1 00:00:02,160 --> 00:00:06,520 Speaker 1: All Zone Media. Welcome to Better Offline. I'm your host 2 00:00:06,680 --> 00:00:21,560 Speaker 1: ed Zitron. Today's episode is about how one man tricked 3 00:00:21,600 --> 00:00:25,320 Speaker 1: the entire tech industry into burning billions of dollars based 4 00:00:25,360 --> 00:00:28,520 Speaker 1: on nothing. You may remember a time in twenty twenty 5 00:00:28,520 --> 00:00:31,600 Speaker 1: one when everybody was talking about the metaverse, the so 6 00:00:31,800 --> 00:00:34,320 Speaker 1: called successor to the Internet that was used by Mark 7 00:00:34,360 --> 00:00:37,080 Speaker 1: Zuckerberg to rename Facebook, taking the heat off of a 8 00:00:37,200 --> 00:00:40,360 Speaker 1: name associated with abusing its customers and misusing their data. 9 00:00:41,560 --> 00:00:43,800 Speaker 1: It was meant to be a completely digital world we 10 00:00:43,880 --> 00:00:46,640 Speaker 1: lived in. Oh, maybe it was a VR space that 11 00:00:46,680 --> 00:00:50,200 Speaker 1: we socialized in. Was it VR space we worked in? 12 00:00:51,080 --> 00:00:53,000 Speaker 1: Was it a virtual world? Wasn't there something to do 13 00:00:53,120 --> 00:00:56,600 Speaker 1: with crypto? If you're finding all of this confusing, we 14 00:00:56,760 --> 00:00:59,920 Speaker 1: have something in common. We need to go back to 15 00:01:00,440 --> 00:01:02,880 Speaker 1: twenty twenty one to really work out what the hell 16 00:01:02,960 --> 00:01:07,800 Speaker 1: went on though. Interviewing Mark Zuckerberg for The Virgin July 17 00:01:07,880 --> 00:01:11,360 Speaker 1: twenty twenty one, Casey Newton referred to the metaverse as 18 00:01:11,400 --> 00:01:16,600 Speaker 1: a maximalist, interconnected set of experiences straight out of sci fi. Again, 19 00:01:17,000 --> 00:01:20,039 Speaker 1: that means nothing, but nevertheless that's what he chose to 20 00:01:20,040 --> 00:01:24,440 Speaker 1: publish a few months later when renaming the company Facebook 21 00:01:24,480 --> 00:01:28,040 Speaker 1: to Meta, Mark Zuckerberg referred to the metaverse as a 22 00:01:28,440 --> 00:01:32,840 Speaker 1: more immersive, embodied Internet where you're in the experience, not 23 00:01:33,080 --> 00:01:36,920 Speaker 1: just looking at it. In the multiple interviews he's given since, 24 00:01:37,040 --> 00:01:40,480 Speaker 1: Zuckerberg has spent thousands of words vaguely suggesting the metavers 25 00:01:40,560 --> 00:01:43,920 Speaker 1: is everything from a chat room to virtual reality to 26 00:01:44,120 --> 00:01:47,240 Speaker 1: and I quote, a hybrid between the social platforms that 27 00:01:47,280 --> 00:01:50,840 Speaker 1: we see today, but in an environment where you're embodied 28 00:01:50,880 --> 00:01:54,040 Speaker 1: in it. In fact, at one point, Mark Zuckerberg said 29 00:01:54,080 --> 00:01:56,680 Speaker 1: that Meta would transition from being seen as a social 30 00:01:56,720 --> 00:02:00,920 Speaker 1: media company to being a metaverse company or without ever 31 00:02:01,000 --> 00:02:06,360 Speaker 1: saying really what the metaverse was, and his descriptions veered 32 00:02:06,400 --> 00:02:09,280 Speaker 1: from saying it was a social network to a virtual 33 00:02:09,320 --> 00:02:12,160 Speaker 1: reality game to something that was part of web three, 34 00:02:12,240 --> 00:02:15,080 Speaker 1: which was a term used by cryptocurrency con artists to 35 00:02:15,120 --> 00:02:19,680 Speaker 1: sell you some sort of decentralized blockchain based thing in 36 00:02:19,760 --> 00:02:23,760 Speaker 1: reality metas metaverse was far more boring. They would only 37 00:02:23,800 --> 00:02:27,840 Speaker 1: ever release two mediocre virtual reality experiences for their Quest 38 00:02:27,840 --> 00:02:32,040 Speaker 1: and Oculus headsets, one for socializing called Horizon Worlds and 39 00:02:32,120 --> 00:02:36,200 Speaker 1: another for work called Inventively Horizon Workrooms. You all kind 40 00:02:36,240 --> 00:02:38,919 Speaker 1: of felt like a con. Yeah, The media in the 41 00:02:38,960 --> 00:02:44,760 Speaker 1: tech industry crystallized around it with this strange, frenzied excitement. Look, 42 00:02:45,480 --> 00:02:48,320 Speaker 1: at the time, I didn't know you. You weren't listening to 43 00:02:48,360 --> 00:02:52,239 Speaker 1: this podcast, But if you felt like you were being swindled, 44 00:02:52,360 --> 00:02:56,640 Speaker 1: you should have been. Believe your ears, believe your eyes. 45 00:02:57,600 --> 00:03:01,000 Speaker 1: Mark Zuckerberg renamed a trillion dollar company and hyped an 46 00:03:01,000 --> 00:03:04,760 Speaker 1: idea that he could not describe, and then he sent 47 00:03:04,880 --> 00:03:08,320 Speaker 1: the entire tech ecosystem into a year's long panic attack 48 00:03:08,360 --> 00:03:11,480 Speaker 1: that resulted in billions of dollars being wasted on non 49 00:03:11,520 --> 00:03:15,960 Speaker 1: existent ideas. At the time, I was one of the 50 00:03:16,000 --> 00:03:18,800 Speaker 1: lone voices to crying the made up metaverse. I was 51 00:03:19,080 --> 00:03:22,160 Speaker 1: screaming into the void that despite all of this press, 52 00:03:22,600 --> 00:03:26,960 Speaker 1: all of this hype, nobody, not the journalists, not the investors, 53 00:03:27,400 --> 00:03:31,240 Speaker 1: not Mark Zuckerberg, could actually describe what the metaverse was. 54 00:03:32,880 --> 00:03:35,440 Speaker 1: Zuckerberg would go on to burn tens of billions of 55 00:03:35,480 --> 00:03:39,680 Speaker 1: dollars investing in research and development allegedly building the metaverse, 56 00:03:40,160 --> 00:03:43,720 Speaker 1: and multiple startups would claim that they'd now entered the metaverse, 57 00:03:44,200 --> 00:03:46,520 Speaker 1: only to end up ditching the idea. Toward the end 58 00:03:46,520 --> 00:03:48,880 Speaker 1: of twenty twenty two and early twenty twenty three, as 59 00:03:49,000 --> 00:03:52,760 Speaker 1: interest rates tightened and tech stocks began to suffer, eventually 60 00:03:52,920 --> 00:03:57,080 Speaker 1: entering what Zuckerberg would call the Year of Efficiency, which 61 00:03:57,200 --> 00:04:01,040 Speaker 1: was code for laying off thousands of people and refocusing 62 00:04:01,080 --> 00:04:04,960 Speaker 1: meta on artificial intelligence after seeing how well chated GPT 63 00:04:05,400 --> 00:04:10,720 Speaker 1: was doing. I've always been an anti metaverse, mostly because nobody 64 00:04:10,720 --> 00:04:13,320 Speaker 1: could tell me what it was. In fact, in May 65 00:04:13,320 --> 00:04:15,920 Speaker 1: twenty twenty three, I wrote a piece of Business Insider 66 00:04:16,000 --> 00:04:19,080 Speaker 1: declaring the metaverse dead, something which pissed off Tim Sweeney, 67 00:04:19,160 --> 00:04:22,560 Speaker 1: the CEO of Epic Games the developers Fortnite, who then 68 00:04:22,640 --> 00:04:26,240 Speaker 1: quote tweeted it with this kind of sarcastic indignation. I 69 00:04:26,279 --> 00:04:29,560 Speaker 1: will now attempt to do Tim Sweeney's voice. The metaverse 70 00:04:29,640 --> 00:04:32,200 Speaker 1: is dead, wrote Sweeney, who was definitely not upset with me. 71 00:04:32,440 --> 00:04:35,320 Speaker 1: Let's organize an online wake so that we six hundred 72 00:04:35,320 --> 00:04:40,280 Speaker 1: million monthly active users in Fortnite, Minecraft, Roadblocks, PUBG, Sandbox 73 00:04:40,320 --> 00:04:42,760 Speaker 1: and Vrchack and morn it's passing together in real time 74 00:04:42,800 --> 00:04:47,200 Speaker 1: three D. I think that's how he sounds. Look Tim, 75 00:04:47,320 --> 00:04:50,240 Speaker 1: you're wrong. I'm right. The metaverse was dead, and by 76 00:04:50,320 --> 00:04:55,520 Speaker 1: metaverse I mean the ugly, butchered, usurious scam perpetuated in 77 00:04:55,600 --> 00:04:59,400 Speaker 1: public where companies like Epic slapped a new logo on 78 00:04:59,480 --> 00:05:01,799 Speaker 1: something old and tried to claim it was the future. 