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Comment by gfodor | Hacker News Reader

Metaverse will be bullshit up until avatarism arrives, then it will be boring and normal. But people like this will still be very confused and upset about what is happening. (Maybe I will too.)

The first mainstream passthrough AR device that can stitch out and replace humans will be an eye opener for many people. This will happen next year. Most likely at least Meta and Apple’s will do this. And probably a few others. It will be rough but it won’t be hard to connect the dots.

https://gfodor.medium.com/the-rise-of-avatarism-b7ecfa7c42bc

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You join those dots like the arrival of "Avatarism" is something obvious and inevitable, but reading that blog post doesn't give me that idea at all. Instead, it makes me think the author is way, way too deep into a too-long list of very niche technical and sociological obsessions.

A quote:

  What is Avatarism?

  Avatarism is a movement to recognize and protect the fundamental human right of freedom of form

Yeah, except that right doesn't exist, and no-one thinks it exists. At all.

The idea that an entire civilisation is going to agree to all use VR goggles full time to preserve some non-existent "right" for a very small number of weirdoes to only ever be seen as their cartoon fantasy version is, frankly, laughable.

You didn’t read my article, or you did, and you aren’t understanding anything I wrote.

You do have freedom of form, you are just limited in the forms you can change to. You exercise it every time you get a haircut.

The question is about what changes if there are a variety of contexts where it is fair to assume most or all participants have photonic override. You are missing the point: this isn’t about goggles. Take a longer view, once the goggles become invisible.

The title image refers to an allegory I wrote, which I’m sure you didn’t read, that might help you understand what is probably going to happen as a consequence of technological curves.

So, this idea of avatarism seems to completely ignore the fact that access to avatars (or technologies that allow "photonic override") will be gatekept by profit-maximizing entities like Apple or Facebook. To me it sounds like just another form of conspicuous consumption where the rich will show off their opulence by buying artisanal avatars (on the blockchain, no doubt) and lording them over the plebs. To see this in action today look at any gacha game, where access to the best characters requires spending tons of money. For an entity like Facebook, this probably sounds great - a new revenue stream! But some kind of new "freedom" it ain't, at least not for the majority of the world's population.

No, avatarism has nothing to do with Facebook. I helped start the Mozilla Hubs project to help ensure Facebook doesn’t own this.

Wouldn't there be Creative Commons licenced, remixable avatars?

None of this stuff exists, so it's impossible to predict how it will go. But the last 20 years has seen a closing and re-centralization of the internet and computing in general. Concepts like right-to-repair, first sale, and ownership itself are under attack on various fronts. I'm pessimistic that these trends will generally reverse. Given this, why wouldn't an avatar shop be a tightly-controlled and monetized affair? Meta (or whoever) can always offer the excuse that they can't open up access because they need to curate the content to prevent sexually explicit, or otherwise offensive avatars.

Photonic override will shepherd in the final computing platform - so its more important than ever we make sure it is free and open, and not laugh it off and ignore it as Facebook walks in and just owns the whole thing.

I recommend watching Black Mirror episose 'White Christmas'. You decide if this is future worth living in.

You and I don’t get to choose anything. Don’t shoot the messenger.

Actually in this hypothetical future we would. You could always not get those implants and not participate in all the advantages they bring, and in turn not have other entities get control over your eyeballs, ears etc.

Sure, but you don’t get to choose the consequences. I’m not on Facebook by choice, but I didn’t get to choose to live in the world where this leads to a ton of negative consequences, despite the positives.

I wonder, will they do this while simultaneously broadcasting my real name (as per RealName policies)?

If Facebook insist on real names, I could see a competing or federated metaverse making inroads by protecting identity.

Facebook? Probably. Which is why (among other things) we should be concerned.

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