1 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:07,800 Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 2 00:00:12,080 --> 00:00:15,240 Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 3 00:00:15,440 --> 00:00:18,600 Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 4 00:00:18,720 --> 00:00:23,040 Speaker 1: and love all things tech. But boy, that that less 5 00:00:23,079 --> 00:00:25,639 Speaker 1: phrase comes with a lot of qualifiers, doesn't it. You know, 6 00:00:25,720 --> 00:00:28,360 Speaker 1: I think that I might need to create a sub 7 00:00:28,440 --> 00:00:32,240 Speaker 1: series of tech Stuff episodes called the Grumpy Old Man Episodes. 8 00:00:32,880 --> 00:00:36,920 Speaker 1: Um and in which case, maybe we need like some 9 00:00:37,040 --> 00:00:40,159 Speaker 1: sort of grumpy old man music, maybe something you know, 10 00:00:40,880 --> 00:00:44,280 Speaker 1: like hill billy esque playing in the background, considering my 11 00:00:44,280 --> 00:00:48,360 Speaker 1: my my own background in southern culture. But um yeah, 12 00:00:48,440 --> 00:00:51,120 Speaker 1: this is gonna be a grumpy episode in many ways. 13 00:00:51,680 --> 00:00:54,640 Speaker 1: And it's because I thought I would talk a bit 14 00:00:54,760 --> 00:00:57,880 Speaker 1: about the concept of the metaverse and what that is 15 00:00:58,360 --> 00:01:02,360 Speaker 1: besides being kind of using. And the reason I'm bringing 16 00:01:02,400 --> 00:01:04,920 Speaker 1: it up at all is there have been a few 17 00:01:04,959 --> 00:01:09,120 Speaker 1: recent examples of companies committing to building out a type 18 00:01:09,200 --> 00:01:13,959 Speaker 1: of metaverse. One of those is Facebook, which you know, 19 00:01:14,000 --> 00:01:15,760 Speaker 1: if you're listening to this in the future, might not 20 00:01:15,840 --> 00:01:18,360 Speaker 1: be called Facebook anymore. The company that is. I'm sure 21 00:01:18,400 --> 00:01:22,000 Speaker 1: the platform will still be called Facebook, but the company 22 00:01:22,200 --> 00:01:25,240 Speaker 1: is looking at a rebranding at least according to rumor, 23 00:01:25,640 --> 00:01:28,080 Speaker 1: and I'm sure I'll talk about that more in tomorrow's 24 00:01:28,120 --> 00:01:32,520 Speaker 1: news episode, but first let's talk about some general concepts, 25 00:01:32,520 --> 00:01:37,080 Speaker 1: because we're not just going to talk about Facebook's metaverse here. 26 00:01:37,880 --> 00:01:41,119 Speaker 1: So the term itself has its roots in science fiction, 27 00:01:41,600 --> 00:01:45,839 Speaker 1: similar to the term cyberspace. In fact, we should first 28 00:01:45,920 --> 00:01:51,200 Speaker 1: consider cyberspace before we move on to the metaverse. Now, cyberspace, 29 00:01:51,480 --> 00:01:56,120 Speaker 1: at least the version of cyberspace that became popularized within 30 00:01:56,240 --> 00:02:01,720 Speaker 1: mainstream culture, originated from the works of cyber author William Gibson. 31 00:02:02,360 --> 00:02:06,760 Speaker 1: Gibson himself was no programmer. He was not even a technologist. 32 00:02:07,360 --> 00:02:10,440 Speaker 1: He has said that he picked up terms and expressions 33 00:02:10,760 --> 00:02:14,080 Speaker 1: when essentially eaves dropping on conversations at a science fiction 34 00:02:14,080 --> 00:02:17,639 Speaker 1: convention back in the early nineteen eighties, and he found 35 00:02:17,639 --> 00:02:23,160 Speaker 1: certain phrases and you know, jargon, really captivating and they 36 00:02:23,160 --> 00:02:26,560 Speaker 1: became part of his work and he used them liberally 37 00:02:27,040 --> 00:02:33,320 Speaker 1: and loosely. One of the terms that he used with cyberspace, 38 00:02:33,320 --> 00:02:36,280 Speaker 1: and he kind of coined it. Now, to be fair, 39 00:02:36,400 --> 00:02:39,959 Speaker 1: other artists had actually used the term cyberspace before Gibson, 40 00:02:40,480 --> 00:02:43,399 Speaker 1: but in a different context. So I'm not really including 41 00:02:43,440 --> 00:02:48,840 Speaker 1: those in his short story Burning Chrome He called cyberspace 42 00:02:49,040 --> 00:02:53,600 Speaker 1: a consensual hallucination. So it was a thing that took 43 00:02:54,040 --> 00:02:59,040 Speaker 1: abstract data and ideas and turned it into stuff you 44 00:02:59,040 --> 00:03:03,799 Speaker 1: could actually see, like visualize. And that sounds pretty trippy, 45 00:03:03,840 --> 00:03:07,000 Speaker 1: but stick with me for a second, because honestly, this 46 00:03:07,080 --> 00:03:09,640 Speaker 1: is how we interact with a lot of our technology today. 47 00:03:10,040 --> 00:03:13,840 Speaker 1: It's just you know, mundane to us. So take the 48 00:03:13,880 --> 00:03:19,320 Speaker 1: typical computer user interface or even smartphone interface. Most systems 49 00:03:19,360 --> 00:03:21,880 Speaker 1: that the average person comes into contact with these days 50 00:03:22,280 --> 00:03:25,799 Speaker 1: are some variation of a graphical user interface or g 51 00:03:26,120 --> 00:03:30,640 Speaker 1: u I or gooey. In other words, there are obviously alternatives, 52 00:03:31,000 --> 00:03:34,560 Speaker 1: and I mean if you're working on Linux systems with 53 00:03:34,720 --> 00:03:37,840 Speaker 1: line code and things like that, you know that's different. 54 00:03:38,000 --> 00:03:42,560 Speaker 1: But most of us tend to encounter systems that are 55 00:03:42,640 --> 00:03:45,640 Speaker 1: using some form of gooey. So the graphics on screen 56 00:03:45,720 --> 00:03:50,840 Speaker 1: represents stuff like programs and processes. So for example, if 57 00:03:50,880 --> 00:03:54,280 Speaker 1: you have a uh your desktop up and there's a 58 00:03:54,360 --> 00:03:56,600 Speaker 1: Chrome icon on the screen, you can click on that 59 00:03:56,680 --> 00:03:59,600 Speaker 1: and it opens up the Chrome web browser. Uh. If 60 00:03:59,600 --> 00:04:02,200 Speaker 1: you were to click on an icon that was for Minecraft, 61 00:04:02,240 --> 00:04:04,840 Speaker 1: it would open up Minecraft. You get the idea. The 62 00:04:04,880 --> 00:04:08,480 Speaker 1: process of executing a program, which you know that's kind 63 00:04:08,480 --> 00:04:10,760 Speaker 1: of abstract. The idea of telling a computer, hey, I 64 00:04:10,800 --> 00:04:14,760 Speaker 1: need you to execute this specific code. That has made 65 00:04:14,760 --> 00:04:19,520 Speaker 1: more understandable by representing that process with the icon. You 66 00:04:19,560 --> 00:04:22,640 Speaker 1: click on the icon and the computer does the thing. 67 00:04:23,200 --> 00:04:25,120 Speaker 1: You don't have to try to figure out how to 68 00:04:25,160 --> 00:04:27,600 Speaker 1: tell the computer to do the thing. The computer knows 69 00:04:27,640 --> 00:04:29,760 Speaker 1: how to do the thing. All you had to do 70 00:04:29,839 --> 00:04:33,440 Speaker 1: is click on the icon. Gibson's description of cyberspace was 71 00:04:33,640 --> 00:04:38,560 Speaker 1: kind of like that, but on a global scale. It 72 00:04:38,680 --> 00:04:42,720 Speaker 1: was an extension of how we already used various methods 73 00:04:43,160 --> 00:04:45,800 Speaker 1: to try and visualize data. I mean, we've been doing 74 00:04:45,839 --> 00:04:49,760 Speaker 1: that for ages, you know. We use tables and charts 75 00:04:49,760 --> 00:04:53,080 Speaker 1: and graphs in order to do this. Humans are not 76 00:04:53,200 --> 00:04:56,320 Speaker 1: super good at processing big numbers, like we can't really 77 00:04:56,400 --> 00:04:59,599 Speaker 1: conceptualize big numbers effectively. But if you break it down 78 00:04:59,600 --> 00:05:03,640 Speaker 1: into a picture, then we typically get the idea, ah ha, 79 00:05:04,120 --> 00:05:07,400 Speaker 1: that piece of the pie is much bigger than this 80 00:05:07,480 --> 00:05:11,719 Speaker 1: other piece of the pie. You know, mm hmm pie. 81 00:05:12,480 --> 00:05:15,800 Speaker 1: That's a that's a throwback for the long time text 82 00:05:15,800 --> 00:05:20,240 Speaker 1: stuff listeners out there. Well later people would specifically interpret 83 00:05:20,360 --> 00:05:25,440 Speaker 1: Gibson's description of cyberspace to mean computer networks in general, 84 00:05:25,800 --> 00:05:30,240 Speaker 1: and then the Internet in particular. Cyberspace was this kind 85 00:05:30,279 --> 00:05:34,760 Speaker 1: of nebulous location. It wasn't physical, but it was possible 86 00:05:34,760 --> 00:05:39,159 Speaker 1: because of these interconnected computers. It was the the abstract 87 00:05:39,200 --> 00:05:43,680 Speaker 1: idea of space represented by these computer connections. Cyberspace was 88 00:05:43,720 --> 00:05:47,240 Speaker 1: where data could flow from one source to another, or 89 00:05:47,400 --> 00:05:50,760 Speaker 1: from one source to many others, or from many sources 90 00:05:50,920 --> 00:05:55,400 Speaker 1: to one destination. As the general public became aware that 91 00:05:55,839 --> 00:05:59,960 Speaker 1: there was this thing called the Internet, the term cyberspace 92 00:06:00,000 --> 00:06:03,279 Speaker 1: would sometimes be used to describe it. In fact, a 93 00:06:03,279 --> 00:06:06,080 Speaker 1: lot of us still use it today. I would argue 94 00:06:06,120 --> 00:06:09,839 Speaker 1: that Gibson's original concept was a little more poetic than 95 00:06:10,000 --> 00:06:14,040 Speaker 1: the Internet, that it was less about the actual interconnections 96 00:06:14,080 --> 00:06:18,240 Speaker 1: and more about this experience of the abstract taking a 97 00:06:18,360 --> 00:06:22,599 Speaker 1: synthetic form that we could interact with in some presumably 98 00:06:22,680 --> 00:06:26,120 Speaker 1: meaningful way. But there you go. Well, by the time 99 00:06:26,120 --> 00:06:28,560 Speaker 1: we get to the nineties, the Internet was a known thing, 100 00:06:28,720 --> 00:06:32,360 Speaker 1: at least to a slightly larger number of folks. It 101 00:06:32,360 --> 00:06:35,320 Speaker 1: wouldn't really take off in the public consciousness until the 102 00:06:35,360 --> 00:06:39,480 Speaker 1: Worldwide Web started to gain speed. Really, by the mid 103 00:06:39,520 --> 00:06:41,919 Speaker 1: to late nineties, it had been around for a while, 104 00:06:42,040 --> 00:06:44,719 Speaker 1: but mostly it was college students who were aware of 105 00:06:44,760 --> 00:06:48,240 Speaker 1: it before then. But in those early nineties we got 106 00:06:48,320 --> 00:06:53,120 Speaker 1: another concept from science fiction, and this would be the metaverse. Now, 107 00:06:53,160 --> 00:06:56,479 Speaker 1: this time the author was Neil Stevenson and the book 108 00:06:56,640 --> 00:07:00,280 Speaker 1: was Snow Crash. That book, by the way, is a 109 00:07:00,520 --> 00:07:04,400 Speaker 1: darn entertaining read. There's no way I could give a 110 00:07:04,520 --> 00:07:07,280 Speaker 1: synopsis of that book and do it justice. It would 111 00:07:07,320 --> 00:07:09,960 Speaker 1: just sound like gibberish if I try to explain it. 112 00:07:10,360 --> 00:07:14,560 Speaker 1: But it includes stuff like cyberpunk elements, the concept of 113 00:07:14,640 --> 00:07:19,440 Speaker 1: human language being somewhat synonymous with programming languages, the idea 114 00:07:19,440 --> 00:07:23,480 Speaker 1: of corporations becoming the dominant force in modern life, and 115 00:07:23,520 --> 00:07:26,800 Speaker 1: stuff like that. Also, the main character's name in that 116 00:07:26,840 --> 00:07:32,080 Speaker 1: book is Hero Protagonist, which is just playing awesome. But 117 00:07:32,200 --> 00:07:35,280 Speaker 1: the part we want to focus on is the metaverse. 