79 00:05:02,560 --> 00:05:06,400 Speaker 1: What Sweeney is describing are actually video games, video games 80 00:05:06,400 --> 00:05:08,880 Speaker 1: that have existed for upwards of a decade that were 81 00:05:08,920 --> 00:05:12,640 Speaker 1: never once referred to as part of the metaverse, despite 82 00:05:12,720 --> 00:05:16,240 Speaker 1: this being a nineties term from a book. And it's 83 00:05:16,279 --> 00:05:19,919 Speaker 1: just ridiculous because these people never use this term before 84 00:05:20,960 --> 00:05:25,120 Speaker 1: until it helped them sell crap to investors. Whether or 85 00:05:25,200 --> 00:05:28,479 Speaker 1: not the metaverse may actually exist one day is immaterial 86 00:05:28,760 --> 00:05:30,680 Speaker 1: to the fact that this was one of the largest 87 00:05:30,720 --> 00:05:35,800 Speaker 1: and most conspicuous cons I've ever seen, and nobody has 88 00:05:35,839 --> 00:05:41,280 Speaker 1: been held accountable. Nevertheless, the metaverse does actually mean something. 89 00:05:41,760 --> 00:05:43,960 Speaker 1: It's just kind of a pain in the ass to explain. 90 00:05:45,360 --> 00:05:48,680 Speaker 1: Even for the truest of metaverse believers, it isn't really 91 00:05:48,680 --> 00:05:51,960 Speaker 1: an easy thing to define. In twenty twenty two, I, 92 00:05:52,160 --> 00:05:55,880 Speaker 1: of my own volition, for whatever reason, decided to travel 93 00:05:55,920 --> 00:05:59,640 Speaker 1: to Santa Clara, California, to attend the Augmented World Expo, 94 00:06:00,360 --> 00:06:03,320 Speaker 1: a tech conference about mixed and virtual reality and of course, 95 00:06:03,360 --> 00:06:07,120 Speaker 1: now the metaverse. This conference has existed for quite a 96 00:06:07,120 --> 00:06:10,320 Speaker 1: long time. I had been before, but before it was 97 00:06:10,360 --> 00:06:14,400 Speaker 1: around things that existed like AR and V are augmented reality, 98 00:06:14,600 --> 00:06:17,240 Speaker 1: meaning that something you put over your face, perhaps like 99 00:06:17,279 --> 00:06:20,280 Speaker 1: the Vision pro or VR, like the Oculus headsets and 100 00:06:20,320 --> 00:06:23,919 Speaker 1: Quest headsets. The meta was already selling without mentioning the metaverse. 101 00:06:25,000 --> 00:06:28,719 Speaker 1: And I remember, despite spending days surrounded by people discussing 102 00:06:28,800 --> 00:06:31,680 Speaker 1: the metaverse, talking about the metaverse, walking around boots that 103 00:06:31,760 --> 00:06:36,400 Speaker 1: said Metaverse on them, trying products that were apparently the metaverse, 104 00:06:37,440 --> 00:06:41,440 Speaker 1: and having dreary conversations about what the metaverse could be, 105 00:06:42,400 --> 00:06:46,720 Speaker 1: I couldn't get a consistent or compelling definition of what 106 00:06:46,760 --> 00:06:51,440 Speaker 1: a metaverse actually was. Okay, let me get it a go, though. 107 00:06:52,160 --> 00:06:55,000 Speaker 1: Depending on the person, the metaverse is a virtual space 108 00:06:55,040 --> 00:06:58,440 Speaker 1: where you live, or it's a video game, or it's 109 00:06:58,480 --> 00:07:01,120 Speaker 1: a virtual reality experience, or it's a filter on your 110 00:07:01,160 --> 00:07:03,880 Speaker 1: camera that makes you look like a dog. This is 111 00:07:03,960 --> 00:07:08,159 Speaker 1: how varied the media's description was of what the metaverse was. 112 00:07:08,480 --> 00:07:12,520 Speaker 1: It was basically anything that involved the real world being 113 00:07:12,640 --> 00:07:16,360 Speaker 1: kind of masked by digital things. If you watched Mark 114 00:07:16,440 --> 00:07:20,200 Speaker 1: Zuckerberg's October twenty twenty one video, you might believe it's 115 00:07:20,240 --> 00:07:25,360 Speaker 1: a virtual world that encompasses your senses, a fully sensory 116 00:07:25,400 --> 00:07:28,640 Speaker 1: experience that the kinds you'd find in Ernest Klein's horrible 117 00:07:28,640 --> 00:07:33,000 Speaker 1: book Ready Player One. Now you may be thinking, Heed, 118 00:07:33,080 --> 00:07:37,040 Speaker 1: that's not technically possible, and you'd be completely and utterly right. 119 00:07:37,960 --> 00:07:41,000 Speaker 1: The conceptual ambiguity, of course, and the fact that a 120 00:07:41,040 --> 00:07:43,360 Speaker 1: lot of the stuff people were talking about just wasn't 121 00:07:43,360 --> 00:07:48,160 Speaker 1: possible and still isn't today, didn't stop many, many companies 122 00:07:48,400 --> 00:07:51,800 Speaker 1: from cashing in, raising hundreds of millions of dollars from 123 00:07:51,800 --> 00:07:55,600 Speaker 1: investors to build products that did not and probably could 124 00:07:55,640 --> 00:08:00,800 Speaker 1: not exist in an industry called the metaverse that nobody, 125 00:08:01,080 --> 00:08:05,480 Speaker 1: not the investors, not the founders, could actually describe. Let 126 00:08:05,520 --> 00:08:09,600 Speaker 1: me give you some examples. Bud they're a company that 127 00:08:09,840 --> 00:08:12,720 Speaker 1: raised over sixty million dollars that, according to tech Crunch, 128 00:08:13,520 --> 00:08:16,440 Speaker 1: did so to create a metaverse for gen z to 129 00:08:16,480 --> 00:08:20,640 Speaker 1: play and interact with each other. I've downloaded Bud. I've 130 00:08:20,680 --> 00:08:23,960 Speaker 1: looked at what Bud is. They don't mention the metaverse anymore. 131 00:08:24,480 --> 00:08:28,240 Speaker 1: It's actually a micro transaction riddled iPhone app that lets 132 00:08:28,280 --> 00:08:32,440 Speaker 1: you visit other people's very generic looking spaces. I used 133 00:08:32,480 --> 00:08:37,160 Speaker 1: to review massively multiplayer online RPGs like World Warcraft and 134 00:08:37,200 --> 00:08:40,840 Speaker 1: things like that. I've seen one hundred million of these things. 135 00:08:41,280 --> 00:08:45,439 Speaker 1: Versions of what Bud does have existed for a long 136 00:08:46,040 --> 00:08:52,400 Speaker 1: long time. Then there's another company Trip that's tripp because 137 00:08:52,840 --> 00:08:56,800 Speaker 1: why name things normally. They raised twenty six point three 138 00:08:56,960 --> 00:08:59,800 Speaker 1: million dollars to create apps that and I quote power 139 00:09:00,200 --> 00:09:05,520 Speaker 1: mindful metaverse and said metaverse is community driven. In practice, 140 00:09:05,640 --> 00:09:08,720 Speaker 1: it's a virtual reality app that shows you these weird, 141 00:09:08,840 --> 00:09:12,760 Speaker 1: trippy visions that you would imagine seeing in a PSA 142 00:09:13,400 --> 00:09:17,959 Speaker 1: for drug abuse in the nineties. They cost ten twenty dollars. 143 00:09:18,040 --> 00:09:21,000 Speaker 1: It's very strange that this company raised that much money 144 00:09:21,280 --> 00:09:23,960 Speaker 1: and nobody has done the due diligence to actually follow 145 00:09:24,040 --> 00:09:26,640 Speaker 1: up with them and ask them what the hell the 146 00:09:26,679 --> 00:09:31,400 Speaker 1: metaverse was and why it justified these massive valuations. Each 147 00:09:31,480 --> 00:09:36,600 Speaker 1: one of these pablum filled multimillion dollar metaverse companies was 148 00:09:36,679 --> 00:09:41,240 Speaker 1: incapable of describing themselves outside of using concussion grade buzzwords. 