WEBVTT - An Update on The Metaverse 0:00:04.440 --> 0:00:12.319 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there, 0:00:12.360 --> 0:00:15.400 and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:15.440 --> 0:00:18.720 I'm an executive producer with iHeartRadio. And how the tech 0:00:18.800 --> 0:00:23.120 are you? So? Back in October twenty twenty one, we 0:00:23.280 --> 0:00:27.880 Hear It tech Stuff published an episode titled what is 0:00:27.920 --> 0:00:31.320 the Metaverse? So this was back when the metaverse concept 0:00:31.440 --> 0:00:34.680 was really just starting to gain a lot of steam, 0:00:34.840 --> 0:00:38.120 and it was propelled largely by the company Facebook, which 0:00:38.120 --> 0:00:42.840 would actually rename itself Meta before the end of October. 0:00:43.840 --> 0:00:47.600 There was enormous excitement around this idea, at least on 0:00:47.720 --> 0:00:51.479 a corporate and marketing kind of level. I don't personally 0:00:51.520 --> 0:00:56.200 know many people who were or are that excited by 0:00:56.200 --> 0:01:01.400 the concept personally. I just know that from a corporate perspective, 0:01:01.760 --> 0:01:05.000 there was a ton of momentum. Now, part of that 0:01:06.200 --> 0:01:08.600 reason for, you know, like the lack of interest among 0:01:08.640 --> 0:01:13.120 the general public, could be due to my own myopia, 0:01:13.440 --> 0:01:15.560 Like maybe I just don't know the right people. I'm 0:01:15.560 --> 0:01:18.200 also old, so it's possible that very young people think 0:01:18.240 --> 0:01:20.920 it's a really cool idea. I haven't heard that, but 0:01:21.120 --> 0:01:24.360 why would they talk to me? But also it may 0:01:24.600 --> 0:01:28.800 be that there's a lack of excitement around the metaverse, 0:01:29.640 --> 0:01:32.920 partly because we have been really bad at defining what 0:01:32.959 --> 0:01:35.840 the metaverse is. Now we should get some slack for that. 0:01:35.880 --> 0:01:38.600 I mean, the thing doesn't really exist yet, at least 0:01:38.640 --> 0:01:40.399 not in the science fiction any kind of way that 0:01:40.440 --> 0:01:45.480 we see pitches presented to us as. But no, seriously, 0:01:45.600 --> 0:01:48.920 what is the metaverse? Or heck, maybe we need to 0:01:48.920 --> 0:01:53.640 phrase it as what is a metaverse? The answer to 0:01:53.680 --> 0:01:56.920 that question kind of depends upon whom you're asking. Some 0:01:57.160 --> 0:02:03.600 definitions are deeply and perhaps tragically tied to blockchain technology 0:02:03.640 --> 0:02:08.920 and cryptocurrencies and the much maligned NFTs. That's done a 0:02:08.960 --> 0:02:12.280 lot of damage to perceptions about the metaverse overall, because 0:02:12.360 --> 0:02:16.919 the NFT in particular took such a spectacular nose diive 0:02:16.919 --> 0:02:20.000 a couple of years ago. Some versions of the metaverse 0:02:20.400 --> 0:02:25.560 lean heavily on mixed reality, incorporating either virtual or augmented 0:02:25.600 --> 0:02:28.680 reality or some mixture of the two to describe a 0:02:28.720 --> 0:02:30.760 new way in which we interact with the digital and 0:02:30.760 --> 0:02:34.720 physical worlds, and the two are much more closely aligned, 0:02:34.960 --> 0:02:36.760 so that the things we do in the digital world 0:02:36.800 --> 0:02:40.200 can have repercussions in the physical world, and vice versa. 0:02:41.080 --> 0:02:45.280 Some versions eschew the whole mixed reality concept entirely and 0:02:45.400 --> 0:02:48.800 just focus on a persistent online world that continues to 0:02:49.080 --> 0:02:52.680 exist whether you're logged into it or not. Arguably, you've 0:02:52.720 --> 0:02:55.560 got plenty of examples of that, and it's just like 0:02:55.600 --> 0:02:57.720 the real world. You know, even if you spend your 0:02:57.800 --> 0:02:59.880 days cooped up in your own home and you never 0:03:00.200 --> 0:03:03.880 the house, the world keeps moving on. That one hits 0:03:03.919 --> 0:03:07.880 a little close to home for me. Another concept that's 0:03:07.919 --> 0:03:12.800 frequently connected to but not necessarily required for the metaverse 0:03:13.360 --> 0:03:17.920 is one of interoperability. That is, you can envision a 0:03:18.040 --> 0:03:22.000 series of online environments. Maybe they're run by different companies 0:03:22.080 --> 0:03:26.400 or organizations, but there's some level of compatibility between them, 0:03:26.639 --> 0:03:30.320 so that you can maintain a semblance of a common 0:03:30.360 --> 0:03:35.720 experience as you move across different platforms. This one gets 0:03:35.800 --> 0:03:41.560 really tricky. Uh, it's tricky to explain, it's even harder 0:03:41.640 --> 0:03:45.640 to accomplish. So to explain it, let's in first, you know, 0:03:45.760 --> 0:03:49.160 jump into the real world to understand how something is 0:03:49.200 --> 0:03:51.320 pretty