118 00:07:35,760 --> 00:07:40,240 Speaker 1: So in the books No Crash, there is this online 119 00:07:40,440 --> 00:07:44,480 Speaker 1: virtual space that exists in tandem with our own physical world. 120 00:07:45,160 --> 00:07:48,160 Speaker 1: Using a computer system like a terminal, you can log 121 00:07:48,240 --> 00:07:52,160 Speaker 1: into this persistent virtual world, and in that world, each 122 00:07:52,200 --> 00:07:55,960 Speaker 1: person has an avatar to represent themselves, just like you 123 00:07:56,000 --> 00:07:59,679 Speaker 1: would find in your typical massively multiplayer online role playing 124 00:07:59,680 --> 00:08:02,600 Speaker 1: game or m m O RPG. Now, this kind of 125 00:08:02,640 --> 00:08:06,880 Speaker 1: gets back to Gibson's description of abstract data taking forms. 126 00:08:06,920 --> 00:08:10,320 Speaker 1: So in this case, the abstract data would be all 127 00:08:10,360 --> 00:08:12,880 Speaker 1: the different kinds of interactions you would have within a 128 00:08:12,960 --> 00:08:16,680 Speaker 1: virtual space, and the form would be the avatar. Right. 129 00:08:16,800 --> 00:08:21,160 Speaker 1: So let's say that you're in a virtual pub, and 130 00:08:21,240 --> 00:08:23,800 Speaker 1: this virtual pub has a dartboard in it, and you 131 00:08:23,880 --> 00:08:26,640 Speaker 1: decide you want to play a game of darts, so 132 00:08:26,720 --> 00:08:29,200 Speaker 1: you direct your avatar to the dart board. Then you 133 00:08:29,240 --> 00:08:32,160 Speaker 1: begin a game, and the whole process of your avatar 134 00:08:32,280 --> 00:08:34,400 Speaker 1: walking to the dart board and pulling the darts out 135 00:08:34,400 --> 00:08:35,959 Speaker 1: and getting ready to throw the darts is kind of 136 00:08:36,000 --> 00:08:39,240 Speaker 1: analogous to how you would click on an icon on 137 00:08:39,320 --> 00:08:44,160 Speaker 1: your standard computer or smartphone gooey like, when you want 138 00:08:44,160 --> 00:08:46,120 Speaker 1: to play a game on your phone, you just touch 139 00:08:46,200 --> 00:08:48,280 Speaker 1: the icon for the game on your screen and it 140 00:08:48,400 --> 00:08:51,880 Speaker 1: launches and then you're off. In this version of a metaverse, 141 00:08:52,000 --> 00:08:54,960 Speaker 1: a virtual representation of you seems to go through these 142 00:08:54,960 --> 00:08:57,839 Speaker 1: stages that a real person would go through in our 143 00:08:58,000 --> 00:09:02,040 Speaker 1: physical real world to play the real version of that game. 144 00:09:02,400 --> 00:09:06,360 Speaker 1: So again it's giving form, it's mirroring the real world 145 00:09:06,360 --> 00:09:09,920 Speaker 1: in that case. Now that's just a simple example, of course, 146 00:09:10,000 --> 00:09:14,120 Speaker 1: And in snow crash. The metaverse includes not just avatars 147 00:09:14,200 --> 00:09:18,520 Speaker 1: that represent people and not just like entertaining diversions. There 148 00:09:18,520 --> 00:09:23,439 Speaker 1: are also representations of programs and processes that take a 149 00:09:23,600 --> 00:09:28,240 Speaker 1: form like akin to a physical form in the metaverse. Again, 150 00:09:28,320 --> 00:09:31,400 Speaker 1: let's think about your computer. One thing you might have 151 00:09:31,480 --> 00:09:34,760 Speaker 1: on your computer is an anti virus program that, right, 152 00:09:34,840 --> 00:09:37,960 Speaker 1: the anti virus is designed to keep your computer protected 153 00:09:38,000 --> 00:09:41,640 Speaker 1: from malware threats. Well, in the metaverse, you might have 154 00:09:41,920 --> 00:09:47,600 Speaker 1: something akin to malware protection, but it takes the form 155 00:09:47,679 --> 00:09:50,880 Speaker 1: of like a security guard or maybe a personal bodyguard, 156 00:09:51,559 --> 00:09:55,120 Speaker 1: and you actually see a representation. You wouldn't have to 157 00:09:55,120 --> 00:09:56,920 Speaker 1: do it this way, right, You wouldn't even have to 158 00:09:56,920 --> 00:10:01,520 Speaker 1: have a visualization of that process, but you could. So 159 00:10:01,559 --> 00:10:03,680 Speaker 1: some of the things in the metaverse would not be 160 00:10:03,880 --> 00:10:10,040 Speaker 1: representations of other people, but of specific processes or programs. 161 00:10:10,080 --> 00:10:13,199 Speaker 1: On a similar note, maybe you've got a personal assistant 162 00:10:13,280 --> 00:10:16,000 Speaker 1: in this virtual world, and the assistant isn't an actual 163 00:10:16,080 --> 00:10:19,840 Speaker 1: human being using an avatar. Instead, it's a computer generated 164 00:10:19,960 --> 00:10:23,720 Speaker 1: conduit for things like notifications. So instead of seeing like 165 00:10:24,160 --> 00:10:26,600 Speaker 1: something pop up within your vision telling you, hey, you've 166 00:10:26,600 --> 00:10:30,000 Speaker 1: got a message, maybe you've got this personal assistant who says, hey, boss, 167 00:10:30,200 --> 00:10:33,320 Speaker 1: I got a message for you, like, that's another way 168 00:10:33,360 --> 00:10:36,760 Speaker 1: you could have this implementation. Now, that is the tippiest 169 00:10:36,880 --> 00:10:40,720 Speaker 1: tip of the iceberg when it comes to metaverse implementations, 170 00:10:40,720 --> 00:10:43,600 Speaker 1: of course, And I should also add that the concept 171 00:10:43,679 --> 00:10:45,840 Speaker 1: lumps and a few other things as well. For one thing, 172 00:10:46,720 --> 00:10:51,559 Speaker 1: stuff like virtual and augmented reality bleed into the idea 173 00:10:51,640 --> 00:10:54,959 Speaker 1: of a metaverse. The metaverse becomes something that one can 174 00:10:55,040 --> 00:10:59,360 Speaker 1: experience within the virtual environment, or sometimes the metaverse can 175 00:10:59,400 --> 00:11:02,959 Speaker 1: bleed in to the real world through technologies like augmented 176 00:11:03,000 --> 00:11:07,319 Speaker 1: reality and the Internet of Things. Really, the metaverse is 177 00:11:07,360 --> 00:11:10,240 Speaker 1: an evolutionary step and how we interact both with the 178 00:11:10,280 --> 00:11:14,120 Speaker 1: world of computers and computer systems and our real world 179 00:11:14,200 --> 00:11:18,360 Speaker 1: around us. Now, let's talk about augmented reality for a second. 180 00:11:18,640 --> 00:11:21,920 Speaker 1: I often think of augmented reality or a R as 181 00:11:21,960 --> 00:11:25,400 Speaker 1: being kind of an isolated experience. So, in other words, 182 00:11:25,920 --> 00:11:29,319 Speaker 1: I frequently take a fairly narrow view of a R. 183 00:11:29,480 --> 00:11:33,160 Speaker 1: I imagine glasses or maybe a headset. Then lets me 184 00:11:33,200 --> 00:11:37,160 Speaker 1: do stuff like see virtual overlays like directions displayed on 185 00:11:37,200 --> 00:11:41,280 Speaker 1: top of my real world view. So maybe I'm desperately 186 00:11:41,280 --> 00:11:45,240 Speaker 1: trying to put together a piece of IKEA furniture and 187 00:11:45,360 --> 00:11:48,280 Speaker 1: I'm having real hard time just following the paper directions. 188 00:11:48,320 --> 00:11:50,559 Speaker 1: So I put on my A R headset that has 189 00:11:50,600 --> 00:11:53,960 Speaker 1: a program that has all the different Ikea furniture programmed 190 00:11:54,000 --> 00:11:58,040 Speaker 1: into it, and the headsets camera is looking where I'm looking, 191 00:11:58,080 --> 00:12:01,679 Speaker 1: so it identifies the various pieces is of Ikea furniture 192 00:12:01,679 --> 00:12:04,040 Speaker 1: in front of me, and it gives me directions step 193 00:12:04,040 --> 00:12:06,200 Speaker 1: by step on what I need to do next. It 194 00:12:06,280 --> 00:12:09,320 Speaker 1: tells me if the piece I'm working on is backwards 195 00:12:09,400 --> 00:12:11,559 Speaker 1: or not right, might say, hey, you need to flip 196 00:12:11,600 --> 00:12:14,800 Speaker 1: that around, which is very useful. It prevents me from 197 00:12:14,800 --> 00:12:18,720 Speaker 1: doing what I otherwise will do practically every single ding 198 00:12:18,840 --> 00:12:21,200 Speaker 1: dang darn time, which is that I will install the 199 00:12:21,280 --> 00:12:25,760 Speaker 1: drawers upside down in my desk. Anyway, with the A 200 00:12:25,960 --> 00:12:29,640 Speaker 1: R glasses, I'm not just getting instructions like I would 201 00:12:29,760 --> 00:12:35,280 Speaker 1: from the paper book. I'm getting contextual, relevant instructions for 202 00:12:35,360 --> 00:12:38,559 Speaker 1: what's happening at that moment, where I am and how 203 00:12:38,600 --> 00:12:42,760 Speaker 1: everything is oriented from my perspective. The glasses interpret what 204 00:12:42,800 --> 00:12:45,960 Speaker 1: it is I'm looking at and what it should look like, 205 