149 00:09:42,000 --> 00:09:44,959 Speaker 1: They had good reason to though. If they used real 150 00:09:45,040 --> 00:09:49,559 Speaker 1: words that meant things, you might catch on, and indeed 151 00:09:49,559 --> 00:09:52,559 Speaker 1: they're very stupid investors might catch on that they were 152 00:09:52,600 --> 00:09:55,800 Speaker 1: trying to sell you things that already existed. And I 153 00:09:55,880 --> 00:09:58,480 Speaker 1: think that that is really at the heart of the 154 00:09:58,520 --> 00:10:03,680 Speaker 1: metaverse boom and why everyone is so so vague about 155 00:10:03,840 --> 00:10:08,440 Speaker 1: the definition of the metaverse because being specific reveals that 156 00:10:08,480 --> 00:10:11,840 Speaker 1: it's a huge con used by the tech industry to 157 00:10:11,880 --> 00:10:17,720 Speaker 1: pretend that they're innovating for starters. For any definition of 158 00:10:17,760 --> 00:10:21,280 Speaker 1: the metaverse to make sense or to have any actual value, 159 00:10:21,600 --> 00:10:25,200 Speaker 1: you really have to remove gaming entirely from the conversation. 160 00:10:25,520 --> 00:10:29,120 Speaker 1: Otherwise you're kind of cheating. If you're going to consider 161 00:10:29,280 --> 00:10:33,520 Speaker 1: Fortnite or Rodeblocks quote the metaverse, you kind of have 162 00:10:33,600 --> 00:10:37,360 Speaker 1: to consider World of Warcraft and ultimre Online or any 163 00:10:37,400 --> 00:10:41,359 Speaker 1: other avatar based game that's ever existed part of the metaverse. 164 00:10:41,679 --> 00:10:47,559 Speaker 1: At which point, isn't the metaverse just chat rooms? Isn't 165 00:10:47,559 --> 00:10:54,240 Speaker 1: the metaverse just computer games? If that's the case, how 166 00:10:54,320 --> 00:10:58,520 Speaker 1: is this a multi trillion dollar industry? The metaverse isn't 167 00:10:58,559 --> 00:11:01,480 Speaker 1: the future If it's just different iterations of talking to 168 00:11:01,520 --> 00:11:06,280 Speaker 1: people using a digital avatar, that's the actual present. Sure, 169 00:11:06,480 --> 00:11:09,360 Speaker 1: maybe it's worth a trillion dollars or three trillion dollars, 170 00:11:09,480 --> 00:11:13,920 Speaker 1: or however much the video game industry is, but that's 171 00:11:13,920 --> 00:11:17,640 Speaker 1: a ridiculous way of looking at this. If the metaverse 172 00:11:17,679 --> 00:11:20,840 Speaker 1: exists in the way they say it, does it already 173 00:11:20,920 --> 00:11:26,680 Speaker 1: existed decades ago. What's interesting about this is, despite all 174 00:11:26,720 --> 00:11:30,880 Speaker 1: of the conversation about the metaverse being this giant, interconnected 175 00:11:30,920 --> 00:11:34,200 Speaker 1: world where people can get together and they don't look 176 00:11:34,280 --> 00:11:39,920 Speaker 1: like themselves, maybe it's pseudonymous, despite all of that rosy 177 00:11:41,080 --> 00:11:45,880 Speaker 1: McKinsey grade bullshit. There's been worries about the massively multiplayer 178 00:11:45,880 --> 00:11:50,000 Speaker 1: online RPG industry, which is World of Warcraft and its ILK, 179 00:11:50,240 --> 00:11:53,680 Speaker 1: declining for quite a while. In fact, it has been 180 00:11:53,880 --> 00:11:57,559 Speaker 1: slowing down, overtaken by a number of different free to 181 00:11:57,600 --> 00:12:00,760 Speaker 1: play games on phones and consoles. It's still going though, 182 00:12:00,760 --> 00:12:04,160 Speaker 1: there are still tens of millions of players playing these games. 183 00:12:04,760 --> 00:12:06,960 Speaker 1: But if you're saying the metaverse is talking to friends 184 00:12:07,000 --> 00:12:11,160 Speaker 1: on Fortnite, then really Twitter and Blue Sky are the 185 00:12:11,200 --> 00:12:14,079 Speaker 1: metaverse too, because I talk to friends on there all 186 00:12:14,120 --> 00:12:16,480 Speaker 1: the time, and some of them have pictures that aren't 187 00:12:16,520 --> 00:12:21,240 Speaker 1: of their actual faces. And that's the thing. If your 188 00:12:21,280 --> 00:12:24,319 Speaker 1: definition of the metaverse is whatever's useful at the time, 189 00:12:25,080 --> 00:12:29,320 Speaker 1: you're just a politician. You're not a software developer, you're 190 00:12:29,320 --> 00:12:33,800 Speaker 1: not a tech founder. You're a fucking liar. In early 191 00:12:33,840 --> 00:12:37,240 Speaker 1: twenty twenty two, people were calling microsoft seventy five billion 192 00:12:37,320 --> 00:12:40,480 Speaker 1: dollar acquisition of Call of Duty and World of warcraft 193 00:12:40,520 --> 00:12:46,160 Speaker 1: developer Activision Blizzard quote metaverse related. Now, this was really 194 00:12:46,200 --> 00:12:49,200 Speaker 1: frustrating because it's kind of like saying that piss is 195 00:12:49,200 --> 00:12:51,920 Speaker 1: a competitor to diet coke because both of them are liquids. 196 00:12:52,080 --> 00:12:55,000 Speaker 1: You can't just say something is like the other thing 197 00:12:55,679 --> 00:12:58,160 Speaker 1: because you want it to be that way, You actually 198 00:12:58,160 --> 00:13:01,760 Speaker 1: have to prove it. The existence of interaction in a 199 00:13:01,800 --> 00:13:05,199 Speaker 1: virtual world wasn't the metaverse before, but it got termed 200 00:13:05,200 --> 00:13:09,440 Speaker 1: as such because and really only because billions of dollars 201 00:13:09,480 --> 00:13:12,960 Speaker 1: got invested in the metaverse and they needed something anything 202 00:13:13,000 --> 00:13:15,800 Speaker 1: to point at and say, look, look this exists, this 203 00:13:15,840 --> 00:13:18,680 Speaker 1: is real. It worked before. Please don't ask too many 204 00:13:18,720 --> 00:13:23,120 Speaker 1: more questions. Tim Sweeney of Epic's argument, the one I 205 00:13:23,200 --> 00:13:26,400 Speaker 1: previously referred to that the metaverse isn't dead because people 206 00:13:26,480 --> 00:13:30,920 Speaker 1: play Roadblocks or Fortnite only makes sense if you define 207 00:13:30,920 --> 00:13:34,880 Speaker 1: the metaverse in the broadest way possible, And it's an 208 00:13:34,960 --> 00:13:37,040 Speaker 1: argument that I hate to say kind of has some 209 00:13:37,080 --> 00:13:41,679 Speaker 1: weight considering the definitional fuzziness of the metaverse. But that 210 00:13:41,760 --> 00:13:44,439 Speaker 1: also allows people who back the metaverse to point to 211 00:13:44,480 --> 00:13:47,319 Speaker 1: literally anything and call it the metaverse and then use 212 00:13:47,440 --> 00:13:50,400 Speaker 1: that as proof that the metaverse is destined for greatness? 213 00:13:51,640 --> 00:13:56,120 Speaker 1: Is I messaged the metaverse was rc the earliest chat 214 00:13:56,200 --> 00:14:01,600 Speaker 1: room function of the Internet. The metaverse was aim aol 215 00:14:01,640 --> 00:14:21,840 Speaker 1: instant messenger was that the metaverse? What the hell is 216 00:14:21,880 --> 00:14:26,760 Speaker 1: the metaverse? It just all kind of feels like bullshit. 217 00:14:27,560 --> 00:14:30,680 Speaker 1: Fortnite and Roadblocks have succeeded, not because they're both enjoyable 218 00:14:30,720 --> 00:14:33,520 Speaker 1: spaces to hang out in, but because they're accessible. They're 219 00:14:33,520 --> 00:14:37,320 Speaker 1: easy to play. You don't need a convoluted tutorial. Your 220 00:14:37,360 --> 00:14:39,120 Speaker 1: friends can tell you how to play, or you can 221 00:14:39,240 --> 00:14:41,720 Speaker 1: just work it out, as kind of demonstrated by their 222 00:14:41,720 --> 00:14:45,280 Speaker 1: extremely young demographics. Now, it's kind of hard to find 223 00:14:45,360 --> 00:14:49,480 Speaker 1: verifiable age data for these titles, but one survey published 224 00:14:49,520 --> 00:14:52,680 Speaker 1: in twenty twenty one said that the ten to twenty 225 00:14:52,960 --> 00:14:55,200 Speaker 1: age group has the highest percentage of people that have 226 00:14:55,200 --> 00:14:59,360 Speaker 1: played a proto metaverse game, which includes titles like Minecraft, Fortnite, 227 00:14:59,400 --> 00:15:03,160 Speaker 1: and Roadblocks. Now you may hear stats like that and think, 228 00:15:03,640 --> 00:15:06,480 Speaker 1: gee whiz, this might be the future. This is the present. 