Speaker 1: It's Tuesday, October. I'm Oscar Ramiras from the Daily Dive
Speaker 1: podcast in Los Angeles, and this is reopening America. It
Speaker 1: could be the next generation of the Internet. It could
Speaker 1: be bigger than the impact of the mobile revolution, and
Speaker 1: many companies are gearing up to make it happen. I'm
Speaker 1: talking about the metaverse. It's an immersive digital world where
Speaker 1: you can shop, gather with friends in the form of
Speaker 1: digital avatars, and experience the world that goes beyond the
Speaker 1: real one. The technology isn't completely there yet, but big
Speaker 1: tech companies like Microsoft and Facebook are working hard towards
Speaker 1: that goal. Sarah Needleman, tech reporter at The Wall Street Journal,
Speaker 1: joins us for what to expect from the metaverse and
Speaker 1: what it will take to get there. Thanks for joining us, Sarah.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about something pretty fun, the metaverse. Now, this
Speaker 1: is kind of a lot of people are really hyping
Speaker 1: this up right now. They're saying it could be the
Speaker 1: next phase of the Internet, it could be bigger than
Speaker 1: the mobile revolution, and companies are really trying to kind
Speaker 1: of put everything together that we've been working for towards
Speaker 1: so far. Virtual reality, augmented reality, just kind of online gaming.
Speaker 1: This would be the metaverse would be kind of all
Speaker 1: of that pushed into one and it would be basically,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of living, shopping, participating with others in
Speaker 1: kind of this online world is virtual world that think
Speaker 1: of Ready Player one, that movie if you've seen it,
Speaker 1: would be something very similar to that. But there's lots
Speaker 1: of companies that are putting a lot of time, effort
Speaker 1: and money into this. So Sarah, help us walk through
Speaker 1: some of this. What are we looking at. Essentially, the
Speaker 1: metaverse is considered the next evolution of the Internet, and
Speaker 1: the difference between that and what we have today is
Speaker 1: we'll have a lot more people capable of congregating together online.
Speaker 1: Right now, there's a limit to how many people could
Speaker 1: be in a single experience without things flowing down. Another
Speaker 1: aspect of the metaverses that will be able to create
Speaker 1: our own content that it will be for anyone, and
Speaker 1: it's really replicating the real world into the virtual will
Speaker 1: have a three D replicas that are very very realistic
Speaker 1: of the real world, and we'll be able to recreate history.
Speaker 1: For example, will have the Colosseum in Rome as it
Speaker 1: was being built. We'll be able to go on the
Speaker 1: into space and and we'll be able to travel with
Speaker 1: us about anywhere and see virtual replicas of the real
Speaker 1: world and new versions or new things that we haven't
Speaker 1: thought of, or just the opportunities to experience things that
Speaker 1: aren't possible in the real world. And so the technology
Speaker 1: will evolve to the point where very very realistic, especially
Speaker 1: if we're using better hardware that we have today, and
Speaker 1: we could use our phones, we could use our laptops.
Speaker 1: But imagine a future where everybody has a virtual reality
Speaker 1: headset and not these big clunky things you see today,
Speaker 1: but more like typical pair of eyeglasses or sunglasses, and uh,
Speaker 1: it will just be so much more immersive that you'll
Speaker 1: really feel as if you're sitting next to someone who's
Speaker 1: actually maybe hundreds of miles away, And I really feel
Speaker 1: as if you're walking on the moon, or if you're
Speaker 1: in the desert. Maybe not the heat, but you certainly
Speaker 1: would would see things that would be replica of the
Speaker 1: real world, all that you couldn't just seen it with
Speaker 1: the staff of your fingers today, but in the metaverse
Speaker 1: you will be able to. Yeah, now, I mean, obviously
Speaker 1: the possibilities are pretty much endless. When you're veering off
Speaker 1: into these types of things. But there's some real effort,
Speaker 1: as I mentioned, behind all of this big companies in
Speaker 1: video roadblocks Microsoft, Facebook is probably one of the biggest
Speaker 1: companies that is really going to put a lot of
Speaker 1: effort into this. I think Mark Zuckerberg himself said that
Speaker 1: people are going to start thinking of us more than
Speaker 1: a social media company and thinking of us as a
Speaker 1: metaverse company. Talk about this kind of company involvements and
Speaker 1: how they're really pushing it. I mean Facebook just to now,
Speaker 1: it's the other day that they're planning to hire thousands
Speaker 1: of people to help it with development of the metaverse.