00:12:46,320 --> 00:12:48,160 Speaker 1: and then it is able to tell me what I 206 00:12:48,160 --> 00:12:51,840 Speaker 1: should do next. I mean, the earliest versions of A 207 00:12:52,040 --> 00:12:54,160 Speaker 1: R were meant to do this sort of thing. One 208 00:12:54,240 --> 00:12:58,079 Speaker 1: very early implementation of augmented reality was to help people 209 00:12:58,120 --> 00:13:01,040 Speaker 1: who are putting together commercial air craft. You know, there's 210 00:13:01,080 --> 00:13:02,800 Speaker 1: a lot of stuff that has to happen correctly to 211 00:13:02,840 --> 00:13:07,920 Speaker 1: build a working commercial aircraft, for example, wiring up the 212 00:13:07,960 --> 00:13:11,120 Speaker 1: aircraft that you're putting together so that all the electrical 213 00:13:11,160 --> 00:13:15,520 Speaker 1: systems work properly. So one early implementation of the ARE 214 00:13:16,240 --> 00:13:19,600 Speaker 1: was to create a guide for technicians to follow when 215 00:13:19,600 --> 00:13:22,160 Speaker 1: they were wiring up aircraft to make sure that the 216 00:13:22,200 --> 00:13:25,160 Speaker 1: correct wires were going to the correct places. Well, these 217 00:13:25,160 --> 00:13:28,520 Speaker 1: are kind of isolated examples of a R. In a 218 00:13:28,559 --> 00:13:33,600 Speaker 1: metaverse implementation, the a R glasses could tap into this shared, 219 00:13:33,760 --> 00:13:38,280 Speaker 1: persistent universe and create experiences in our real world connected 220 00:13:38,320 --> 00:13:41,400 Speaker 1: to that virtual universe, and it could do so in 221 00:13:41,440 --> 00:13:43,280 Speaker 1: a lot of different ways. I mean, maybe it allows 222 00:13:43,320 --> 00:13:45,680 Speaker 1: you to travel within both the real world and the 223 00:13:45,720 --> 00:13:48,560 Speaker 1: metaverse at the same time, which I think would probably 224 00:13:48,559 --> 00:13:51,280 Speaker 1: be a little bit confusing at least for me. Or 225 00:13:51,360 --> 00:13:53,760 Speaker 1: maybe it lets you tap into stuff that enhances your 226 00:13:53,760 --> 00:13:57,480 Speaker 1: experience in both realms in some way, Like you could 227 00:13:57,520 --> 00:14:02,559 Speaker 1: think of ways that marketers could create real world experiences 228 00:14:02,600 --> 00:14:06,679 Speaker 1: that enhance your experiences in a virtual world or vice versa, 229 00:14:07,000 --> 00:14:08,960 Speaker 1: like you could have it go both ways. When you 230 00:14:09,040 --> 00:14:12,079 Speaker 1: pairent with things like the Internet of Things and ubiquitous computing, 231 00:14:12,480 --> 00:14:15,880 Speaker 1: you really start to blur the lines between where the 232 00:14:16,000 --> 00:14:18,800 Speaker 1: virtual world ends and the real world begins. And that's 233 00:14:18,880 --> 00:14:21,400 Speaker 1: kind of the point. Now. I mentioned that in snow 234 00:14:21,440 --> 00:14:25,440 Speaker 1: Crash there's kind of a social system in this metaverse 235 00:14:26,000 --> 00:14:29,560 Speaker 1: um and it depends partly on how good your avatar 236 00:14:29,680 --> 00:14:31,800 Speaker 1: looks like. That's a big part of it. And the 237 00:14:31,880 --> 00:14:34,920 Speaker 1: idea here is that you typically need to be pretty 238 00:14:34,960 --> 00:14:38,520 Speaker 1: talented as a programmer or a hacker in order to 239 00:14:38,600 --> 00:14:42,400 Speaker 1: make a really cool looking avatar. Uh. And the way 240 00:14:42,440 --> 00:14:45,760 Speaker 1: you tap into the metaverse and snow Crash is reliant 241 00:14:45,840 --> 00:14:48,520 Speaker 1: on what kind of terminal you are using. What's your 242 00:14:48,720 --> 00:14:51,720 Speaker 1: end point, your your access point. The folks who are 243 00:14:51,760 --> 00:14:54,240 Speaker 1: really well off in the real world have their own 244 00:14:54,320 --> 00:14:59,560 Speaker 1: personal terminals with powerful computer systems and sophisticated electronics, so 245 00:14:59,800 --> 00:15:02,760 Speaker 1: the look great when they log in. Their Their avatars 246 00:15:02,800 --> 00:15:07,280 Speaker 1: aren't just cool, they're like high resolution, detailed avatars. But 247 00:15:07,360 --> 00:15:11,640 Speaker 1: you could also access the metaverse using publicly accessible terminals, 248 00:15:11,640 --> 00:15:15,080 Speaker 1: but these run on much older pieces of hardware, so 249 00:15:15,160 --> 00:15:17,400 Speaker 1: you look kind of jankie when you log in like 250 00:15:17,920 --> 00:15:20,880 Speaker 1: a low resolution version of whatever it is you're trying 251 00:15:20,880 --> 00:15:23,840 Speaker 1: to be, and that means that the folks around you 252 00:15:23,880 --> 00:15:26,480 Speaker 1: will look down on you like your status is lower 253 00:15:26,560 --> 00:15:32,880 Speaker 1: because you're accessing the metaverse using some publicly accessible terminal, 254 00:15:33,040 --> 00:15:36,080 Speaker 1: not like through some fancy sh fancy one. Now that's 255 00:15:36,120 --> 00:15:39,040 Speaker 1: an interesting concept. It's one that I think we would 256 00:15:39,040 --> 00:15:41,200 Speaker 1: have to tweak a little bit today for it to 257 00:15:41,240 --> 00:15:43,880 Speaker 1: translate properly. And the reason I say that is because 258 00:15:43,920 --> 00:15:47,960 Speaker 1: of cloud computing. Most of the time online worlds rely 259 00:15:48,200 --> 00:15:51,920 Speaker 1: on cloud based servers to do the heavy lifting. So 260 00:15:51,960 --> 00:15:55,280 Speaker 1: the device you use, whether it's your computer or virtual 261 00:15:55,320 --> 00:15:59,280 Speaker 1: reality setup or even your smartphone, that device doesn't need 262 00:15:59,360 --> 00:16:01,680 Speaker 1: to do as as much work. Has to do some 263 00:16:01,800 --> 00:16:04,560 Speaker 1: it's got to render stuff for you, but a lot 264 00:16:04,680 --> 00:16:07,680 Speaker 1: of the heavy lifting is done on the server side, 265 00:16:08,120 --> 00:16:11,760 Speaker 1: not on the client side. So some processing has to 266 00:16:11,800 --> 00:16:14,480 Speaker 1: happen at your side, but a lot of it needs 267 00:16:14,480 --> 00:16:19,320 Speaker 1: to happen in the centrally located cloud. So in this case, 268 00:16:19,920 --> 00:16:22,960 Speaker 1: what's really important is that you have a good Internet 269 00:16:22,960 --> 00:16:26,680 Speaker 1: connection in order to have a seamless experience. But then 270 00:16:26,680 --> 00:16:28,800 Speaker 1: the servers do the rest. So I think if Stevenson 271 00:16:28,920 --> 00:16:31,920 Speaker 1: were to write snow Crash today, he might put more 272 00:16:31,960 --> 00:16:37,040 Speaker 1: emphasis on connection speed versus the actual physical hardware you're 273 00:16:37,160 --> 00:16:40,920 Speaker 1: using to access the metaverse, and that the speed would 274 00:16:41,040 --> 00:16:45,200 Speaker 1: end up being something that affects your perceived status within 275 00:16:45,320 --> 00:16:49,600 Speaker 1: the metaverse. Anyway, the metaverse plays a really big part 276 00:16:49,640 --> 00:16:52,080 Speaker 1: in snow Crash, but it plays an even bigger part 277 00:16:52,640 --> 00:16:56,520 Speaker 1: in a novel titled Ready Player one by Ernest Klein, 278 00:16:56,960 --> 00:17:00,720 Speaker 1: which also was famously turned into a movie. Now. In 279 00:17:00,760 --> 00:17:05,520 Speaker 1: that novel, there's an online world called Oasis that is 280 00:17:05,920 --> 00:17:09,280 Speaker 1: in many ways a metaverse. It's where people go to 281 00:17:09,520 --> 00:17:13,159 Speaker 1: escape the harsh and mundane challenges of the real world. 282 00:17:13,760 --> 00:17:18,080 Speaker 1: Like snow Crash, how you experience the Oasis depends largely 283 00:17:18,160 --> 00:17:21,480 Speaker 1: upon the equipment you have at your disposal. If you 284 00:17:21,480 --> 00:17:23,920 Speaker 1: have a basic setup, you get a taste of it, 285 00:17:23,960 --> 00:17:25,679 Speaker 1: but to really get the most out of it, you 286 00:17:25,720 --> 00:17:29,480 Speaker 1: need really high tech and expensive gear that not only 287 00:17:29,560 --> 00:17:32,879 Speaker 1: lets you navigate this virtual environment, but you get real 288 00:17:32,960 --> 00:17:36,200 Speaker 1: world haptic feedback. Haptic in this case, that that's talking 289 00:17:36,240 --> 00:17:39,920 Speaker 1: about your sense of touch. So you have some sort 290 00:17:39,920 --> 00:17:43,240 Speaker 1: of technology that can give you touch feedback to stuff 291 00:17:43,240 --> 00:17:46,280 Speaker 1: that you're encountering. In this virtual space, which creates your 292 00:17:46,280 --> 00:17:50,639 Speaker 1: sense of immersion, right, and you can physically experience the 293 00:17:50,680 --> 00:17:54,760 Speaker 1: stuff that you're virtually encountering. The two realities, you know, 294 00:17:54,880 --> 00:17:57,359 Speaker 1: the reality of the real world and the reality of 295 00:17:57,400 --> 00:18:02,240 Speaker 1: this virtual real world kind blend into one another. Also 296 00:18:02,560 --> 00:18:06,359 Speaker 1: in the metaverse and Ready Player one, that metaverse mostly 297 00:18:06,400 --> 00:18:09,720 Speaker 1: exists so that you can endure countless references to nineteen 298 00:18:09,720 --> 00:18:14,320 Speaker 1: eighties pop culture like a lot. Now, I know this 299 00:18:14,400 --> 00:18:18,199 Speaker 1: isn't a literary criticism podcast, but I have to say 300 00:18:18,240 --> 00:18:20,679 Speaker 1: that the one thing I found Ready Player one to 301 00:18:20,840 --> 00:18:24,600 Speaker 1: really be was irritating, both because I felt that Klein 302 00:18:24,760 --> 00:18:27,440 Speaker 1: was leaning way too hard on references to kind of 303 00:18:27,760 --> 00:18:31,720 Speaker 1: stand in for story, and also what little story there 304 00:18:31,720 --> 00:18:35,480 Speaker 1: actually was once you peeled the references away, amounted to 305 00:18:35,800 --> 00:18:39,560 Speaker 1: very little more than a juvenile male power fantasy, which 306 00:18:39,640 --> 00:18:42,120 Speaker 1: is kind of a key for me. And because all 307 00:18:42,119 --> 00:18:45,520 Speaker 1: the references were for the nineteen