229 00:15:06,600 --> 00:15:09,600 Speaker 1: This shit has existed for five to ten years. Anyone 230 00:15:09,680 --> 00:15:12,520 Speaker 1: telling you the metaversus the future is just trying to 231 00:15:12,560 --> 00:15:15,040 Speaker 1: pretend they were part of the past. Laugh in their 232 00:15:15,040 --> 00:15:18,920 Speaker 1: faces and give them the Finger, and I fully disagree 233 00:15:19,040 --> 00:15:22,880 Speaker 1: that Fortnite is a space for hanging out. It's a game. 234 00:15:23,480 --> 00:15:25,400 Speaker 1: It's a game that's simple enough to play that you 235 00:15:25,440 --> 00:15:29,240 Speaker 1: can play around in it and have a conversation, and 236 00:15:29,280 --> 00:15:31,800 Speaker 1: if you weren't playing it, you'd probably call the people 237 00:15:32,040 --> 00:15:35,760 Speaker 1: or FaceTime them or some other form of thing. There 238 00:15:35,800 --> 00:15:38,440 Speaker 1: were some spurious articles around the time of the metaverse 239 00:15:38,480 --> 00:15:41,880 Speaker 1: about Fortnite being the new place where kids hang out 240 00:15:41,920 --> 00:15:45,280 Speaker 1: and play together. And what piss me off about that 241 00:15:45,960 --> 00:15:47,760 Speaker 1: is the same thing that pisses me off about the 242 00:15:47,800 --> 00:15:51,000 Speaker 1: metaverse in general. In the kids have been playing video 243 00:15:51,040 --> 00:15:54,320 Speaker 1: games online a while, they've been using headsets a while. 244 00:15:55,760 --> 00:15:59,760 Speaker 1: These things already existed, and Mark Zuckerberg and his cronies 245 00:16:00,040 --> 00:16:02,160 Speaker 1: satch in a della of Microsoft. As I'll get to 246 00:16:02,960 --> 00:16:05,720 Speaker 1: Tim Sweeney of Epic, all of these people trying to 247 00:16:05,720 --> 00:16:08,360 Speaker 1: claim that this was the future and that they were 248 00:16:08,400 --> 00:16:10,840 Speaker 1: part of it. They were doing so to pump up 249 00:16:10,880 --> 00:16:13,520 Speaker 1: their stock values, to make it easier to sell their stock. 250 00:16:13,560 --> 00:16:16,800 Speaker 1: In a case of Epic, It's all quite laughable and 251 00:16:16,840 --> 00:16:22,280 Speaker 1: it's extremely cynical. Now. Fortnite, of course, had a concert 252 00:16:22,280 --> 00:16:26,480 Speaker 1: in it from performer Travis Scott, and when I say 253 00:16:26,520 --> 00:16:29,840 Speaker 1: it's a concert, I kind of mean it's this weirdly 254 00:16:29,920 --> 00:16:33,040 Speaker 1: rendered three D version of Travis Scott looks like an 255 00:16:33,160 --> 00:16:36,040 Speaker 1: Xbox three sixty game, and it was performed to twelve 256 00:16:36,120 --> 00:16:39,680 Speaker 1: point three million players at once. It was defined as 257 00:16:39,680 --> 00:16:42,760 Speaker 1: a breakthrough moment for the metaverse and allegedly was a 258 00:16:42,800 --> 00:16:47,400 Speaker 1: demonstration of its potential in the entertainment space. Except that's 259 00:16:47,520 --> 00:16:51,160 Speaker 1: really just an online game, an online game with instances, 260 00:16:51,560 --> 00:16:54,040 Speaker 1: because you didn't have twelve point three million people in 261 00:16:54,120 --> 00:16:57,360 Speaker 1: one place, you had groups of them, in the same 262 00:16:57,400 --> 00:17:00,360 Speaker 1: way that Fortnite did the announcement of a new Star 263 00:17:00,440 --> 00:17:03,480 Speaker 1: Wars movie involving a plot point that you needed to 264 00:17:03,520 --> 00:17:05,760 Speaker 1: make sense of the third New Star Wars movie. It's 265 00:17:05,800 --> 00:17:08,880 Speaker 1: quite messy. But in both of these cases, these were 266 00:17:08,920 --> 00:17:12,879 Speaker 1: just three D art exhibits. Watching this live kind of 267 00:17:12,920 --> 00:17:15,520 Speaker 1: had no point to it. You weren't interacting with Travis Scott, 268 00:17:15,880 --> 00:17:18,080 Speaker 1: you weren't flipping off the Emperor. I guess you could, 269 00:17:18,080 --> 00:17:21,320 Speaker 1: but it didn't do anything. These were just rolling demos 270 00:17:21,320 --> 00:17:23,600 Speaker 1: where you happened to be surrounded by other people who 271 00:17:23,600 --> 00:17:27,200 Speaker 1: didn't know what the hell to do with themselves. These things, 272 00:17:27,359 --> 00:17:30,880 Speaker 1: these experiences are immersive in the same way that most 273 00:17:30,960 --> 00:17:34,760 Speaker 1: video games are. You focused on a point and you're 274 00:17:34,800 --> 00:17:38,399 Speaker 1: not really doing anything else, and past that it's just 275 00:17:38,560 --> 00:17:44,080 Speaker 1: fucking drab. This is the future. Going through a weird 276 00:17:44,400 --> 00:17:46,920 Speaker 1: warp hole to watch Travis Scott with a bunch of 277 00:17:46,960 --> 00:17:49,359 Speaker 1: people jumping up and down trying to work out what 278 00:17:49,440 --> 00:17:53,680 Speaker 1: the hell they're doing there. This is the future. This 279 00:17:54,000 --> 00:17:57,080 Speaker 1: is the meta us. Being able to watch weird stuff 280 00:17:57,080 --> 00:18:01,040 Speaker 1: fly around you in a video game. Cool, I guess, 281 00:18:02,200 --> 00:18:05,119 Speaker 1: kind of feels like the present, though, kind of feels 282 00:18:05,119 --> 00:18:08,879 Speaker 1: like shit. And the problem was that the majority of 283 00:18:08,920 --> 00:18:12,480 Speaker 1: these metaverse companies just seemed totally lost as far as 284 00:18:12,880 --> 00:18:16,239 Speaker 1: what the metaverse was and why a consumer should use 285 00:18:16,280 --> 00:18:19,920 Speaker 1: it and in many cases how they should use it. Yeah. 286 00:18:19,960 --> 00:18:22,800 Speaker 1: In twenty twenty one and twenty twenty two, these companies 287 00:18:22,840 --> 00:18:26,280 Speaker 1: got billions of dollars of funding by slapping metaverse or 288 00:18:26,520 --> 00:18:31,680 Speaker 1: decentralized on everything. Decentralized in this case referring to using 289 00:18:31,760 --> 00:18:37,359 Speaker 1: a blockchain decentralized to do a thing usually worse. This 290 00:18:37,560 --> 00:18:42,160 Speaker 1: is how companies like sky Mavis's Axieinfinity raised one hundred 291 00:18:42,200 --> 00:18:45,359 Speaker 1: and fifty two million dollars at a three billion dollar 292 00:18:45,440 --> 00:18:50,480 Speaker 1: valuation for a cryptocurrency powered browser based Pokemon clone that 293 00:18:50,560 --> 00:18:54,400 Speaker 1: costs hundreds of dollars to play. And then they invented 294 00:18:54,400 --> 00:18:57,240 Speaker 1: a new kind of loan shark where people would loan 295 00:18:57,320 --> 00:18:59,920 Speaker 1: you the money to buy your axi to start the game, 296 00:19:00,400 --> 00:19:02,880 Speaker 1: and then you'd be some kind of servant for them. 297 00:19:03,119 --> 00:19:05,840 Speaker 1: They then got hacked by North Korea. This will be 298 00:19:05,840 --> 00:19:09,480 Speaker 1: a future episode. Don't worry. Companies like Skymavis are not 299 00:19:09,520 --> 00:19:14,200 Speaker 1: the only ones. This metaverse boom started in October twenty 300 00:19:14,240 --> 00:19:16,800 Speaker 1: twenty one, which was the thick of the post lockdown 301 00:19:16,840 --> 00:19:21,440 Speaker 1: cryptocurrency boom, and they took advantage of the metaverse's general 302 00:19:21,520 --> 00:19:26,080 Speaker 1: fuzziness to con people into investing in more cryptocurrency bullshit. 