The Metaverse Was a Ridiculous Idea. Where Did It Come From? | Hacker News Reader

The Metaverse Was a Ridiculous Idea. Where Did It Come From?

nymag.com

13 pointsqwertyuiop_9 comments

It came from Zuckerberg hoping he'd control the next computing form factor after missing out on mobile. He thought backwards and came up with the Metaverse as the inevitable next form factor as a result.

Agreed. Zuck was frustrated that FB did not own and control their own computing platform and were subject to limitations that Android +iOS imposed on his company. As someone who knows the history of the Wintel duopoly and a participant in the smartphone era, he was wishcasting FB’s ownership of the next big platform shift.

Oddly, generative A.I. could make a big difference for metaverse-adjacent systems. It is expensive to develop content for them and the content is frequently ugly and boring. If ordinary people could make an avatar, room or object by writing prompts it is more feasible that individuals and brands can make experiences that aren’t a total embarrassment.

Also note that Zuckerberg has been obsessed with VR at least since he bought Oculus in 2014. It’s not like he pulled “the metaverse” out of his ass in a hurry.

The real life avatar thing is certainly interesting. A VR version of "her" seems like it could take off. Each person might be in their own world, completely un-social. (except for the bots).

I would think the opposite. It's just going to result in users not knowing whether the people "around them" in the virtual world are actually people or not.

People like single player games, sure, but the potential for trickery here is far too high.

Remote work is already basically over that line for me. Once AI becomes good at simulating video it'll be a complete write off.

Already there is the excuse that your camera is broken, which is sometimes true. I can always put my RealSense developer's kit camera in depth mode if I need to prove it. (Teams will default to that of course because it never misses a chance to screw up… If you could win the world cup by scoring own goals it would win.)

Another question: why did so much of the media buy into "metaverse" hype so fully and completely? No negative coverage, only the occasional attempt to pre-make political hay out of metaverse morals ("we need virtual assault laws", etc).

I saw endless articles about how Decentraland is no fun, how Horizon Worlds is cringier than furry-infected VRChat, etc.

Pump their pooled capital investments.

Even if they’re not bought into Meta, they know people who are, or are bought into a fund; finance is “the old social meme network”.

TV is their Twitter; anytime something shows up on a CBS morning show it’s the old school form of Musk Tweeting GAMESTONK

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