eighties, I couldn't help 308 00:18:45,560 --> 00:18:47,800 Speaker 1: but feel that Klein was really writing this book for 309 00:18:47,840 --> 00:18:50,960 Speaker 1: folks who belonged to kind of my generation, the same 310 00:18:50,960 --> 00:18:53,679 Speaker 1: as Klein's generation. You know, people who were kids in 311 00:18:53,720 --> 00:18:57,080 Speaker 1: the eighties like those references wouldn't have the same appeal 312 00:18:57,119 --> 00:18:59,840 Speaker 1: to people who were born and say the late nineties, 313 00:18:59,880 --> 00:19:04,480 Speaker 1: for example. But then you've got a juvenile male power 314 00:19:04,560 --> 00:19:07,679 Speaker 1: fantasy that was written in a book that was mostly 315 00:19:07,720 --> 00:19:11,080 Speaker 1: geared for people in their forties. Anyway, I'm off track, 316 00:19:11,359 --> 00:19:13,600 Speaker 1: you know what. Actually, I think we're gonna take a 317 00:19:13,720 --> 00:19:16,600 Speaker 1: quick break. When we come back, we'll talk more about 318 00:19:16,680 --> 00:19:27,200 Speaker 1: the concept of the metaverse. One thing that we need 319 00:19:27,240 --> 00:19:30,600 Speaker 1: to take into consideration when we're talking about the metaverse 320 00:19:30,840 --> 00:19:34,439 Speaker 1: is the idea of what comes next, because that's kind 321 00:19:34,520 --> 00:19:38,280 Speaker 1: of what the metaverse is. And it helps if we 322 00:19:38,320 --> 00:19:40,919 Speaker 1: think of some of the technologies that were emerging at 323 00:19:40,960 --> 00:19:43,639 Speaker 1: the time that folks first started to think about stuff 324 00:19:43,720 --> 00:19:47,320 Speaker 1: like the metaverse. For one thing, you had the emergence 325 00:19:47,440 --> 00:19:51,000 Speaker 1: of virtual reality or VR. Now, VR in the nineties 326 00:19:51,240 --> 00:19:55,480 Speaker 1: was pretty primitive, but folks latched onto this concept like Gangbusters. 327 00:19:55,520 --> 00:19:59,320 Speaker 1: The hype was out of control. The general public was 328 00:19:59,480 --> 00:20:03,080 Speaker 1: familiar with, at least, you know, to some extent, of computers, 329 00:20:03,119 --> 00:20:05,840 Speaker 1: and they were at least aware of computers. Stuff like 330 00:20:06,040 --> 00:20:10,159 Speaker 1: video game systems, personal computers, and digitized workplaces. Meant that 331 00:20:10,760 --> 00:20:13,040 Speaker 1: pretty much everybody had at least some awareness of what 332 00:20:13,080 --> 00:20:16,960 Speaker 1: computers are and what they can do. Virtual reality had 333 00:20:17,000 --> 00:20:20,320 Speaker 1: this promise of bringing what computers do into a new 334 00:20:20,400 --> 00:20:26,520 Speaker 1: kind of experience, a really immersive, enveloping experience like the gooey, 335 00:20:26,640 --> 00:20:30,280 Speaker 1: like the graphical user interface. Virtual reality we were told 336 00:20:30,320 --> 00:20:35,600 Speaker 1: would revolutionize how we interface and access computer information and programs. 337 00:20:35,640 --> 00:20:37,760 Speaker 1: So rather than sitting at a desk and using a 338 00:20:37,840 --> 00:20:41,880 Speaker 1: keyboard and mouse, we would use a virtual reality set 339 00:20:41,960 --> 00:20:45,800 Speaker 1: up and we would virtually walk around environments and interact 340 00:20:45,840 --> 00:20:49,600 Speaker 1: with virtual objects. Would be the next step up from 341 00:20:49,640 --> 00:20:54,119 Speaker 1: having icons, right, And this was the era where Hollywood 342 00:20:54,200 --> 00:20:57,479 Speaker 1: kind of envisioned a very different, unrealistic version of what 343 00:20:57,800 --> 00:21:01,000 Speaker 1: using a computer was all about, and an even more 344 00:21:01,080 --> 00:21:04,840 Speaker 1: unrealistic depiction of what virtual reality experiences were like. If 345 00:21:04,840 --> 00:21:07,320 Speaker 1: you take a look at films from the early to 346 00:21:07,440 --> 00:21:11,480 Speaker 1: mid nineties that involved computers, there's usually some sort of 347 00:21:11,520 --> 00:21:14,520 Speaker 1: scene where someone is, you know, at a computer and 348 00:21:14,680 --> 00:21:17,440 Speaker 1: they're going through a file system and they're navigating through 349 00:21:17,480 --> 00:21:23,040 Speaker 1: some sort of three dimensionally rendered virtual structure. They might 350 00:21:23,080 --> 00:21:27,280 Speaker 1: even be avoiding viruses or or security programs that are 351 00:21:27,280 --> 00:21:30,280 Speaker 1: represented in some way like it's like you're playing a 352 00:21:30,359 --> 00:21:32,960 Speaker 1: first person shooter game that all you're trying to do is, 353 00:21:33,320 --> 00:21:37,000 Speaker 1: you know, run a simple program. It's nonsense, but it 354 00:21:37,160 --> 00:21:39,920 Speaker 1: was a way to bring about that abstract idea into 355 00:21:39,960 --> 00:21:42,960 Speaker 1: something that was, you know, filmable, because it's not very 356 00:21:42,960 --> 00:21:47,359 Speaker 1: exciting to see someone either type in code into a 357 00:21:47,400 --> 00:21:51,520 Speaker 1: computer or click on an icon on the screen. Well, 358 00:21:51,600 --> 00:21:54,879 Speaker 1: VR would end up having a drastic decline, largely because 359 00:21:54,880 --> 00:21:59,320 Speaker 1: people became disenchanted with where the technology actually stood versus 360 00:21:59,359 --> 00:22:03,240 Speaker 1: where people thought it was based upon these like Hollywood 361 00:22:03,320 --> 00:22:07,040 Speaker 1: films and stuff. So VR fell off the edge of 362 00:22:07,080 --> 00:22:10,080 Speaker 1: the hype train and it would take another decade or 363 00:22:10,080 --> 00:22:12,760 Speaker 1: so before it would start to re emerge to make 364 00:22:12,800 --> 00:22:15,679 Speaker 1: another go at it. The VR would be one of 365 00:22:15,720 --> 00:22:18,800 Speaker 1: the many components we would see incorporated into the concept 366 00:22:18,840 --> 00:22:22,000 Speaker 1: of the metaverse. Then we've got the idea of web 367 00:22:22,040 --> 00:22:24,800 Speaker 1: two point oh, which ties into this general idea of 368 00:22:25,200 --> 00:22:28,439 Speaker 1: whether the Internet, or to put it less whimsically, what 369 00:22:28,640 --> 00:22:32,280 Speaker 1: comes next, what's the next evolutionary step. So web two 370 00:22:32,280 --> 00:22:35,879 Speaker 1: point oh was essentially a marketing buzz term. It was 371 00:22:35,920 --> 00:22:39,159 Speaker 1: a way to reduce a lot of different important concepts 372 00:22:39,440 --> 00:22:42,480 Speaker 1: into something that was easy to reference, even if you 373 00:22:42,560 --> 00:22:48,920 Speaker 1: weren't being particularly precise with your language. It's unfortunate that 374 00:22:48,960 --> 00:22:52,679 Speaker 1: people went with two point oh as a designation because 375 00:22:52,680 --> 00:22:56,440 Speaker 1: it suggests that we first had Web one point oh, 376 00:22:56,520 --> 00:22:59,560 Speaker 1: and then at some point some developers somewhere pushed out 377 00:22:59,600 --> 00:23:01,480 Speaker 1: an up date to the web and we got Web 378 00:23:01,480 --> 00:23:04,600 Speaker 1: two point oh. But that's not what happened. Instead, Web 379 00:23:04,640 --> 00:23:07,840 Speaker 1: two point oh was a kind of collective term to 380 00:23:07,880 --> 00:23:14,159 Speaker 1: describe websites that embraced stuff like dynamic, interactive experiences instead 381 00:23:14,240 --> 00:23:17,639 Speaker 1: of a static web page. These experiences didn't have to 382 00:23:17,680 --> 00:23:20,440 Speaker 1: be you know, thrilling, edge of your seat kind of things. 383 00:23:20,480 --> 00:23:24,560 Speaker 1: For example, shopping sites that let users post reviews of 384 00:23:24,640 --> 00:23:30,160 Speaker 1: products and then future visitors will see those reviews. Those 385 00:23:30,200 --> 00:23:33,880 Speaker 1: are considered to be interactive and dynamic. The users are 386 00:23:33,920 --> 00:23:37,240 Speaker 1: adding value to the experience of visiting the website through 387 00:23:37,280 --> 00:23:41,720 Speaker 1: their activities. They're changing things over time, and future users 388 00:23:41,720 --> 00:23:43,840 Speaker 1: can take that and say, oh, this person gave a 389 00:23:43,880 --> 00:23:46,800 Speaker 1: really good review for this particular item, I'm going to 390 00:23:46,880 --> 00:23:49,679 Speaker 1: go ahead and order it. Then you contrast that with 391 00:23:49,760 --> 00:23:51,840 Speaker 1: some of the early web pages that were nothing more 392 00:23:51,880 --> 00:23:54,919 Speaker 1: than just text. I mean, maybe you've got a table, 393 00:23:55,680 --> 00:23:57,760 Speaker 1: maybe you've got a picture or two if you were lucky, 394 00:23:57,960 --> 00:24:00,359 Speaker 1: if you were unlucky, maybe you also had a MIDI 395 00:24:00,440 --> 00:24:02,520 Speaker 1: file playing in the background. Because I built some of 396 00:24:02,520 --> 00:24:06,879 Speaker 1: those pages and and I am sorry anyway. These early 397 00:24:06,920 --> 00:24:12,080 Speaker 1: pages were more like a physical catalog or a reference book. 398 00:24:12,320 --> 00:24:15,960 Speaker 1: It's something that had inc committed to paper kind of 399 00:24:15,960 --> 00:24:18,879 Speaker 1: approach to it. You know, the books and the catalogs, 400 00:24:18,880 --> 00:24:22,000 Speaker 1: they never change. The publisher might send out an updated 401 00:24:22,080 --> 00:24:24,560 Speaker 1: version further down the line, but the ones that they 402 00:24:24,600 --> 00:24:27,200 Speaker 1: send out originally, those don't change. Right. If you buy 403 00:24:27,200 --> 00:24:29,320 Speaker 1: a book, a physical book, and you put it in 404 00:24:29,359 --> 00:24:31,960 Speaker 1: your bookshelf fifty years from now, it's going to have 405 00:24:32,000 --> 00:24:33,960 Speaker 1: the exact same words on it as it did the 406 00:24:34,040 --> 00:24:36,440 Speaker 1: day you bought it. That was kind of how web. 407 00:24:36,600 --> 00:24:38,879 Speaker 1: A lot of web pages were in the early days, 408 00:24:38,960 --> 00:24:41,760 Speaker 1: and these were seen as kind of boring and un engaging, 409 00:24:41,960 --> 00:24:43,760 Speaker 1: and there was no reason to go back to them. 410 00:24:43,800 --> 00:24:46,119 Speaker 1: You visit it once and you got it right. If 411 00:24:46,160 --> 00:24:48,080 Speaker 1: it's never going to change, there's no point in going back. 412 00:24:49,080 --> 00:24:52,080 Speaker 1: And the idea was that the future of the web 413 00:24:52,200 --> 00:24:55,040 Speaker 1: was really going to be more insights than included rich 414 00:24:55,240 --> 00:24:58,919 Speaker 1: experiences and ways for users to have meaningful interactions. So 415 00:24:59,000 --> 00:25:01,919 Speaker 1: Web two point oh was less about here's where the 416 00:25:01,960 --> 00:25:05,119 Speaker 1: web is going and more about here's how you can 417 00:25:05,160 --> 00:25:08,320 Speaker 1: make your web presence impactful. Here's how you can stick around. 