303 00:19:27,119 --> 00:19:31,200 Speaker 1: The blockchain and the associated Ponzi scheme nonsense that followed 304 00:19:31,440 --> 00:19:35,080 Speaker 1: was a recurring theme within many of the first metaverse companies. 305 00:19:35,880 --> 00:19:39,879 Speaker 1: Non Fungible Tokens nftss you might know them, were essentially 306 00:19:39,960 --> 00:19:43,919 Speaker 1: a mechanism that claimed to demonstrate ownership of a digital asset, 307 00:19:44,520 --> 00:19:46,719 Speaker 1: and they were touted as a way to handle virtual 308 00:19:46,760 --> 00:19:49,840 Speaker 1: real estate. During this metaverse boom, there were tons of 309 00:19:49,920 --> 00:19:54,359 Speaker 1: articles about this, claiming that people were selling fifty million 310 00:19:54,440 --> 00:19:59,520 Speaker 1: dollars of metaverse real estate. Nobody cares anymore. It's all disappeared. 311 00:20:00,200 --> 00:20:03,919 Speaker 1: And indeed, many other metaverse companies were also decentralized quote 312 00:20:04,080 --> 00:20:08,400 Speaker 1: web three businesses a spurious name for decentralized blockchain software 313 00:20:08,440 --> 00:20:14,199 Speaker 1: that barely worked. And these companies just printed money, no literally, 314 00:20:14,240 --> 00:20:18,399 Speaker 1: they minted their own cryptocurrencies, which they then put metaverse 315 00:20:18,440 --> 00:20:22,119 Speaker 1: on top of, which conned retail investors into purchasing these things, 316 00:20:22,280 --> 00:20:25,520 Speaker 1: things like virtual land and virtual homes and virtual items 317 00:20:25,520 --> 00:20:29,160 Speaker 1: to put in their virtual homes. This all sounded stupid 318 00:20:29,200 --> 00:20:32,119 Speaker 1: at the time, Yeah, places like The New York Times 319 00:20:32,119 --> 00:20:34,800 Speaker 1: and The Wall Street Journal were doing whole articles about 320 00:20:34,800 --> 00:20:39,399 Speaker 1: how important it was. In reality, the metaverse was a 321 00:20:39,440 --> 00:20:43,960 Speaker 1: cynical con that helped rich people get richer at times 322 00:20:44,080 --> 00:20:46,680 Speaker 1: off the back of retail investors that still believed that 323 00:20:46,720 --> 00:20:52,200 Speaker 1: cryptocurrency was meaningful and would never crash again. Yet the 324 00:20:52,400 --> 00:20:56,879 Speaker 1: entire tech industry worked to proliferate the term metaverse in 325 00:20:56,920 --> 00:21:00,600 Speaker 1: a way that kind of echoes the empty height pseeing 326 00:21:00,640 --> 00:21:05,159 Speaker 1: around artificial intelligence today, and it kind of operated in 327 00:21:05,200 --> 00:21:09,359 Speaker 1: the same way too. They took a technology that already existed, 328 00:21:10,080 --> 00:21:12,560 Speaker 1: and then they massively overstated what it could do in 329 00:21:12,600 --> 00:21:16,000 Speaker 1: the future. And I haven't even got to Meta or 330 00:21:16,160 --> 00:21:20,159 Speaker 1: the general state of virtual and mixed reality. Nowhere was 331 00:21:20,200 --> 00:21:23,560 Speaker 1: the con more on, I guess, until it wasn't than 332 00:21:23,560 --> 00:21:26,600 Speaker 1: at one hack away where I believe Mark Zuckerberg lives. 333 00:21:27,160 --> 00:21:30,040 Speaker 1: In early February twenty twenty three, The Wall Street Journal 334 00:21:30,080 --> 00:21:32,840 Speaker 1: pointed to Meta's healthy Q four numbers, where its stock 335 00:21:32,880 --> 00:21:36,960 Speaker 1: price jump by twenty percent, thereby reinstating its membership in 336 00:21:37,000 --> 00:21:39,960 Speaker 1: the club of companies with a market capitalization over one 337 00:21:40,000 --> 00:21:42,919 Speaker 1: trillion dollars, as proof that Meta had and I quote, 338 00:21:43,240 --> 00:21:46,879 Speaker 1: finally figured out how to sell the Metaverse. The journal 339 00:21:46,880 --> 00:21:50,160 Speaker 1: pointed to Meta's Reality Lab's division, which houses the company's 340 00:21:50,200 --> 00:21:53,880 Speaker 1: Metaverse efforts, which made over one billion dollars in revenue 341 00:21:53,880 --> 00:21:57,560 Speaker 1: for the first time, driven primarily by healthy holiday sales 342 00:21:57,600 --> 00:22:00,720 Speaker 1: of Meta's Quest three virtual reality headset. That was the 343 00:22:00,760 --> 00:22:05,280 Speaker 1: big sign that the Metaverse was fine, except it wasn't. 344 00:22:06,040 --> 00:22:10,720 Speaker 1: That's a fortieth of Meta's forty billion dollar Q four revenue. 345 00:22:11,359 --> 00:22:14,560 Speaker 1: It's also roughly a sick of the amount of money 346 00:22:14,560 --> 00:22:18,200 Speaker 1: that Reality Labs burned, with the unit making a four 347 00:22:18,240 --> 00:22:21,320 Speaker 1: point sixty five billion dollar loss, which was its highest 348 00:22:21,320 --> 00:22:25,919 Speaker 1: on record, and in the case of virtual reality, in general, 349 00:22:26,200 --> 00:22:30,479 Speaker 1: it's still a very early stage technology. Most headsets, including 350 00:22:30,520 --> 00:22:33,879 Speaker 1: the latest Oculus in Quest devices, which Meta of course makes, 351 00:22:34,240 --> 00:22:38,040 Speaker 1: are still uncomfortable, clunky, and still buggy, more so than 352 00:22:38,080 --> 00:22:41,480 Speaker 1: the Vision Pro. They're not immersive, and they routinely make 353 00:22:41,520 --> 00:22:45,480 Speaker 1: people feel a kind of physical sickness, which is not ideal. 354 00:22:46,480 --> 00:22:50,800 Speaker 1: A Metas flagship metaverse title, Horizon Worlds is still ugly 355 00:22:51,480 --> 00:22:56,240 Speaker 1: and awkward, and nobody uses it. Multiple articles have now 356 00:22:56,280 --> 00:22:59,359 Speaker 1: come up where people just can't find other people to 357 00:22:59,480 --> 00:23:06,320 Speaker 1: meet in Metas metaverse. It's all so confusing, and Horizon 358 00:23:06,560 --> 00:23:10,320 Speaker 1: is so obviously inferior to Zoom or Microsoft Teams or 359 00:23:10,359 --> 00:23:13,679 Speaker 1: any other form of modern communication that the only reason 360 00:23:13,720 --> 00:23:16,520 Speaker 1: to use it is to be upset or get sick 361 00:23:16,960 --> 00:23:20,240 Speaker 1: or nauseate your colleagues, which I can do for free 362 00:23:20,359 --> 00:23:24,320 Speaker 1: using my webcam over Zoom. And of course Meta obviously 363 00:23:24,359 --> 00:23:28,080 Speaker 1: knows this, because in early twenty twenty three, linked documents 364 00:23:28,119 --> 00:23:31,400 Speaker 1: obtained by the verges Alex Heath revealed that only one 365 00:23:31,440 --> 00:23:34,760 Speaker 1: in ten Horizon World's users returned after trying the title 366 00:23:34,920 --> 00:23:39,159 Speaker 1: for the first time since it's launch. Horizon Worlds and 367 00:23:39,200 --> 00:23:43,720 Speaker 1: I reiterate this is the flagship metaverse title from the 368 00:23:43,760 --> 00:23:48,000 Speaker 1: world's most vocal metaverse company called Meta, that renamed itself 369 00:23:48,280 --> 00:23:52,320 Speaker 1: to Meta Because of the Metaverse, Horison Worlds has continued 370 00:23:52,320 --> 00:23:55,040 Speaker 1: to share its monthly active users to the point where 371 00:23:55,760 --> 00:23:58,200 Speaker 1: it just kind of feels like a mass market open grave. 372 00:23:59,760 --> 00:24:03,040 Speaker 1: Nobody is there. It's worse than an empty more because 373 00:24:03,080 --> 00:24:05,040 Speaker 1: you can kind of see what people would buy there. 