Speaker 1: So there's a lot of excitement around it. For this
Speaker 1: to happen, we need a lot of tools and resources
Speaker 1: to be able to create this metaverse. I described this
Speaker 1: this rebelica of the world in three dimensional knowledge, beautiful
Speaker 1: glory and ways that we are that are creative. And
Speaker 1: so we're talking about a lot of technology that doesn't
Speaker 1: exists today certain terms of these speed, real time rendering,
Speaker 1: the quality of graphics. We're sort of there. We're getting there,
Speaker 1: but we have a long way to go. And we
Speaker 1: also need to have the meniversity somewhat seamless, and that
Speaker 1: if you travel from one experience to another, that you
Speaker 1: could perhaps have the same avatar, Because we're going to
Speaker 1: see each other as avatars, which will be digital recreations.
Speaker 1: It may look just like we do in real life,
Speaker 1: or we might be cartoonish and have like a unicorn
Speaker 1: or a mohawk or whatever. We can change our appearance,
Speaker 1: and there's got to be some sort of universal system
Speaker 1: where you can travel from point A to point B
Speaker 1: with some sort of consistency like we have today. When
Speaker 1: the web first create was created, we didn't have htmail
Speaker 1: right off the bas so thanks for a little bit
Speaker 1: discombubbled and h over time, we created h gmail and
Speaker 1: we had a more more universal experience from one website
Speaker 1: to the other. It's basically the same kind of movements,
Speaker 1: and so we have to build something akin to that
Speaker 1: for the metaverse. We also have to think about the
Speaker 1: economics for buying digital assets. How do we secure that
Speaker 1: asset those kind of assets us where something like blockchain
Speaker 1: comes in, and we have to think about safety and
Speaker 1: privacy and so many other factors. All these companies are
Speaker 1: thinking about it, the ones you mentioned, and many others,
Speaker 1: including many startups, and so it's getting there. But it's
Speaker 1: going to take time. Yeah, and you know, as you
Speaker 1: mentioned detailing kind of all the technology technological advancements that
Speaker 1: we really need for it, and that uniformity that we
Speaker 1: might need for it. I mean, it's going to be
Speaker 1: a big boon for the first company that hits it,
Speaker 1: and for the first company that hits it, right stepping
Speaker 1: into this marketplace and just kind of being the first
Speaker 1: one is such a huge thing. So for sure, I
Speaker 1: mean that makes sense that Facebook is pushing hard for
Speaker 1: something like that, um, and then you know they have
Speaker 1: all the other Facebook stuff built into it. That social
Speaker 1: aspect is already built in. So yeah, definitely I could
Speaker 1: see kind of the rush to get there. You did
Speaker 1: kind of mentioned some of the the privacy and security
Speaker 1: issues that do need to be addressed. There's a kind
Speaker 1: of this thing that we saw. I keep keep going
Speaker 1: back to the movie Ready Player one and kind of
Speaker 1: this thing where you know, people are starting to per
Speaker 1: her to live in these digital worlds and that's a
Speaker 1: real concern for psychologists and and a lot of people.
Speaker 1: And all you have to think of it right away
Speaker 1: is too young kids right now in technology digital natives,
Speaker 1: right they're adopting the technology so much faster already. If
Speaker 1: this stuff really fleshes out, I mean, they're gonna be
Speaker 1: growing up in this new technology and maybe a lot
Speaker 1: of it maybe blended into the educational experience, and so
Speaker 1: it will be natural for them and even into the
Speaker 1: into the work experience, and it will apply to everything
Speaker 1: in our lives social work, school, etcetera. And there is
Speaker 1: a concern especially if you're young minds to um. You know,
Speaker 1: young people, they develop their social skills, the real social
Speaker 1: skills in person at a very young age. And so
Speaker 1: if we start growing up or spending so much time online,
Speaker 1: there are concerns among mental health professionals that we could
Speaker 1: see problems in that area. And also we have to
Speaker 1: think about things like identity to like how do you
Speaker 1: know you're really talking to who you're talking to? You know,
Speaker 1: secure financial transactions. There's so many factors. And to your
Speaker 1: point earlier about Facebook jumping in and getting a head start,
Speaker 1: it's often said that the metaverse will not be owned
Speaker 1: by any one single entity, and Mark Zuckerberg has said
Speaker 1: that too, But there was also a race to get
Speaker 1: in and and and be a part of it and
Speaker 1: be part of the plumbing that that builds it and
Speaker 1: uh so there is some sense of competition on that level. Okay,
Speaker 1: so it's not this metaverse thing is not just all
Speaker 1: necessarily fun in games. There's real business aspects to this.