418 00:25:08,760 --> 00:25:11,440 Speaker 1: But there were very early versions of Web two point 419 00:25:11,440 --> 00:25:14,640 Speaker 1: oh at the same time as the quote unquote Web 420 00:25:14,720 --> 00:25:17,679 Speaker 1: one point oh pages. It's not like it's not like 421 00:25:17,760 --> 00:25:20,360 Speaker 1: we saw things change over time, but rather we saw 422 00:25:20,440 --> 00:25:23,680 Speaker 1: which strategies worked in the long run, more like more 423 00:25:23,720 --> 00:25:27,280 Speaker 1: like a web version of natural selection than anything else. Um. 424 00:25:27,359 --> 00:25:29,200 Speaker 1: But it also set the stage for people to start 425 00:25:29,240 --> 00:25:32,159 Speaker 1: talking about Web three point oh as then what's the 426 00:25:32,200 --> 00:25:36,520 Speaker 1: next evolutionary step. Well, opinions about what that was gonna 427 00:25:36,560 --> 00:25:39,399 Speaker 1: be varied. Some folks thought the next version of the 428 00:25:39,400 --> 00:25:42,640 Speaker 1: web would be a virtual experience that you would travel 429 00:25:42,960 --> 00:25:46,040 Speaker 1: through the web as if you were navigating real space, 430 00:25:46,119 --> 00:25:49,119 Speaker 1: like you had a virtual environment and you're traveling around 431 00:25:49,160 --> 00:25:51,560 Speaker 1: and you're interacting with stuff that way, sort of the 432 00:25:51,560 --> 00:25:55,119 Speaker 1: wrecord Ralph version of navigating the web. The world of 433 00:25:55,160 --> 00:25:57,680 Speaker 1: the web would be modeled in some ways on our 434 00:25:57,720 --> 00:26:00,440 Speaker 1: real world, but we wouldn't be restricted by the laws 435 00:26:00,440 --> 00:26:02,879 Speaker 1: of physics. Maybe in Web three point oh you can 436 00:26:02,960 --> 00:26:06,280 Speaker 1: virtually fly around, or teleport or do any number of things. 437 00:26:06,880 --> 00:26:09,719 Speaker 1: Maybe experiences on the Web would go beyond clicking on 438 00:26:09,720 --> 00:26:11,639 Speaker 1: a link to go to a page. Maybe you would 439 00:26:11,840 --> 00:26:14,760 Speaker 1: take a more active role in some way it could 440 00:26:14,800 --> 00:26:17,880 Speaker 1: transform how we work and play on the web. Now, 441 00:26:17,880 --> 00:26:20,440 Speaker 1: that was one concept of what web three point oh 442 00:26:20,520 --> 00:26:23,720 Speaker 1: might be. Another involves the idea of the semantic web. 443 00:26:24,240 --> 00:26:26,640 Speaker 1: And I've talked a lot in past episodes about how 444 00:26:26,760 --> 00:26:30,880 Speaker 1: natural language processing is a non trivial challenge for computers. Now, 445 00:26:30,880 --> 00:26:37,200 Speaker 1: we humans use language in odd, wonderful, and often confusing ways. Uh, 446 00:26:37,240 --> 00:26:38,960 Speaker 1: And now I'm going to play the part of old 447 00:26:39,040 --> 00:26:43,120 Speaker 1: persons speaking in lingo here, which I get it's cringe inducing, 448 00:26:43,600 --> 00:26:47,240 Speaker 1: but this is to prove a point. Let's say I 449 00:26:47,400 --> 00:26:50,720 Speaker 1: see that you pull off an amazing stunt of some sort. 450 00:26:51,240 --> 00:26:54,520 Speaker 1: I might say that's cool. Or I might say that's bad. 451 00:26:54,880 --> 00:26:57,520 Speaker 1: Or I might say that's sick, or I might say 452 00:26:57,520 --> 00:27:00,760 Speaker 1: something else that ultimately means I am very impressed with 453 00:27:00,800 --> 00:27:03,800 Speaker 1: what you did, and I applaud your efforts. But words 454 00:27:03,840 --> 00:27:08,200 Speaker 1: like cool, bad, and sick don't just inherently mean good. 455 00:27:08,400 --> 00:27:11,439 Speaker 1: I mean, I might say something is cool, but what 456 00:27:11,480 --> 00:27:13,359 Speaker 1: I mean is that the temperature of that thing is 457 00:27:13,400 --> 00:27:15,840 Speaker 1: lower than the temperature of the stuff around it. I 458 00:27:15,920 --> 00:27:18,000 Speaker 1: might say it's bad if it's you know, not good. 459 00:27:18,080 --> 00:27:20,240 Speaker 1: I might say it's sick if it's I don't know, 460 00:27:20,359 --> 00:27:23,399 Speaker 1: puking it scuts out. Computers are not so good at 461 00:27:23,440 --> 00:27:26,040 Speaker 1: picking the meaning out of what we have to say, 462 00:27:26,560 --> 00:27:29,800 Speaker 1: even if what we say is straightforward. Computers cannot do 463 00:27:29,880 --> 00:27:32,240 Speaker 1: that on their own. It requires a lot of work 464 00:27:32,280 --> 00:27:35,480 Speaker 1: to create natural language processing, but we have seen big 465 00:27:35,520 --> 00:27:39,840 Speaker 1: advances in that field, with systems getting better at parsing language, 466 00:27:39,840 --> 00:27:44,199 Speaker 1: determining what was said, what was meant, and then formulating 467 00:27:44,240 --> 00:27:47,320 Speaker 1: a response to that. Well, the semantic web would be 468 00:27:47,320 --> 00:27:50,719 Speaker 1: able to interact with people using human language, and at 469 00:27:50,800 --> 00:27:53,760 Speaker 1: least in some visions of the semantic web, the browser 470 00:27:53,800 --> 00:27:57,640 Speaker 1: itself would pull from various sources to create a unique 471 00:27:57,680 --> 00:28:02,200 Speaker 1: presentation of information based on whatever your query was. So 472 00:28:02,560 --> 00:28:05,080 Speaker 1: not only would the semantic web understand what you were 473 00:28:05,119 --> 00:28:07,800 Speaker 1: asking for, it would be able to go, well, look 474 00:28:07,800 --> 00:28:11,480 Speaker 1: at all the different depositories of information about that subject 475 00:28:11,840 --> 00:28:15,840 Speaker 1: and pull the relevant information for you, understanding what it 476 00:28:15,920 --> 00:28:18,320 Speaker 1: was you were actually looking for. So, let's say you 477 00:28:18,320 --> 00:28:21,040 Speaker 1: were doing a search on William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. 478 00:28:21,400 --> 00:28:25,800 Speaker 1: The semantic web might actually generate a unique web page 479 00:28:25,880 --> 00:28:29,119 Speaker 1: for you based upon what it knows about you, and 480 00:28:29,200 --> 00:28:32,600 Speaker 1: that page contains information about the play, maybe some video 481 00:28:32,640 --> 00:28:37,040 Speaker 1: clips of different performances, maybe some passages from critical analysis 482 00:28:37,080 --> 00:28:40,200 Speaker 1: about the play and so on. So it's not sending 483 00:28:40,240 --> 00:28:43,240 Speaker 1: you to a specific web page that has all these things. 484 00:28:43,320 --> 00:28:47,320 Speaker 1: It's actually generating that content itself, pulling that information from 485 00:28:47,360 --> 00:28:51,440 Speaker 1: all these other sources. Then there's yet another web three 486 00:28:51,440 --> 00:28:54,680 Speaker 1: point idea that relies on stuff like machine learning and 487 00:28:54,800 --> 00:28:58,240 Speaker 1: artificial intelligence. This is the concept of a web experience 488 00:28:58,280 --> 00:29:03,720 Speaker 1: that that really customizes itself to the individual user. So 489 00:29:04,640 --> 00:29:07,240 Speaker 1: think of all the times you encounter stuff online that's 490 00:29:07,280 --> 00:29:11,239 Speaker 1: a targeted ad that's targeting you. Maybe you've done some 491 00:29:11,280 --> 00:29:15,160 Speaker 1: web searches about like a particular style of coat, and 492 00:29:15,200 --> 00:29:17,440 Speaker 1: then the next time you're on a website you start 493 00:29:17,440 --> 00:29:20,320 Speaker 1: seeing ads for companies that make the type of coat 494 00:29:20,520 --> 00:29:24,120 Speaker 1: you were interested in. Stuff like Internet cookies allows for 495 00:29:24,200 --> 00:29:27,040 Speaker 1: that kind of collaboration that's going on behind the scenes. 496 00:29:27,120 --> 00:29:29,400 Speaker 1: There's a lot of money going on back there too, 497 00:29:29,840 --> 00:29:33,160 Speaker 1: and the result is that we feel some of the 498 00:29:33,200 --> 00:29:36,400 Speaker 1: experiences we have have been curated for us. That can 499 00:29:36,560 --> 00:29:39,560 Speaker 1: sometimes be good and often it can be pretty intrusive 500 00:29:39,600 --> 00:29:43,520 Speaker 1: and creepy. Now that extends beyond ads. Obviously, sites like 501 00:29:43,600 --> 00:29:47,360 Speaker 1: Facebook and YouTube use algorithms to choose which pieces of 502 00:29:47,440 --> 00:29:52,120 Speaker 1: content you're more likely to encounter based upon your past behaviors. 