374 00:24:06,040 --> 00:24:10,280 Speaker 1: It's just negative space. And all of this is just 375 00:24:10,320 --> 00:24:15,000 Speaker 1: a stunning fall from grace, considering the capital, both reputational 376 00:24:15,080 --> 00:24:20,200 Speaker 1: and monetary, that Zuckerberg pumped into it. When Mark Zuckerberg 377 00:24:20,240 --> 00:24:23,440 Speaker 1: announced in twenty twenty one that Facebook would rebrand to Meta, 378 00:24:23,520 --> 00:24:25,840 Speaker 1: he claimed that the metaverse would be the future of 379 00:24:25,880 --> 00:24:30,439 Speaker 1: the Internet. The glitzy, spurious promotional video that he used 380 00:24:30,640 --> 00:24:34,359 Speaker 1: alongside the name change described this future where we'd be 381 00:24:34,400 --> 00:24:37,560 Speaker 1: able to interact seamlessly in virtual worlds. Users would make 382 00:24:37,600 --> 00:24:40,199 Speaker 1: eye contact and feel like they were in the room together. 383 00:24:41,040 --> 00:24:43,760 Speaker 1: The metaverse offered people the chance to engage in an 384 00:24:43,800 --> 00:24:48,919 Speaker 1: immersive experience. And this was what Mark Zuckerberg promised. And 385 00:24:48,960 --> 00:24:52,680 Speaker 1: these are bold claims that are of course totally unfulfilled, 386 00:24:53,160 --> 00:24:56,879 Speaker 1: and I'd argue they're never going to be A functional 387 00:24:56,920 --> 00:24:59,920 Speaker 1: business proposition requires a few things to thrive and grow. 388 00:25:00,640 --> 00:25:03,920 Speaker 1: First of all, a clear use case, then a target audience, 389 00:25:04,400 --> 00:25:06,760 Speaker 1: and then of course the willingness of customers to adopt 390 00:25:06,760 --> 00:25:11,359 Speaker 1: the product. Zuckerberg waxed poetic about the metaverse as a 391 00:25:11,440 --> 00:25:14,480 Speaker 1: vision that spans many companies and claimed it was the 392 00:25:14,560 --> 00:25:19,679 Speaker 1: successor to the mobile Internet, Yet he failed to articulate 393 00:25:20,240 --> 00:25:25,600 Speaker 1: basic business problems that the metaverse would address. Absolutely nothing 394 00:25:25,880 --> 00:25:30,840 Speaker 1: underpinned Mark Zuckerberg's promises about the metaverse, and it's still 395 00:25:30,880 --> 00:25:33,880 Speaker 1: as ill defined then as it is now. And yet 396 00:25:33,920 --> 00:25:36,960 Speaker 1: executives and investors decided that it just didn't matter that 397 00:25:37,000 --> 00:25:40,680 Speaker 1: the metaverse didn't mean anything, because of course money could 398 00:25:40,720 --> 00:25:45,640 Speaker 1: be made. Microsoft CEO Sachynadella would say at the company's 399 00:25:45,680 --> 00:25:48,520 Speaker 1: twenty twenty one Ignite conference that he and I quote 400 00:25:48,800 --> 00:25:52,040 Speaker 1: could not overstate how much of a breakthrough the metaverse 401 00:25:52,160 --> 00:25:55,199 Speaker 1: was for his company, the industry, and of course the world. 402 00:25:55,840 --> 00:25:59,960 Speaker 1: As mentioned earlier, Microsoft's seventy five point four billion dollar 403 00:26:00,040 --> 00:26:04,639 Speaker 1: acquisition of Activision Blizzard was described by Microsoft in interviews 404 00:26:04,760 --> 00:26:07,480 Speaker 1: as a metaverse play rather than a major player in 405 00:26:07,520 --> 00:26:10,040 Speaker 1: the gaming sphere, acquiring some of the world's most beloved 406 00:26:10,080 --> 00:26:14,520 Speaker 1: and profitable franchises like Call of Duty, Tony Hawk, World 407 00:26:14,560 --> 00:26:21,119 Speaker 1: of Warcraft, Diabloau, and many others created by Activision Blizzard. Roadblocks, 408 00:26:21,160 --> 00:26:23,359 Speaker 1: an online platform that I mentioned earlier one of the 409 00:26:23,359 --> 00:26:26,280 Speaker 1: most popular with kids in the world right now, up 410 00:26:26,280 --> 00:26:29,840 Speaker 1: there with Fortnite, has existed since two thousand and four, 411 00:26:30,000 --> 00:26:34,560 Speaker 1: but rode the Metaverse hypewave to take itself public. Their 412 00:26:34,600 --> 00:26:39,400 Speaker 1: IPO raised at a forty one billion dollar valuation. At 413 00:26:39,400 --> 00:26:42,679 Speaker 1: the time of writing this script, its market cap is 414 00:26:42,720 --> 00:26:45,120 Speaker 1: now twenty seven point six to three billion, a far 415 00:26:45,240 --> 00:26:47,800 Speaker 1: cry from its debut and a fraction of its pandemic 416 00:26:47,800 --> 00:26:50,880 Speaker 1: era peak, when the company was worth seventy eight billion dollars. 417 00:26:51,280 --> 00:26:54,440 Speaker 1: Important note about Roadblocks, by the way, they've never made 418 00:26:54,480 --> 00:27:02,880 Speaker 1: a profit. Kind of a big problem in the business industry. 419 00:27:08,280 --> 00:27:10,760 Speaker 1: Even businesses that seem to have very little to do 420 00:27:10,840 --> 00:27:13,960 Speaker 1: with tech jumped on board. Walmart joined the Metaverse by 421 00:27:14,080 --> 00:27:16,640 Speaker 1: creating a Roadblocks experience that they would eventually shut down 422 00:27:16,680 --> 00:27:19,880 Speaker 1: less than a year later. Disney created their own Metaverse 423 00:27:19,920 --> 00:27:22,520 Speaker 1: division in early twenty twenty two, only to lay them 424 00:27:22,560 --> 00:27:26,160 Speaker 1: all off in March twenty twenty three. In twenty twenty four, 425 00:27:26,280 --> 00:27:28,679 Speaker 1: Disney would then invest one and a half billion dollars 426 00:27:28,840 --> 00:27:32,080 Speaker 1: into metaverse lovers epic games. You know the makers of 427 00:27:32,119 --> 00:27:35,520 Speaker 1: Fortnite and I quote. They did so to collaborate on 428 00:27:35,560 --> 00:27:38,399 Speaker 1: an all new games and entertainment universe that will further 429 00:27:38,480 --> 00:27:42,280 Speaker 1: expand the reach of beloved Disney stories and experiences. In 430 00:27:42,320 --> 00:27:48,280 Speaker 1: epics Fortnite, the word metaverse is never used. In twenty 431 00:27:48,320 --> 00:27:51,440 Speaker 1: twenty two, the consulting firm Gartner claimed that twenty five 432 00:27:51,480 --> 00:27:53,679 Speaker 1: percent of people would spend at least an hour a 433 00:27:53,800 --> 00:27:57,879 Speaker 1: day in the metaverse by twenty twenty six. A year later, 434 00:27:58,480 --> 00:28:01,919 Speaker 1: they changed their tune, publishing a document that described in 435 00:28:01,960 --> 00:28:05,600 Speaker 1: stark detail both consumer and business apathy toward the metaverse, 436 00:28:06,160 --> 00:28:09,760 Speaker 1: as well as its fundamental technological limitations, which it said 437 00:28:09,920 --> 00:28:13,200 Speaker 1: couldn't be remedied in the short term. At least, Gartner 438 00:28:13,240 --> 00:28:16,520 Speaker 1: wasn't alone. The Wall Street Journal said the metaverse could 439 00:28:16,600 --> 00:28:20,040 Speaker 1: change the way we work forever. The global consulting firm 440 00:28:20,119 --> 00:28:23,480 Speaker 1: McKinsey predicted that the metaverse could generate up to five 441 00:28:23,640 --> 00:28:27,720 Speaker 1: trillion dollars in value by twenty thirty, adding that around 442 00:28:27,720 --> 00:28:31,359 Speaker 1: a ninety percent of business leaders expected the metaverse to 443 00:28:31,680 --> 00:28:35,399 Speaker 1: positively impact their industry within five to ten years, not 444 00:28:35,520 --> 00:28:38,040 Speaker 1: to be outdone. City put out a massive report that 445 00:28:38,080 --> 00:28:42,000 Speaker 1: declared the metaverse would be a thirteen trillion dollar opportunity 446 00:28:42,240 --> 00:28:46,280 Speaker 1: by twenty thirty. I must be clear, most of these 447 00:28:46,360 --> 00:28:49,320 Speaker 1: reports are bullshit. Most of them are based on them 448 00:28:49,400 --> 00:28:52,520 Speaker 1: just guessing. They will fudge these numbers to mess with you. 449 00:28:52,920 --> 00:28:55,720 Speaker 1: They are lying to you. If you see a McKinsey 