Kozminski Techblog

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Thomas Edison. Nikola Tesla. The Wright Brothers. Alexander Graham Bell. 

What do all these visionaries have in common? 

Well, they all changed the course of humanity and our civilization’s technological development.

From inventing the lightbulb (Edison) to the creation of the telephone (Bell), they were undoubtedly figures that played key roles in getting to where we, as humans, have come so far.

But why am I mentioning them?

They were all ridiculed at first.^[1]

In 1903, just nine weeks before the first manned flight, The New York Times stated that it would take at least a million years for humanity to create a functional airplane.^[2] A million years.

And how are they relevant to Mark Zuckerberg?

As you might have read, the Meta (formerly known as Facebook) founder has come into great criticism recently over his vision of the Metaverse. With a 2021 loss of 10 billion dollars^[3] and being over 300 000 users short of Meta’s year-end goal,^[4] the Metaverse has already been branded as a massive flop by major media outlets.

The major feedback points were that:

• The users’ avatars were ‘soulless’ and had no legs;
• The virtual world felt empty and lonely.

The issue doesn’t seem to be only existent in Meta’s creation, as another metaverse, Decentraland (valued at over 1.1 billion USD^[5]), reportedly had only 38 daily active users.^[6]

The metaverse was supposed to serve as an “alternate reality” to our real world, with limitless possibilities. In fact, the idea seemed quite appealing, as you could travel to any place in the virtual world instantly. Of course, there are also dystopian visions of a Matrix-like scenario, where, in the distant future, a person would be constantly hooked up to a headset and haptic pads that would produce a fully immersive experience, essentially replacing actual reality.

But what is actually going on in the Metaverse?

For now, the main purpose of this virtual world seems to be entertainment, with virtual concerts making headlines.^[7] Other such virtual experiences include art exhibitions, movie showings and gambling. 

As crazy as it may seem, there are going to be Subway franchises in the Metaverse – the company has filed for a trademark earlier this year.^[8] So, worry not, you’ll be able to order a sandwich that you cannot actually eat soon enough.

While some of the ideas (such as virtual food and drinks) are ridiculous, if implemented properly, a virtual world could serve well for business and educational ventures. It could replace Zoom for virtual conferences and add at least a touch of reality to remote calls and work. 

Zuckerberg seems confident enough in his strives to popularize the Metaverse and there is no sign of him backing down anytime soon. For one, as he recently stated on his Joe Rogan Experience appearance, he wants VR to ‘eat TV’, so that people could spend time socializing inside of his creation instead of sitting in front of a TV.^[9]

So where is this alternate reality headed? It is hard to say for sure, but it doesn’t seem to be replacing actual life anytime soon. There is major money to be made in the technology, and perhaps we could see a Metaverse boom after we come out of the upcoming recession. 

In the distant future, we might hold business meetings virtually by default. It is not impossible that we are headed into a Matrix-like world. Or maybe, in 50 years’ time, we might remember the Metaverse as the biggest flop in tech history.

If the Meta founder fulfills his ambitions, perhaps a future Kozminski student will start his October 2053 tech blog entry with the words:

Thomas Edison. Nikola Tesla. The Wright Brothers. Alexander Graham Bell. Mark Zuckerberg.

Where do you think is the Metaverse headed? Would you prefer to hold your classes and business meetings in such a virtual world, or do you think that the venture is going to fail miserably? Feel free to reply in the comments.

Until next time,
Jan

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^[1] https://scienceinfo.net/7-famous-inventions-were-initially-badly-criticized.html

^[2] https://bigthink.com/pessimists-archive/air-space-flight-impossible/

^[3] https://stealthoptional.com/news/facebooks-metaverse-lost-10-billion/

^[4] https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11319449/Mark-Zuckerbergs-Metaverse-FLOP-users-complain-lonely.html

^[5] https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/decentraland/

^[6] https://insidebitcoins.com/news/is-it-that-lonely-in-the-metaverse-platforms-speak-out-about-daily-active-users

^[7] https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2022/07/27/the-world-of-metaverse-entertainment-concerts-theme-parks-and-movies/?sh=53f366136531

^[8] https://www.todaynftnews.com/subway-files-2-trademark-applications-to-enter-the-metaverse/

^[9] https://open.spotify.com/episode/51gxrAActH18RGhKNza598?si=TSH3vCOcQP6NOddq3a_XIg