503 00:29:52,400 --> 00:29:55,640 Speaker 1: If you engage with one piece of content, that's like 504 00:29:55,720 --> 00:29:58,920 Speaker 1: sending a message to the algorithm saying, Hey, I really 505 00:29:58,960 --> 00:30:02,760 Speaker 1: happen to like topic X, so send me more stuff 506 00:30:02,800 --> 00:30:06,720 Speaker 1: relating to topic X. Web three point oh would, in theory, 507 00:30:07,000 --> 00:30:09,960 Speaker 1: take this concept and move really far forward with it. 508 00:30:10,040 --> 00:30:13,240 Speaker 1: The browser for Web three point oh would anticipate what 509 00:30:13,320 --> 00:30:16,480 Speaker 1: it was you wanted. It would draw conclusions based on 510 00:30:16,600 --> 00:30:19,720 Speaker 1: what it knows about you, and a truly sophisticated version 511 00:30:20,120 --> 00:30:22,400 Speaker 1: might be able to serve stuff up before you can 512 00:30:22,480 --> 00:30:24,480 Speaker 1: even be aware that you wanted to see it in 513 00:30:24,520 --> 00:30:28,360 Speaker 1: the first place. It also could be either magical or 514 00:30:28,760 --> 00:30:34,200 Speaker 1: super creepy. Now, some of these ideas have filtered into 515 00:30:34,200 --> 00:30:37,840 Speaker 1: our real world experiences, some of them are still outside 516 00:30:37,840 --> 00:30:43,200 Speaker 1: of our realm of capability. Nothing has like truly transformed 517 00:30:43,400 --> 00:30:46,280 Speaker 1: the Web, and some of the ideas have made their 518 00:30:46,280 --> 00:30:50,680 Speaker 1: way into the concept of the metaverse. But really the 519 00:30:50,680 --> 00:30:52,920 Speaker 1: whole reason I brought it up is that, at least 520 00:30:52,920 --> 00:30:55,640 Speaker 1: in some ways, people are looking at meta versus as 521 00:30:55,680 --> 00:31:00,000 Speaker 1: another answer to the question what comes next, At least 522 00:31:00,040 --> 00:31:02,960 Speaker 1: as with regard to to how we interact with the 523 00:31:03,000 --> 00:31:08,000 Speaker 1: online world and online experiences, all right, So a metaverse 524 00:31:08,160 --> 00:31:12,080 Speaker 1: is more than just a virtual space. It's even more 525 00:31:12,160 --> 00:31:15,680 Speaker 1: than an experience that can cross over from virtual world 526 00:31:15,720 --> 00:31:18,600 Speaker 1: into the real world via stuff like the Internet of 527 00:31:18,640 --> 00:31:22,240 Speaker 1: things devices, actuators are being a reality technology, et cetera. 528 00:31:22,920 --> 00:31:25,360 Speaker 1: We generally think of a metaverse as being something that 529 00:31:25,400 --> 00:31:30,000 Speaker 1: has the capacity to support its own society, at least 530 00:31:30,080 --> 00:31:33,920 Speaker 1: to an extent. That can involve stuff like having a 531 00:31:34,040 --> 00:31:37,000 Speaker 1: role within the metaverse and having the ability to perform 532 00:31:37,120 --> 00:31:40,600 Speaker 1: certain types of transactions. And I think you can make 533 00:31:40,640 --> 00:31:42,720 Speaker 1: a persuasive argument that a lot of m m O 534 00:31:42,920 --> 00:31:47,760 Speaker 1: r pgs incorporate aspects of the metaverse concept, but I 535 00:31:47,800 --> 00:31:51,000 Speaker 1: think that they don't get to full metaverse level. And 536 00:31:51,080 --> 00:31:54,959 Speaker 1: that's largely because m m O RPGs have a certain 537 00:31:55,160 --> 00:31:58,560 Speaker 1: immutable structure within them. So what do I mean that 538 00:31:58,640 --> 00:32:01,160 Speaker 1: by that? I mean? Was that actually mean? Well, let's 539 00:32:01,200 --> 00:32:05,080 Speaker 1: take a specific example and we'll talk about World of Warcraft, probably, 540 00:32:05,680 --> 00:32:08,440 Speaker 1: you know, arguably the best known M m O RPG. 541 00:32:08,640 --> 00:32:11,960 Speaker 1: It certainly was the most popular for many years. This 542 00:32:12,040 --> 00:32:15,000 Speaker 1: game will be coming up on its twentieth anniversary in 543 00:32:15,040 --> 00:32:17,960 Speaker 1: just a couple of years, so it is huge players 544 00:32:18,000 --> 00:32:19,960 Speaker 1: have lots of options when it comes to picking a 545 00:32:20,120 --> 00:32:23,240 Speaker 1: race and a class. They play a part in a grand, 546 00:32:23,400 --> 00:32:27,640 Speaker 1: sweeping narrative, except it's a narrative that doesn't actually progress, 547 00:32:27,960 --> 00:32:31,080 Speaker 1: at least not on a real level. See in games 548 00:32:31,080 --> 00:32:34,000 Speaker 1: like World of Warcraft, players can take on quests to 549 00:32:34,120 --> 00:32:37,520 Speaker 1: gain experience and loot and that sort of stuff. They 550 00:32:37,560 --> 00:32:42,280 Speaker 1: progress as characters within this world. Their individual story can 551 00:32:42,320 --> 00:32:45,360 Speaker 1: advance a little bit. But that quest you just did, 552 00:32:45,640 --> 00:32:48,040 Speaker 1: let's say it's a quest that you know was to 553 00:32:48,120 --> 00:32:52,320 Speaker 1: save a villager's child, that quest still exists for other players. 554 00:32:52,800 --> 00:32:55,640 Speaker 1: Like you just rescued that one villager's child from a threat, 555 00:32:55,880 --> 00:32:57,880 Speaker 1: But guess what the next player is gonna end up 556 00:32:57,920 --> 00:33:02,320 Speaker 1: doing the same thing. That villagers child is perpetually immortal peril, 557 00:33:02,760 --> 00:33:05,960 Speaker 1: and no number of rescues are ever going to change that. 558 00:33:06,360 --> 00:33:10,720 Speaker 1: The world around you remains the same. Occasionally, you'll get 559 00:33:10,760 --> 00:33:13,240 Speaker 1: an update to a game like this and that will 560 00:33:13,280 --> 00:33:18,120 Speaker 1: incorporate really big changes that affect everything. But this isn't 561 00:33:18,160 --> 00:33:22,280 Speaker 1: a consequence of player actions. It's something that the developers 562 00:33:22,320 --> 00:33:25,360 Speaker 1: came up with as the next phase of this otherwise 563 00:33:25,440 --> 00:33:29,160 Speaker 1: immutable world. When you really boil it all down, it 564 00:33:29,240 --> 00:33:33,440 Speaker 1: doesn't matter what you do or don't do within the game. 565 00:33:33,760 --> 00:33:36,520 Speaker 1: It doesn't make a difference in the grand scheme of things. 566 00:33:37,040 --> 00:33:40,680 Speaker 1: It might have the illusion of mattering, but it doesn't really. 567 00:33:41,320 --> 00:33:44,960 Speaker 1: It just gets pretty heavy, right. So, because the world 568 00:33:45,080 --> 00:33:48,440 Speaker 1: has these ultimate boundaries, there's a limit to how much 569 00:33:48,520 --> 00:33:51,240 Speaker 1: it can be a metaverse. It can have qualities of 570 00:33:51,280 --> 00:33:54,920 Speaker 1: a metaverse, but otherwise it's kind of stuck. Now, that 571 00:33:54,960 --> 00:33:58,000 Speaker 1: doesn't mean that players can't create new methods of play 572 00:33:58,120 --> 00:34:01,560 Speaker 1: within the game. They can, and they do. There are 573 00:34:01,600 --> 00:34:04,800 Speaker 1: always players who will find ways to play that weren't 574 00:34:04,840 --> 00:34:08,400 Speaker 1: intended by developers, and that emergent gameplay can be a 575 00:34:08,400 --> 00:34:11,680 Speaker 1: bit closer to a true metaverse in some ways. But 576 00:34:11,719 --> 00:34:14,880 Speaker 1: there are other environments that are even closer to the 577 00:34:14,920 --> 00:34:18,040 Speaker 1: metaverse concept as it originally appeared. When we come back, 578 00:34:18,400 --> 00:34:21,920 Speaker 1: we'll talk about one of them. But first another quick break. 579 00:34:29,680 --> 00:34:33,560 Speaker 1: Let us now take into consideration Second Life, which means 580 00:34:33,560 --> 00:34:36,240 Speaker 1: first we need to talk about Linden Lab, the company 581 00:34:36,400 --> 00:34:41,800 Speaker 1: that made Second Life. Now. Lynden Lab, founded by Philip Rosedale, 582 00:34:42,000 --> 00:34:44,560 Speaker 1: did not set out to create a metaverse, at least 583 00:34:44,800 --> 00:34:48,239 Speaker 1: not at first. Linden Lab's original focus was in hardware, 584 00:34:48,600 --> 00:34:50,960 Speaker 1: with the goal of creating a system that was called 585 00:34:51,360 --> 00:34:55,960 Speaker 1: the RIG that would provide like haptic feedback for virtual experiences. 586 00:34:56,000 --> 00:35:00,000 Speaker 1: It was meant to be like a fully fledged virtual experience. 587 00:35:00,040 --> 00:35:05,920 Speaker 1: It's piece of hardware that would uh create an an incredible, 588 00:35:06,840 --> 00:35:08,960 Speaker 1: you know, experience for the user when they were going 589 00:35:08,960 --> 00:35:12,799 Speaker 1: through VR. Taptic feedback, as I said, refers to the 590 00:35:12,840 --> 00:35:16,200 Speaker 1: sense of touch, and a rumble pack in a video 591 00:35:16,200 --> 00:35:20,000 Speaker 1: game controller is an example of a simple haptic feedback device. 592 00:35:20,480 --> 00:35:23,799 Speaker 1: The RIG ultimately proved to be impractical, but one thing 593 00:35:23,840 --> 00:35:26,680 Speaker 1: to emerge around this same time was this idea to 594 00:35:26,719 --> 00:35:29,920 Speaker 1: create a virtual environment that would interact with something like 595 00:35:30,000 --> 00:35:33,680 Speaker 1: the RIG. I mean, hardware like the RIG only does 596 00:35:33,719 --> 00:35:37,560 Speaker 1: something interesting if you compare it with software that powers 597 00:35:37,680 --> 00:35:40,480 Speaker 1: the experience, right, So in some ways I kind of 598 00:35:40,520 --> 00:35:43,080 Speaker 1: think of this similar to how J. R. R. Token 599 00:35:43,600 --> 00:35:47,560 Speaker 1: created the mythology and history of Middle Earth. Not Tolkien 600 00:35:47,719 --> 00:35:50,319 Speaker 1: was a linguist, and he set out to make a 601 00:35:50,360 --> 00:35:54,120 Speaker 1: few languages. Specifically. He first really started with a couple 602 00:35:54,160 --> 00:35:58,040 Speaker 1: of versions of Elvish, but then he needed to have 603 00:35:58,080 --> 00:36:01,640 Speaker 1: a world where these languages have existed, where they would 604 00:36:01,640 --> 00:36:05,319 Speaker 1: have come from, and and so he started creating Mental Earth. 605 00:36:05,680 --> 00:36:09,520 Speaker 1: Second Life, an online virtual world, sort of has a 606 00:36:09,640 --> 00:36:13,200 Speaker 1: similar origin story. Now. Rosedale has said that while he 607 00:36:13,320 --> 00:36:17,040 Speaker 1: had red snow Crash, or at least he was familiar 608 00:36:17,080 --> 00:36:20,400 Speaker 1: with snow Crash, he had already been thinking about a 609 00:36:20,680 --> 00:36:25,200 Speaker 1: persistent virtual online world before he encountered that book. And 610 00:36:25,239 --> 00:36:28,359 Speaker 1: that's entirely possible because lots of folks were looking into 611 00:36:28,400 --> 00:36:31,839 Speaker 1: these sorts of things around that time. Second Life would 612 00:36:31,840 --> 00:36:35,319 Speaker 1: emerge in two thousand three as a kind of metaverse. 