[pinball1970]

Unless you've been living in a cave, you likely know Facebook changed its name to Meta (for metaverse) and there has been ubiquitous discussion of the concept of the metaverse from technological to social/cultural perspectives in recent months. Bill Gates, for example, has said he thinks most office meetings will be held in the metaverse within two to three years: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/09/bil...ost-most-virtual-meetings-in-a-few-years.html

A 3-D virtual reality world is interesting, but I cannot see myself getting "lost" or living in that world like some people imagine. The real world seems so much more exciting...and...real. lol Sure, hanging out in a 3-D virtual coffee shop could be very cool. But, real coffee shops feel even better. Plus, I worry about privacy and getting hacked in a virtual coffee shop. Security of the metaverse will seem a huge deal.

What are your thoughts on the appeal of the metaverse for either work and/or leisure in your life? Are you anxiously awaiting it? Is it "whatever" *eye-roll* to you? Thoughts?

Very negative to begin with, which for me started in the late 80s with computers at work.
I had not had much contact bar video games (we had no computers at school)
All my essays, assignments exams were hand written.
Skip forward a few years and I use computers in every aspect of my job (90s) Then in my leisure time (2000s) Leisure being YouTube, Google searches, wiki, pf in 2015 social media including Facebook (rock groups)
Covid and everything changes again. Work from home and Zoom instead of real meetings.
My books, pen, paper, library and pub life of only a few years ago is now replaced with a wi-fi tablet phone and chargers, virtual life. My biggest issue when I am out is, can I sit near a plug? How good is the signal?
Public places I hope will eventually turn to normal.
I do not think work will be the same.
My social life like everyone elses changes as Covid does.
That's the back drop, 'Meta' is news to me.

 

[Fervent Freyja]

What do you mean by "forerunner companies" there?

Predict which companies will be utilized for VR in the Metaverse and buy their stock while it’s low. Who will be the middle man for social media giants and supply the software/hardware? Matterport, Unity, etc. are already in the game. It’s going to be huge. We have hundreds of thousands of small/large businesses that cannot afford to develop their own VR and will likely just use a couple to enhance their business.

 

[DaveE]

It's real, but way over-hyped.

I'm picturing people in 1900 discussing how the future for personal relationships will be this new "telephone" technology. Yes, but 100+ years later we still meet face to face too. Look at how much disruption COVID has caused in this regard.

Early research by AT&T into "video phones" showed that people sometimes like them, but often preferred less connection. How often do you use Zoom, Skype, Facetime, etc. compared to phone calls or even text messages.

The Metaverse will be a subset of our society. There's great promise, and it will be big, but only as yet another tool for interaction. I'll still send lots of text messages or meet people for lunch.

 

[kyphysics]

It's real, but way over-hyped.

I wonder...Paul Krugman once said the internet would be no more revolutionary than the fax machine.

He grossly underestimated its importance in daily life. I wonder if we (as I tend to agree with you) are underestimating the metaverse? Maybe we'll sound silly in 20 years.

I recall Nvidia CEO, Jensen Huang, saying it will be where robots are trained. There is unlimited space in the metaverse and self-driving A.I. can run so many more training simulations in there than could be safely and efficiently done in the real world.

The main reason I still see it as overhyped is that you have to wear that stupid headset and there is the real world literally all around you still. While you're in the metaverse, if you move your arm, you could knock over a cup of coffee in the real world. You dog can run up to you and bump you and you'd be reminded of the real world all around you. It's still hard for me to see how the metaverse could be so much better than just spending time in the real world or how one can truly get so immersed as to forget about the real world (again, what if I hear my phone ring in the real world, while in a meeting or concert in the metaverse).

 

[kyphysics]

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/09/facebook-opens-horizon-worlds-vr-metaverse-app-.html

Facebook takes a step toward building the metaverse, opens virtual world app to everyone in U.S.​

me: no thanks

 

[kyphysics]

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/26/walmart-enters-the-metaverse-with-roblox.html

• Walmart is entering the metaverse with two experiences, Walmart Land and Walmart’s Universe of Play, in gaming platform Roblox.
• The retailer is experimenting with other ways to reach shoppers, including shoppable recipes, livestreaming events and an augmented reality feature for furniture.

Pretty sure this won't be exciting to kids...teens...adults...or even seniors. Seems like a concoction only rich, disconnected (in the bubble world) corporate executives would come up with.

People already hate Walmart and only shop there because they have to or due to low prices. Walmart in the metaverse would seem like the last place anyone would want to go.

But, hey, what do I know?

 

[phinds]

I am, and remain, a dinosaur. No Twitter, no Facebook, no social media at all (unless you count PF and The Wood Barter forums, which I don't since I think of social media as something else). Most significantly, no smartphone.

The metaverse ... yawn.

This kind of thing is much more fun: fairytrail

To summarize, for those who don't want to bother w/ the web page:

I say again, the metaverse ... yawn.

 

[DaveE]

It's hard for me to imagine that this is an improvement over the list based searching like Amazon, eBay etc. But then I'm not the target market so IDK.

But, this could, possibly, be a good interface for disabled people or seniors like my 95 year old mother who doesn't really understand our world of menus, windows, and buttons that do different things in different contexts.