450 00:28:55,800 --> 00:28:59,640 Speaker 1: or Garner report and it's quoting an X Y Y 451 00:28:59,760 --> 00:29:04,600 Speaker 1: using a thirteen trillion by twenty thirty, laugh it up, 452 00:29:05,040 --> 00:29:08,160 Speaker 1: walk away. They are fucking with you. They're doing this 453 00:29:08,440 --> 00:29:13,200 Speaker 1: to con investors and by proxy you. And despite all 454 00:29:13,240 --> 00:29:16,400 Speaker 1: of this hype, the why was always absent from the 455 00:29:16,440 --> 00:29:20,800 Speaker 1: discussions of the metaversus potential, particularly when talking about anything 456 00:29:20,840 --> 00:29:23,400 Speaker 1: that wasn't a video game. While I failed to see 457 00:29:23,400 --> 00:29:26,640 Speaker 1: the distinction between an MMRPG like World of Warcraft or 458 00:29:26,640 --> 00:29:30,680 Speaker 1: EverQuest and a so called metaverse game like Roadblocks or Fortnite, 459 00:29:30,960 --> 00:29:33,960 Speaker 1: I can kind of begrudgingly concede that a virtual workplace 460 00:29:34,000 --> 00:29:37,880 Speaker 1: is conceptually distinct enough to have its own name. That 461 00:29:37,960 --> 00:29:41,920 Speaker 1: doesn't mean it's a good idea or worthwhile. Though in 462 00:29:41,960 --> 00:29:46,800 Speaker 1: many respects, all of this metaversal hype illustrates a detachment 463 00:29:47,240 --> 00:29:49,880 Speaker 1: of the c suite from the people who actually do work. 464 00:29:50,640 --> 00:29:53,000 Speaker 1: The fact that both sach In A. Della of Microsoft 465 00:29:53,000 --> 00:29:56,120 Speaker 1: and Mark Zuckerberg of Meta believed or would have had 466 00:29:56,160 --> 00:29:59,360 Speaker 1: you believe that ordinary office workers want to hold meetings 467 00:29:59,360 --> 00:30:02,680 Speaker 1: in virtual rooms rooms were wearing a VR headset strongly 468 00:30:02,720 --> 00:30:07,120 Speaker 1: suggests they haven't met a person in quite some time. Billions, 469 00:30:07,640 --> 00:30:11,840 Speaker 1: literally billions of dollars could have been saved by Mark 470 00:30:11,920 --> 00:30:14,680 Speaker 1: Zuckerberg asking one of his programmers or one of his 471 00:30:14,760 --> 00:30:17,560 Speaker 1: ad salespeople if they wanted to go work in a 472 00:30:17,640 --> 00:30:20,040 Speaker 1: kind of low rent copy of Second Life that sucked 473 00:30:20,120 --> 00:30:23,840 Speaker 1: even more, and then they would have said no, Zukia mental, 474 00:30:24,560 --> 00:30:28,160 Speaker 1: except we all know the truth. Mark Zuckerberg didn't give 475 00:30:28,200 --> 00:30:31,440 Speaker 1: a shit about anyone actually using this. He needed some 476 00:30:31,520 --> 00:30:35,640 Speaker 1: air cover to get over Facebook's grizzly history, and he 477 00:30:35,720 --> 00:30:38,360 Speaker 1: knew that the media and investors would drink down whatever 478 00:30:38,440 --> 00:30:41,880 Speaker 1: slop he had prepared for them. I'm not sure if 479 00:30:41,920 --> 00:30:44,520 Speaker 1: you remember. In twenty twenty one and twenty twenty two, 480 00:30:45,240 --> 00:30:49,360 Speaker 1: money was much easier to find. Consumer spending was up, 481 00:30:49,440 --> 00:30:52,800 Speaker 1: every stock was up, everything was selling. Everyone I knew 482 00:30:52,920 --> 00:30:55,920 Speaker 1: was doing pretty well, unlike twenty twenty three, when everyone 483 00:30:56,000 --> 00:30:58,960 Speaker 1: kind of crashed back down to Earth. I actually think 484 00:30:59,000 --> 00:31:01,760 Speaker 1: the metaverse com would gone a lot longer had the 485 00:31:01,880 --> 00:31:05,920 Speaker 1: zero interest free economy, which I'll attack in a later episode, 486 00:31:06,280 --> 00:31:10,240 Speaker 1: not fallen apart. In short, though, there was a time 487 00:31:10,440 --> 00:31:15,280 Speaker 1: when investors, in particularly venture capitalists, could get money at 488 00:31:15,400 --> 00:31:19,880 Speaker 1: much much lower rates, one might even say zero percent. Sadly, 489 00:31:20,960 --> 00:31:24,600 Speaker 1: reality would come for the markets and in turn would 490 00:31:24,720 --> 00:31:29,880 Speaker 1: kill investors' spurious dreams of the metaverse. Early twenty twenty 491 00:31:29,920 --> 00:31:34,880 Speaker 1: three was a rough time for everybody. Microsoft shuttered its 492 00:31:35,000 --> 00:31:38,760 Speaker 1: virtual workspace platform all Space VR in January twenty twenty three, 493 00:31:39,000 --> 00:31:41,160 Speaker 1: and then laid off the one hundred people who worked 494 00:31:41,160 --> 00:31:44,920 Speaker 1: at the Industrial Metaverse team at Microsoft. They then made 495 00:31:44,920 --> 00:31:47,280 Speaker 1: a series of cuts to its HoloLens team, which was 496 00:31:47,320 --> 00:31:50,960 Speaker 1: their augmented reality glasses thing that most people have kind 497 00:31:50,960 --> 00:31:55,520 Speaker 1: of forgotten about. In September twenty twenty three, mister Metaverse himself, 498 00:31:55,560 --> 00:31:58,080 Speaker 1: Tim Sweeney, and Epic would lay off eight hundred and 499 00:31:58,080 --> 00:32:01,840 Speaker 1: thirty people, attributing it to there and I quote unrealistic 500 00:32:01,920 --> 00:32:05,640 Speaker 1: metaverse ambitions. Several months after my article, I should add 501 00:32:06,360 --> 00:32:09,880 Speaker 1: the billions of dollars invested around this half baked concept 502 00:32:10,040 --> 00:32:14,000 Speaker 1: that to thousands if not tens of thousands losing their jobs, 503 00:32:14,600 --> 00:32:17,600 Speaker 1: and the meta versus savior would also be the one 504 00:32:17,640 --> 00:32:21,840 Speaker 1: to ultimately kill it. Metas Mark Zuckerberg would declare in 505 00:32:21,880 --> 00:32:25,960 Speaker 1: a March company update that Meta's single largest investment would 506 00:32:25,960 --> 00:32:29,040 Speaker 1: be advancing artificial intelligence and building it into every one 507 00:32:29,040 --> 00:32:33,560 Speaker 1: of their products. Metas chief technology officer Andrew bos Bosworth 508 00:32:33,760 --> 00:32:36,600 Speaker 1: told CNBC in April twenty twenty three that he, along 509 00:32:36,640 --> 00:32:39,840 Speaker 1: with Mark Zuckerberg and the company's chief product officer Chris Cox, 510 00:32:40,200 --> 00:32:43,680 Speaker 1: were now spending most of their time on artificial intelligence. 511 00:32:44,520 --> 00:32:47,880 Speaker 1: The company even stopped pitching the metaverse to its advertisers, 512 00:32:48,120 --> 00:32:51,040 Speaker 1: despite spending more than one hundred billion dollars in research 513 00:32:51,080 --> 00:32:53,400 Speaker 1: and development on its mission to be and I quote 514 00:32:53,600 --> 00:32:58,280 Speaker 1: metaverse first. While Mark Zuckerberg sometimes suggests the metaverse isn't 515 00:32:58,320 --> 00:33:00,880 Speaker 1: dead by limply telling you that they developing things to 516 00:33:00,920 --> 00:33:03,800 Speaker 1: their headsets and that people are making games for the quest, 517 00:33:04,320 --> 00:33:07,440 Speaker 1: the writing's on the wall. Metas done with the metaverse. 