613 00:36:35,880 --> 00:36:39,720 Speaker 1: In Second Life, users create an avatar to represent themselves 614 00:36:39,719 --> 00:36:44,080 Speaker 1: in the virtual world. They then can visit this virtual 615 00:36:44,160 --> 00:36:48,040 Speaker 1: world that lives on real world servers. They could own 616 00:36:48,480 --> 00:36:52,560 Speaker 1: space within that virtual environment, so you would purchase virtual 617 00:36:52,680 --> 00:36:56,800 Speaker 1: real estate using real world money to do it. And 618 00:36:56,840 --> 00:36:59,879 Speaker 1: then you could create objects. You could code and DESI 619 00:37:00,000 --> 00:37:04,480 Speaker 1: mind stuff for yourself, or you could create stuff and 620 00:37:04,480 --> 00:37:07,239 Speaker 1: then offer it up to other users. You could even 621 00:37:07,280 --> 00:37:10,280 Speaker 1: sell it within the game. They had an in game currency, 622 00:37:10,600 --> 00:37:12,600 Speaker 1: I call it a game, it's not a game, then 623 00:37:12,640 --> 00:37:17,120 Speaker 1: an in world currency, and you could interact with other 624 00:37:17,520 --> 00:37:20,759 Speaker 1: people in Second Life, and you know, you had this 625 00:37:20,960 --> 00:37:26,880 Speaker 1: shared online space, this community that existed. Virtually. Social structures 626 00:37:26,920 --> 00:37:30,479 Speaker 1: began to form, so people actually did create communities within 627 00:37:30,600 --> 00:37:35,000 Speaker 1: Second Life. You had the economy come about as a 628 00:37:35,040 --> 00:37:38,239 Speaker 1: result of all this as well. Second Life wasn't constrained 629 00:37:38,280 --> 00:37:40,840 Speaker 1: by the rules we face in reality, so it was 630 00:37:41,880 --> 00:37:45,120 Speaker 1: a type of realization of a metaverse. Now you weren't 631 00:37:45,480 --> 00:37:49,719 Speaker 1: required to encounter this by wearing you know, VR equipment. 632 00:37:50,320 --> 00:37:53,200 Speaker 1: You could use a computer and you had a simple 633 00:37:53,239 --> 00:37:55,960 Speaker 1: interface and you would navigate it like you would if 634 00:37:55,960 --> 00:37:58,680 Speaker 1: it were like a first person shooter game or a 635 00:37:58,719 --> 00:38:03,399 Speaker 1: third person perspective game. You could navigate the world that way, 636 00:38:03,480 --> 00:38:07,160 Speaker 1: So it wasn't necessarily that you were all kidded out 637 00:38:07,600 --> 00:38:09,799 Speaker 1: with a headset and gloves and all the kind of 638 00:38:09,800 --> 00:38:14,000 Speaker 1: stuff we see in science fiction. But it was a metaverse, 639 00:38:14,920 --> 00:38:18,200 Speaker 1: and it also came with some pretty big problems. Some 640 00:38:18,320 --> 00:38:20,600 Speaker 1: of them were in ways that Lyndon Labs tried to 641 00:38:20,640 --> 00:38:24,279 Speaker 1: monetize the platform. So, for example, the company once tried 642 00:38:24,320 --> 00:38:27,360 Speaker 1: to initiate a tax system in which users would have 643 00:38:27,400 --> 00:38:30,560 Speaker 1: to pay a certain amount of tax based on the 644 00:38:30,640 --> 00:38:34,640 Speaker 1: amount of virtual stuff that they owned within Second Life. 645 00:38:35,000 --> 00:38:38,360 Speaker 1: So let's say that you had purchased some virtual real estate, 646 00:38:38,960 --> 00:38:42,120 Speaker 1: and let's say that you had, you know, the knowledge 647 00:38:42,120 --> 00:38:44,799 Speaker 1: and talent to be able to code stuff in Second Life, 648 00:38:45,120 --> 00:38:47,560 Speaker 1: you can maybe make something like a castle in the 649 00:38:47,600 --> 00:38:51,719 Speaker 1: sky if you wanted to. Uh. Lyndon Labs said that well, 650 00:38:51,800 --> 00:38:53,600 Speaker 1: in an effort to rein in some of the more 651 00:38:53,600 --> 00:38:58,160 Speaker 1: extravagant displays and could serve server processing power, it would 652 00:38:58,239 --> 00:39:01,280 Speaker 1: end up taxing folks for building that kind of stuff. 653 00:39:01,560 --> 00:39:04,520 Speaker 1: So the more grandiose in large your design, the more 654 00:39:04,560 --> 00:39:07,000 Speaker 1: you were going to have to pay. Folks found ways 655 00:39:07,040 --> 00:39:10,560 Speaker 1: around this. They essentially they did the effect of deleting 656 00:39:10,600 --> 00:39:13,960 Speaker 1: their stuff on the days when taxes were going to 657 00:39:14,000 --> 00:39:17,880 Speaker 1: be assessed and then reinstating it the next day. It 658 00:39:18,000 --> 00:39:20,759 Speaker 1: was not going smoothly, and Lyndon Lab of that ultimately 659 00:39:20,840 --> 00:39:24,480 Speaker 1: chose other pathways towards monetization than that. But there were 660 00:39:24,480 --> 00:39:27,560 Speaker 1: a lot of other issues within Second Life as well. Uh. 661 00:39:27,600 --> 00:39:30,640 Speaker 1: Like again from the economy side, there were copy bots 662 00:39:30,680 --> 00:39:34,520 Speaker 1: that would create counterfeit versions, like copies of user creations 663 00:39:34,520 --> 00:39:38,520 Speaker 1: because we gotta remember everything users created was digital and 664 00:39:38,560 --> 00:39:41,719 Speaker 1: digital files are easy to copy. It's it's kind of 665 00:39:41,719 --> 00:39:44,239 Speaker 1: like the issues that cryptocurrency had to work around, like 666 00:39:44,239 --> 00:39:47,480 Speaker 1: how do you prevent people from copying the same thing endlessly? 667 00:39:47,880 --> 00:39:51,520 Speaker 1: And because some users were actually making a living by 668 00:39:51,640 --> 00:39:55,880 Speaker 1: creating and then selling virtual items within Second Life. This 669 00:39:56,000 --> 00:39:58,359 Speaker 1: was a big problem. There were other issues that were 670 00:39:58,440 --> 00:40:03,279 Speaker 1: user generated issue use like there was there was very 671 00:40:04,200 --> 00:40:07,800 Speaker 1: taboo content. Taboo is putting it lightly. There was illegal 672 00:40:07,920 --> 00:40:10,840 Speaker 1: content on Second Life as well, and it got a 673 00:40:10,880 --> 00:40:13,080 Speaker 1: really bad reputation for that. That's not to say that 674 00:40:13,120 --> 00:40:16,600 Speaker 1: everyone on Second Life was engaging in illegal practices, but 675 00:40:16,680 --> 00:40:18,960 Speaker 1: the fact that they were happening and they were not 676 00:40:19,200 --> 00:40:24,319 Speaker 1: particularly secret made it a stain on the reputation of 677 00:40:24,360 --> 00:40:28,760 Speaker 1: the platform. Now, Second Life gained popularity for a while, 678 00:40:28,880 --> 00:40:32,359 Speaker 1: kind of peeking around two thousand thirteen or so, and 679 00:40:32,400 --> 00:40:35,640 Speaker 1: then it kind of declined. It still exists today. There 680 00:40:35,680 --> 00:40:39,279 Speaker 1: are fewer than a million active users. Some estimates hover 681 00:40:39,480 --> 00:40:42,799 Speaker 1: between half a million and nine thousand users, and a 682 00:40:42,840 --> 00:40:44,840 Speaker 1: million is a lot of people, but when you compare 683 00:40:44,840 --> 00:40:47,160 Speaker 1: it to platforms like Facebook, it's not even a drop 684 00:40:47,200 --> 00:40:51,120 Speaker 1: in the ocean. Right, So Second Life is still around. 685 00:40:51,280 --> 00:40:53,759 Speaker 1: It hasn't gone away, but I think the rise of 686 00:40:53,840 --> 00:40:58,760 Speaker 1: social media platforms, primarily Facebook, led to a decline in usage. 687 00:40:58,880 --> 00:41:01,040 Speaker 1: And that doesn't mean that In Life was the only 688 00:41:01,040 --> 00:41:05,040 Speaker 1: attempt at creating a metaverse. There have been several others, 689 00:41:05,120 --> 00:41:09,400 Speaker 1: and in some cases it wasn't even a conscious attempt 690 00:41:09,400 --> 00:41:11,880 Speaker 1: to create a metaverse. For example, I would argue that 691 00:41:11,960 --> 00:41:15,960 Speaker 1: Minecraft didn't set out to be a metaverse. But there 692 00:41:15,960 --> 00:41:20,120 Speaker 1: are Minecraft servers that are themselves their own little metaverses. 693 00:41:20,800 --> 00:41:25,319 Speaker 1: So there are Minecraft servers where players create communities. They 694 00:41:25,400 --> 00:41:28,680 Speaker 1: might have specific roles in those communities, they have different 695 00:41:28,680 --> 00:41:31,680 Speaker 1: ways to interact with each other. The virtual world itself 696 00:41:31,760 --> 00:41:35,200 Speaker 1: is persistent. Player actions can have a meaningful impact on 697 00:41:35,280 --> 00:41:39,200 Speaker 1: these virtual worlds. So, assuming whoever is running the server 698 00:41:39,320 --> 00:41:42,799 Speaker 1: hasn't prevented users from you know, the basic mechanics of Minecraft, 699 00:41:43,239 --> 00:41:45,360 Speaker 1: the players get to shape the world however they like. 700 00:41:45,480 --> 00:41:50,279 Speaker 1: You know, maybe they create a subterranean uh community and 701 00:41:50,400 --> 00:41:53,040 Speaker 1: the surface of the world is only occupied by animals 702 00:41:53,040 --> 00:41:55,959 Speaker 1: and monsters. All the people are below ground, or maybe 703 00:41:55,960 --> 00:41:58,960 Speaker 1: everyone's living up in the sky and they don't have 704 00:41:59,000 --> 00:42:01,480 Speaker 1: flight turned on, so if you make a bad step, 705 00:42:01,520 --> 00:42:03,680 Speaker 1: you're gonna faul to your death. You get the idea. 706 00:42:04,000 --> 00:42:06,440 Speaker 1: And like I said, there are a lot of metaverse 707 00:42:06,480 --> 00:42:08,839 Speaker 1: examples out there, and most of them have had a 708 00:42:08,880 --> 00:42:12,719 Speaker 1: fairly limited impact. So there are subcultures that spend a 709 00:42:12,719 --> 00:42:15,400 Speaker 1: lot of time in these metaverses where there are meaningful 710 00:42:15,440 --> 00:42:20,040 Speaker 1: communities out there, but this experience hasn't become anywhere close 711 00:42:20,160 --> 00:42:24,040 Speaker 1: to being ubiquitous. I guess it's not nearly as popular 712 00:42:24,080 --> 00:42:26,879 Speaker 1: as just going online to check your social media right. 713 00:42:26,960 --> 00:42:31,319 Speaker 1: Like tons of people use Facebook, a very small percentage 714 00:42:31,480 --> 00:42:35,560 Speaker 1: by comparison, actually spends time on one of these metaverses. 