However, I'm not holding my breath here. The marketing types in Silicon Valley won't really put resources into that niche, there's not enough money. Many years ago she had a simple email application that was easy to use. It died a slow but permanent death of benign neglect. It takes a lot of resources just to keep pace with the changing environment. In a perverse way, I think a simple to use application is harder to create and support than the sort of "slightly beyond β" SW that we all are used to.

 

[DaveC426913]

A close friend of mine has been a member of Second Life for many years. It's essentially the same thing.

I joined for a short while because it offered me a place to stage some 3D pictures I wanted to capture. (I wanted a pic of my RPG character - a punk guy in goggles and a lab coat next to a Mad Max-themed ambulance, if you must know.)

He spends a lot of his time programming objects and selling them. He makes in-game money, which can be converted to real money. The point is, he's not simply wandering virtual park paths; he's actually made a side hustle out of it.

 

[Hornbein]

I didn't even get a cell phone until 2020. I was living in Tokyo and the Metro is very complex, not to mention finding a street address. I don't see how people navigated the place before smart phones with Google Maps. Got complicated directions over the phone I guess.

Virtual reality would actually be ideal for communicating intuition about my hobby project, the Universe with four spatial dimensions. But I am absolutely not going to try to program such a thing. Let someone else read my books and get inspired to do that.

 

[nuuskur]

My belief is the product is 'good' $\Leftrightarrow$ there's no need to aggressively advertise it. I have at least witnessed $\Leftarrow$ to hold true in a lot of cases.

I'm not really that interested in this metaverse thing. I already get to chat online with a lot of people. What is meta going to do, exactly?

 

[kyphysics]

I'm not really that interested in this metaverse thing. I already get to chat online with a lot of people. What is meta going to do, exactly?

Yeah, socially, it doesn't interest me. Messenger chat is fine. . .Zoom is fine. . .

I don't game, so that aspect is not for me. But, suppose they had a virtual coffee shop at was 3D with those goggles on. WHO CARES?! What am I going to do, buy virtual coffee and pretend to drink it? So maybe the background is cool . . .Maybe a virtual world will have awesome fantasy lands. I personally don't want to put in a headset/goggles to wander around that to chat with or "play" with my family /friends.

You often even have to use those hand sensor things and wave them around. No thanks. Just put me on 2D Zoom. I can drink some tea, snack on some food, multi-task and chat that way.

 

[DaveC426913]

This sounds like the same comments when this "www" thingy started.
"What's it going to do?"
"Maybe I can make an electronic business card and put it up on a webpage, but other than that..."

(I guess what happens is that, once everybody else is on it, we've got little choice, if we want to do business. Nobody needed it, until everybody needed it.)

 

[nuuskur]

Maybe I'm just being a grumpy old boomer, over 30 after all..

 

[russ_watters]

This sounds like the same comments when this "www" thingy started.
"What's it going to do?"
"Maybe I can make an electronic business card and put it up on a webpage, but other than that..."

That's not how I remember it. I went into my freshman year in college, and we got issued computers with Netscape 1.0 on them. I remember upperclassmen crowded around our computers to see this amazing new thing. It was an instant hit. We knew it was a game changer.

Zuckerberg has of course already had a viral hit, so he knows what it looks like and must know the metaverse isn't one. But maybe he thinks of it as a piece of hardware, like a smart phone, that was conceived a decade before the iPhone, but wasn't ready yet. I'm still not on board with that though. I think most people saw the potential with the Newton, and knew it just wasn't ready. But I don't know anyone outside of Zuck who sees a need for the metaverse.

 

[pinball1970]

That's not how I remember it. I went into my freshman year in college, and we got issued computers with Netscape 1.0 on them. I remember upperclassmen crowded around our computers to see this amazing new thing. It was an instant hit. We knew it was a game changer.

Zuckerberg has of course already had a viral hit, so he knows what it looks like and must know the metaverse isn't one. But maybe he thinks of it as a piece of hardware, like a smart phone, that was conceived a decade before the iPhone, but wasn't ready yet. I'm still not on board with that though. I think most people saw the potential with the Newton, and knew it just wasn't ready. But I don't know anyone outside of Zuck who sees a need for the metaverse.

I could be tempted by a metaPF
Meta lab, meta library, meta lectures and meta bar afterwards?

Zuckerberg lost a lot on the project in 2021 according to wiki, 10 Billion dollars on development?
Let MZ iron things out first then Greg can decide whether a migration is feasible…. ( ; )

 

[JT Smith]

Maybe I'm just being a grumpy old boomer, over 30 after all..

Maybe.

I think it's difficult to predict what's coming. I remember the first time I saw the web. It was like a little toy, the page of text and the images appearing basically one horizontal line at a time. It was hard to take it too seriously. I certainly could not imagine how one day it would be virtually indispensable.

I can't judge the metaverse at this point. It sounds awkward, or at least my naive conception of it seems that way. But the web seemed at best marginally valuable to me when it first appeared. It's not a perfect comparison by any means. For one thing the web was more open whereas the metaverse is largely linked to one particular influential corporation.

 

[DaveC426913]

It was hard to take it too seriously. I certainly could not imagine how one day it would be virtually indispensable.

Yes. There's a sort of formula here. It's like opening a frontier.
It's often difficult to gain market share in a mature, stable economy, so those looking to carve out a piece for themselves will go to the fringes...

...you know what? I just realized this is probably Economics 101, like Day One. I never took Economics. You get the idea.