Speaker 1: You know, there's a lot of commerce that's going to
Speaker 1: be taking place on this everything from us things that
Speaker 1: the consumer wants, to businesses as well. You know when
Speaker 1: the experts you talked to, you said, every fortune one
Speaker 1: company is going to have a metaverse strategy. This is
Speaker 1: going to be a place where things like n f
Speaker 1: T s are gonna start just taking off completely. The
Speaker 1: business side of things are really going to take off.
Speaker 1: We can't expect a lot of companies to have like
Speaker 1: a presence in the metaverse just like they have a
Speaker 1: presence online today, the difference being in One example I
Speaker 1: like to use is imagine if you're shopping for a
Speaker 1: camping tent right now, could look at it online. You
Speaker 1: may even be able to use a r to sort
Speaker 1: of picture in uh in your backyard for example, if
Speaker 1: you wanted to. But with the metaverse, theoretically you would
Speaker 1: be able to physically stand inside it. You would look up,
Speaker 1: you would look down, left, right, you would see them
Speaker 1: as you're all around you. You You would know, if you're
Speaker 1: a very tall person, whether or not you fit in it,
Speaker 1: and how comfortable it might be, and how many you
Speaker 1: can fit, you get all your family in it. Um
Speaker 1: you'll look to each other's avatars, but you'll be in
Speaker 1: real size. It'll be just like you are in real life.
Speaker 1: And uh, if you raise your hand in real life,
Speaker 1: your your avatar's arm would raise your hand. You would
Speaker 1: look left, look right, same thing. So this is where
Speaker 1: it really takes things up a couple of levels in
Speaker 1: terms of sophistication and immersiveness and for businesses, that presents
Speaker 1: uh and incredible opportunities. Probably once we haven't even thought of.
Speaker 1: And at least one of the people I spoke to
Speaker 1: you for the article talked about this idea of virtual pets.
Speaker 1: So this would be a business that doesn't necessarily quite
Speaker 1: exist today. We we have sort of little iterations of
Speaker 1: that and the in roadblocks and some other small initiatives
Speaker 1: around n f teeth going back to go back to
Speaker 1: your tomages even exactly kind of like that, and that's
Speaker 1: where the blockcheain kind of technology the n f T
Speaker 1: s are both around could make sense. I mean, it
Speaker 1: could be something we haven't even thought of that doesn't
Speaker 1: exist yet today in terms of securing digital assets and
Speaker 1: how you would make it so that you could breed
Speaker 1: a pet and would have an original quote unquote d
Speaker 1: n A in the metaverse world, and then you could
Speaker 1: potentially have racing and gambling on these races because I
Speaker 1: will have this, you know, original code that was created
Speaker 1: to be for your three headed unicorn with purple teeth
Speaker 1: and sneakers on whatever. The possibilities are endless, but it's
Speaker 1: really exciting, and you can imagine the commerce perspective. There'll
Speaker 1: be many things to buy and lots of fun ways
Speaker 1: to shop, and lots of experiences the money on it
Speaker 1: really is pretty exciting to think how far we've gotten
Speaker 1: with technology and something like this metaverse is kind of
Speaker 1: that culmination of all of the past things that we've
Speaker 1: been put together. Like I said, tomagotchis augmented reality, virtual rally, everything,
Speaker 1: you know, the whole Internet age kind of all put
Speaker 1: together one. It's pretty exciting to think about the very
Speaker 1: lofty goal. We'll see how quickly we can get there
Speaker 1: or these companies can get there, but just fun to
Speaker 1: think about the future that way. Sarah Needleman, tech reporter
Speaker 1: at the Wall Street Journal. Thank you very much for
Speaker 1: joining us. It was a lot of fun controding me
Speaker 1: my monscar Romors, and this has been reopening America. Don't
Speaker 1: forget that. Today's big news stories. You can check me
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