715 00:42:35,920 --> 00:42:39,480 Speaker 1: But Facebook itself is actually trying to change that. Facebook 716 00:42:39,520 --> 00:42:43,920 Speaker 1: acquired the VR company Oculus back in and in twenty nineteen, 717 00:42:44,440 --> 00:42:47,640 Speaker 1: Facebook announced the development of what was then called Facebook 718 00:42:47,680 --> 00:42:51,400 Speaker 1: Horizon Um. Now it's called Horizon Worlds. There's also a 719 00:42:51,560 --> 00:42:56,400 Speaker 1: a work related one called Horizon Workplace. These are virtual 720 00:42:56,520 --> 00:42:59,560 Speaker 1: environments in which players can actually create their own virtual 721 00:42:59,600 --> 00:43:04,600 Speaker 1: spaces and even program their own games within those virtual spaces. 722 00:43:04,640 --> 00:43:08,319 Speaker 1: So Horizon world comes with tools that let users make 723 00:43:08,520 --> 00:43:12,800 Speaker 1: gameplay elements, and then as a user, you can navigate 724 00:43:12,840 --> 00:43:16,279 Speaker 1: around and explore this virtual space. You can go to 725 00:43:16,360 --> 00:43:19,480 Speaker 1: these different user generated worlds and try out the stuff 726 00:43:19,520 --> 00:43:22,800 Speaker 1: that they've programmed. But it's currently just in a beta phase, 727 00:43:22,920 --> 00:43:26,040 Speaker 1: and it also requires either you know, an Oculus Rift 728 00:43:26,200 --> 00:43:29,840 Speaker 1: or an Oculus Quest as in the Oculus Virtual reality systems. 729 00:43:30,160 --> 00:43:34,240 Speaker 1: As such, this is limited to a fairly small group 730 00:43:34,360 --> 00:43:36,400 Speaker 1: of beta testers. For right now. I mean, first you 731 00:43:36,440 --> 00:43:38,439 Speaker 1: have to limit it to just the folks who own 732 00:43:38,480 --> 00:43:43,680 Speaker 1: an oculus system. Then you have among those the subsection 733 00:43:43,800 --> 00:43:46,760 Speaker 1: that got a personal invite to participate in this beta. 734 00:43:47,040 --> 00:43:50,520 Speaker 1: But that's just the start. In June of this year, 735 00:43:50,640 --> 00:43:55,040 Speaker 1: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed to employees that the company 736 00:43:55,080 --> 00:43:58,239 Speaker 1: had a plan to develop its own metaverse. Such a 737 00:43:58,239 --> 00:44:01,279 Speaker 1: platform would incorporate vr are and a are, along with 738 00:44:01,360 --> 00:44:06,040 Speaker 1: aspects of social networks and online shopping sites. It's essentially 739 00:44:06,080 --> 00:44:09,520 Speaker 1: an effort to create the next thing for online spaces. 740 00:44:09,960 --> 00:44:13,440 Speaker 1: It would be a thing that Facebook would own, which 741 00:44:13,520 --> 00:44:15,640 Speaker 1: I mean, it's kind of hard to overstate how big 742 00:44:15,640 --> 00:44:18,560 Speaker 1: a deal that would be for the company. After all, 743 00:44:18,600 --> 00:44:23,120 Speaker 1: Facebook has billions of users. If it can even you know, 744 00:44:23,719 --> 00:44:28,560 Speaker 1: managed to support of those people to this, that alone 745 00:44:28,600 --> 00:44:32,120 Speaker 1: would be enormous because imagine for a moment that Facebook 746 00:44:32,200 --> 00:44:35,560 Speaker 1: wasn't just a big player on the Internet. Imagine if 747 00:44:35,600 --> 00:44:40,040 Speaker 1: Facebook was synonymous with the Internet. Imagine if every link, 748 00:44:40,560 --> 00:44:44,319 Speaker 1: every interaction, every purchase, all of that. Imagine all of 749 00:44:44,360 --> 00:44:48,319 Speaker 1: that filtered first through Facebook's systems. That's kind of what 750 00:44:48,400 --> 00:44:51,280 Speaker 1: I think the company is hoping for with the creation 751 00:44:51,360 --> 00:44:55,759 Speaker 1: of this metaverse. Experience to create something so compelling and 752 00:44:55,840 --> 00:44:59,799 Speaker 1: immersive and interesting that folks migrate to it as I 753 00:45:00,080 --> 00:45:02,800 Speaker 1: or the next phase of what it means to be online, 754 00:45:03,520 --> 00:45:06,279 Speaker 1: or more likely, as you know, an additional way for 755 00:45:06,400 --> 00:45:10,160 Speaker 1: a subset of people to interact online. Now, if you're 756 00:45:10,200 --> 00:45:13,880 Speaker 1: like me, you probably think that doesn't sound great. Facebook 757 00:45:13,920 --> 00:45:16,120 Speaker 1: has a pretty bad reputation when it comes to stuff 758 00:45:16,160 --> 00:45:20,319 Speaker 1: like ethics and concern about users safety and privacy, And 759 00:45:20,360 --> 00:45:22,800 Speaker 1: you can easily imagine a system that relies on stuff 760 00:45:22,800 --> 00:45:26,120 Speaker 1: like VR and ARE hardware to provide even more opportunities 761 00:45:26,160 --> 00:45:29,880 Speaker 1: for Facebook to gather information about users, information that Facebook 762 00:45:29,880 --> 00:45:33,560 Speaker 1: would then leverage when working with, let's say advertisers. And 763 00:45:33,640 --> 00:45:36,600 Speaker 1: think for a moment about the conversations we've had about 764 00:45:36,640 --> 00:45:40,480 Speaker 1: Facebook's algorithm and how it's exacerbated problems like the spread 765 00:45:40,480 --> 00:45:44,640 Speaker 1: of misinformation and hate speech. Now imagine the same company, 766 00:45:44,840 --> 00:45:47,319 Speaker 1: which has shown at the very least a lack of 767 00:45:47,480 --> 00:45:51,759 Speaker 1: urgency in addressing those issues, is literally in charge of 768 00:45:51,880 --> 00:45:56,640 Speaker 1: every aspect of your online experience when you're inside It's metaverse. 769 00:45:57,360 --> 00:45:59,680 Speaker 1: That's kind of chilling when you think of it that way. 770 00:46:00,120 --> 00:46:02,799 Speaker 1: In fact, there's one science fiction film that has a 771 00:46:02,800 --> 00:46:05,120 Speaker 1: metaverse in it that I think is a pretty fair analogy, 772 00:46:05,200 --> 00:46:08,520 Speaker 1: and that's the matrix, because in the matrix, nearly all 773 00:46:08,560 --> 00:46:12,319 Speaker 1: of humanity is actually inside a computer simulation, and their 774 00:46:12,400 --> 00:46:17,360 Speaker 1: real bodies exist solely as an energy source for machines. Well, 775 00:46:17,400 --> 00:46:20,200 Speaker 1: I feel like Facebook metaverse would be kind of similar, 776 00:46:20,239 --> 00:46:22,920 Speaker 1: except we'd be the source of money while occupying this 777 00:46:23,000 --> 00:46:26,320 Speaker 1: virtual space. Anyway, I don't want to get too alarmist 778 00:46:26,360 --> 00:46:29,160 Speaker 1: in that. It's true that I am beyond skeptical of 779 00:46:29,160 --> 00:46:32,279 Speaker 1: a Facebook metaverse being, you know, a good thing. But 780 00:46:32,320 --> 00:46:35,360 Speaker 1: it's also true that even if Facebook launches such a product, 781 00:46:35,640 --> 00:46:39,719 Speaker 1: it's not guaranteed to succeed. So far, these metaverse experiences 782 00:46:39,960 --> 00:46:43,000 Speaker 1: tend to appeal to a limited number of folks. Even 783 00:46:43,000 --> 00:46:45,640 Speaker 1: in the Minecraft examples, I was giving like, there are 784 00:46:45,640 --> 00:46:48,160 Speaker 1: plenty of Minecraft players who play on a private server 785 00:46:48,400 --> 00:46:51,399 Speaker 1: who never interact with anyone else. That's not really much 786 00:46:51,440 --> 00:46:54,879 Speaker 1: of a metaverse in that case. So it's not like 787 00:46:55,040 --> 00:46:59,680 Speaker 1: any of these examples has reached a broad mainstream audience. 788 00:46:59,719 --> 00:47:04,640 Speaker 1: They're all sub audiences. So in some cases people might 789 00:47:04,680 --> 00:47:08,600 Speaker 1: not gravitate towards a metaverse because of the aesthetics of 790 00:47:08,640 --> 00:47:12,320 Speaker 1: the metaverse, or it might be because the experience itself 791 00:47:12,440 --> 00:47:15,759 Speaker 1: doesn't appeal to them, like maybe navigating the world is 792 00:47:16,719 --> 00:47:19,279 Speaker 1: not natural to them and they don't enjoy it. Or 793 00:47:19,280 --> 00:47:22,160 Speaker 1: in others, it might be because the equipment you need 794 00:47:22,200 --> 00:47:27,120 Speaker 1: in order to even take part in it is prohibitively expensive. 795 00:47:27,160 --> 00:47:32,200 Speaker 1: They can't afford to give it a shot. So there's 796 00:47:32,200 --> 00:47:35,399 Speaker 1: no guarantee that the Facebook metaverse will become a huge hit, 797 00:47:35,600 --> 00:47:38,480 Speaker 1: or that it's going to, you know, somehow replace the 798 00:47:38,520 --> 00:47:41,560 Speaker 1: way we go online now. Uh So, no one has 799 00:47:41,560 --> 00:47:44,080 Speaker 1: really made a metaverse on a scale like what we 800 00:47:44,120 --> 00:47:47,080 Speaker 1: saw in the fiction of snow Crash already player one. 801 00:47:47,520 --> 00:47:50,600 Speaker 1: No one has built something so amazing that practically everyone 802 00:47:50,840 --> 00:47:53,440 Speaker 1: is already on it. No one has built the Facebook 803 00:47:53,760 --> 00:47:56,759 Speaker 1: of meta verses, and we don't even know if Facebook 804 00:47:56,760 --> 00:48:00,000 Speaker 1: will be able to pull that off. I'm skeptical, I am. 805 00:48:00,000 --> 00:48:02,719 Speaker 1: Iagine whatever Facebook makes will not be my cup of tea. 806 00:48:03,560 --> 00:48:06,040 Speaker 1: But then I also thought that my Space would beat Facebook, 807 00:48:06,080 --> 00:48:09,080 Speaker 1: So what the heck do I know? Anyway, that's this 808 00:48:09,120 --> 00:48:11,640 Speaker 1: episode about meta versus. Hope you enjoyed it. If you 809 00:48:11,680 --> 00:48:14,360 Speaker 1: have suggestions for topics I should cover in future episodes 810 00:48:14,360 --> 00:48:17,640 Speaker 1: of tech Stuff, reach out to me on Twitter. The 811 00:48:17,719 --> 00:48:20,720 Speaker 1: handle we use for the show is tech Stuff H 812 00:48:20,880 --> 00:48:24,760 Speaker 1: s W and I'll talk to you again really soon. 813 00:48:30,160 --> 00:48:33,160 Speaker 1: Tech Stuff is an I Heart Radio production. For more 814 00:48:33,239 --> 00:48:36,640 Speaker 1: podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, 815 00:48:36,760 --> 00:48:39,920 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.