518 00:33:08,520 --> 00:33:12,200 Speaker 1: I don't believe for a second that Mark Zuckerberg ever 519 00:33:12,280 --> 00:33:15,440 Speaker 1: really had any interest in it either, because he never 520 00:33:15,520 --> 00:33:18,000 Speaker 1: seemed to be able to define the metaverse beyond a 521 00:33:18,040 --> 00:33:22,640 Speaker 1: slightly tweaked Facebook with avatars and cumbasson hardware. The metaverse 522 00:33:22,680 --> 00:33:25,280 Speaker 1: was a means to an increased share price rather than 523 00:33:25,360 --> 00:33:28,520 Speaker 1: any real vision for the future or the future of 524 00:33:28,600 --> 00:33:32,680 Speaker 1: human interaction, and Mark Zuckerberg used his outsized wealth and 525 00:33:32,760 --> 00:33:34,800 Speaker 1: power to get the whold of the tech industry in 526 00:33:34,880 --> 00:33:38,040 Speaker 1: a good portion of the American business world in line 527 00:33:38,120 --> 00:33:43,600 Speaker 1: behind him and behind this half baked con The fact 528 00:33:43,600 --> 00:33:46,320 Speaker 1: that Mark Zuckerberg has clearly stepped away from the metaverse 529 00:33:46,400 --> 00:33:49,479 Speaker 1: is a fairly damning indictment of everyone who followed him 530 00:33:49,520 --> 00:33:52,640 Speaker 1: and anyone who still considers him a visionary tech leader. 531 00:33:53,120 --> 00:33:56,080 Speaker 1: It should also be the cause for some serious reflection 532 00:33:56,560 --> 00:34:00,320 Speaker 1: amongst the venture capital community, which recklessly followed Mark Zuckerberg 533 00:34:00,560 --> 00:34:03,600 Speaker 1: into blowing billions of dollars on a hype cycle founded 534 00:34:03,800 --> 00:34:07,960 Speaker 1: on the flimsiest possible press release language. In a just world, 535 00:34:08,160 --> 00:34:11,040 Speaker 1: Mark Zuckerberg should be fired as CEO of Meta, Yet 536 00:34:11,040 --> 00:34:14,000 Speaker 1: in the real world this is literally impossible due to 537 00:34:14,080 --> 00:34:19,360 Speaker 1: the corporate structure of the company. Zuckerberg misled everyone, burned 538 00:34:19,400 --> 00:34:23,000 Speaker 1: billions of dollars, convinced an industry of followers to submit 539 00:34:23,080 --> 00:34:25,880 Speaker 1: to this stupid obsession, and then killed it the second 540 00:34:25,920 --> 00:34:29,239 Speaker 1: that another idea started to interest Wall Street. There's no 541 00:34:29,440 --> 00:34:32,200 Speaker 1: reason that the man who has overseen the layoffs of 542 00:34:32,320 --> 00:34:35,320 Speaker 1: tens of thousands of people should run a major company, 543 00:34:35,880 --> 00:34:38,720 Speaker 1: And there is no future for meta with Mark Zuckerberg 544 00:34:38,760 --> 00:34:43,239 Speaker 1: at the helm. Mark my words, it will stagnate. The 545 00:34:43,320 --> 00:34:47,040 Speaker 1: tim has come for online advertising and for Facebook's only 546 00:34:47,080 --> 00:34:49,799 Speaker 1: way of making money, and then it will die and 547 00:34:49,920 --> 00:34:52,799 Speaker 1: follow metaverse into the grave that Mark Zuckerberg dug it. 548 00:34:53,520 --> 00:34:57,040 Speaker 1: While the idea of virtual worlds or collective online experiences 549 00:34:57,080 --> 00:34:59,840 Speaker 1: may live on in some form and actually exists already, 550 00:35:00,120 --> 00:35:03,799 Speaker 1: the Capital M metaverse is quite dead, and its death 551 00:35:03,800 --> 00:35:06,840 Speaker 1: should be remembered as arguably one of the most historic 552 00:35:07,160 --> 00:35:12,520 Speaker 1: failures in tech history, an historic global con that contributed 553 00:35:12,560 --> 00:35:16,799 Speaker 1: to society's mistrust of the tech industry at large. The 554 00:35:16,840 --> 00:35:19,480 Speaker 1: metaverse has always bothered me. It bothered me back in 555 00:35:19,480 --> 00:35:22,560 Speaker 1: twenty twenty one, and it bothers me today. It was 556 00:35:22,640 --> 00:35:27,960 Speaker 1: so clearly specious. Reporters talking to Mark Zuckerberg ate up 557 00:35:28,000 --> 00:35:30,960 Speaker 1: this slop and indeed helped him fill in the gaps 558 00:35:31,160 --> 00:35:33,799 Speaker 1: when he clearly had not thought about this concept much 559 00:35:33,800 --> 00:35:36,560 Speaker 1: further than he needed to. To give a corporate demonstration 560 00:35:36,680 --> 00:35:41,640 Speaker 1: of nothing. The Metaverse is an example of media's weakness 561 00:35:41,719 --> 00:35:44,640 Speaker 1: when it comes to the powerful. These people have to 562 00:35:44,640 --> 00:35:48,040 Speaker 1: be treated with suspicion when they can't fill in the gaps. 563 00:35:48,120 --> 00:35:50,319 Speaker 1: You shouldn't fill them in for them. In fact, you 564 00:35:50,320 --> 00:35:55,000 Speaker 1: should push them further and further and further. Every interview 565 00:35:55,040 --> 00:35:59,120 Speaker 1: with Mark Zuckerberg should be uncomfortable, it should be inhospitable. 566 00:36:00,120 --> 00:36:02,800 Speaker 1: Right now, Mark Zuckerberg is trying to sell the vision 567 00:36:03,000 --> 00:36:07,360 Speaker 1: that Meta is an artificial intelligence company. Multiple reporters have 568 00:36:07,440 --> 00:36:10,600 Speaker 1: talked to him about this, and I'm calling upon members 569 00:36:10,600 --> 00:36:13,000 Speaker 1: of the media to stop giving him interviews like this. 570 00:36:13,840 --> 00:36:16,680 Speaker 1: It's time to push back. It's time to push back 571 00:36:16,840 --> 00:36:19,840 Speaker 1: on people like Mark Zuckerberg that cannot tell the truth, 572 00:36:20,160 --> 00:36:25,360 Speaker 1: that cannot reveal their actual agendas. If we people speaking 573 00:36:25,440 --> 00:36:28,880 Speaker 1: into microphones, into people speaking to the powerful, into people 574 00:36:28,920 --> 00:36:30,879 Speaker 1: who have to know this industry and tell other people 575 00:36:30,880 --> 00:36:34,960 Speaker 1: about it. If our job involves talking to these powerful, 576 00:36:35,320 --> 00:36:40,360 Speaker 1: ultra rich, ultra influential men, our real job is to 577 00:36:40,440 --> 00:36:44,840 Speaker 1: ask them questions that are simple, like, hey, man, you 578 00:36:44,920 --> 00:36:48,439 Speaker 1: renamed your company. You renamed it because of this one thing? 579 00:36:48,960 --> 00:36:53,120 Speaker 1: What is that? What does it mean? And when they 580 00:36:53,160 --> 00:36:57,480 Speaker 1: fail to give a cogent answer. The response should be venom. 581 00:36:57,719 --> 00:37:02,600 Speaker 1: It should be discussed. It should be perhaps not an obscenity, 582 00:37:02,960 --> 00:37:06,480 Speaker 1: but something adjacent to one. There is no space to 583 00:37:06,480 --> 00:37:11,320 Speaker 1: give people like Mark Zuckerberg further power. They don't need 584 00:37:11,440 --> 00:37:15,040 Speaker 1: further fuel, they already have it. The metaverse was a 585 00:37:15,080 --> 00:37:18,560 Speaker 1: creation of Mark Zuckerberg's power, that he could say one 586 00:37:18,640 --> 00:37:23,400 Speaker 1: vague thing and billions of dollars would follow as a result. 587 00:37:23,520 --> 00:37:26,920 Speaker 1: We must criticize these people. We must do so loudly 588 00:37:27,160 --> 00:37:39,600 Speaker 1: and proudly and aggressively. Thank you for listening to Better Offline. 589 00:37:39,719 --> 00:37:42,120 Speaker 1: The editor and composer of the Better Offline theme song 590 00:37:42,200 --> 00:37:44,880 Speaker 1: is Matasowski. You can check out more of his music 591 00:37:44,880 --> 00:37:48,400 Speaker 1: and audio projects at Matasowski dot com, M A T 592 00:37:48,520 --> 00:37:52,960 Speaker 1: T O. S O w Ski dot com. You can 593 00:37:53,000 --> 00:37:55,440 Speaker 1: email me at easy at Better offline dot com, or 594 00:37:55,520 --> 00:37:57,960 Speaker 1: check out Better Offline dot com to find my newsletter 595 00:37:58,080 --> 00:38:00,319 Speaker 1: and more links to this podcast. Thank you how much 596 00:38:00,360 --> 00:38:04,440 Speaker 1: for listening. Better Offline is a production of cool Zone Media. 597 00:38:04,560 --> 00:38:07,960 Speaker 1: For more from cool Zone Media, visit our website Coolzonemedia 598 00:38:08,000 --> 00:38:10,839 Speaker 1: dot com, or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, 599 00:38:10,880 --> 00:38:13,280 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.