simple in the real world but very difficult to 0:03:51.320 --> 0:03:55.480 pull off in a virtual or digital space. All Right, 0:03:55.560 --> 0:03:58.720 So you're in the real world. If you go into 0:03:58.760 --> 0:04:01.600 a real world shoost and you buy a pair of 0:04:01.720 --> 0:04:05.040 real shoes, and then you decide you're gonna wear them 0:04:05.240 --> 0:04:07.000 right then and there, you take the shoes out of 0:04:07.040 --> 0:04:08.840 the box, and you put them on your feet, and 0:04:08.880 --> 0:04:11.240 you stroll right out of the store. Those shoes will 0:04:11.480 --> 0:04:16.560 maintain their appearance, they will maintain their utility, and they 0:04:16.600 --> 0:04:18.880 will do that no matter where you go, no matter 0:04:18.920 --> 0:04:22.359 what other store you walk into, your shoes will remain shoes, 0:04:22.400 --> 0:04:24.720 and they will still look the way they did when 0:04:24.760 --> 0:04:27.200 you bought them. It's not like the shoes will suddenly 0:04:27.240 --> 0:04:30.120 look different as you walk into a different shoe store 0:04:30.440 --> 0:04:32.680 or a home good store or any other kind of 0:04:32.720 --> 0:04:36.680 store you can think of. They're not gonna spontaneously become 0:04:36.920 --> 0:04:41.159 gloves or just a picture of shoes. They will be 0:04:41.279 --> 0:04:43.799 on your feet, they will be shoes. They'll look the same. 0:04:44.800 --> 0:04:47.560 They are consistent, and they only change as they experience 0:04:47.640 --> 0:04:50.120 wear and tear in that kind of thing. But that's 0:04:50.160 --> 0:04:54.919 because reality isn't divided up into siloed experiences. All of 0:04:54.960 --> 0:04:58.480 these spaces we're talking about, they all exist within the 0:04:58.520 --> 0:05:02.640 grander space that is real world. But that's not true 0:05:02.839 --> 0:05:05.840 of the digital world. Right. Let's take some games as 0:05:05.880 --> 0:05:08.920 a subset of the digital world. In order to talk 0:05:08.920 --> 0:05:13.120 about this, let's say that you play an online shooter 0:05:13.400 --> 0:05:16.640 like Call of Duty Modern Warfare, and in that game 0:05:16.680 --> 0:05:21.000 you can earn or purchase items for use within the game. 0:05:21.720 --> 0:05:24.000 You might be able to take those items on future 0:05:24.040 --> 0:05:26.920 play sessions within the game, they are linked to your 0:05:26.960 --> 0:05:30.159 player profile. But then let's say you wanted to play 0:05:30.200 --> 0:05:34.640 some other online shooter like Battlefield, And let's say that 0:05:34.800 --> 0:05:37.760 Battlefield has its own version of the very same weapons 0:05:37.760 --> 0:05:41.240 that you bought in Call of Duty. Even so, you 0:05:41.320 --> 0:05:44.120 can't just port over your stuff from Call of Duty 0:05:44.360 --> 0:05:48.240 to Battlefield. Battlefield has its own in game economy and 0:05:48.320 --> 0:05:53.200 its own method for accessing and earning or purchasing weapons. Plus, 0:05:53.400 --> 0:05:56.640 if you could pull the weapon from one game into another, 0:05:57.080 --> 0:06:00.400 the digital models for the weapons would be different. You know, 0:06:00.480 --> 0:06:03.359 the graphics engines are different from game to game, The 0:06:03.440 --> 0:06:07.719 gameplay elements would be different. The gun might handle differently 0:06:07.760 --> 0:06:09.960 in one game versus the other, or deal a different 0:06:10.000 --> 0:06:13.279 amount of damage in one versus the other. So the 0:06:13.320 --> 0:06:16.120 gun would not look or behave exactly the same way 0:06:16.200 --> 0:06:19.120 across these two game titles. And you know that makes sense. 0:06:19.160 --> 0:06:21.760 They weren't made by the same company or the same team. 0:06:22.320 --> 0:06:25.839 So unless every game is built from the exact same engine, 0:06:26.000 --> 0:06:29.320 with developers all agreeing upon a standardized approach to designing 0:06:29.640 --> 0:06:32.960 stuff like weapons, you're not going to have consistency from 0:06:33.000 --> 0:06:36.880 one digital realm to the next. Some versions of the 0:06:36.920 --> 0:06:42.160 metaverse include an element of interoperability that would necessitate a 0:06:42.320 --> 0:06:46.120 change in that approach, at least to an extent, because 0:06:46.160 --> 0:06:49.159 it's hard to sell users on the idea of getting 0:06:49.160 --> 0:06:52.560 them to go to a virtual realm and to spend 0:06:52.560 --> 0:06:55.760 a lot of real world money to kick yourself out 0:06:55.760 --> 0:06:58.240 in that virtual realm, only to find out that none 0:06:58.279 --> 0:07:00.960 of that stuff is portable over to the other virtual 0:07:01.000 --> 0:07:03.840 realms that you want to visit. Instead, you would have 0:07:03.880 --> 0:07:08.000 to start over from scratch. That's not an attractive way 0:07:08.040 --> 0:07:11.440 to sell the concept of the metaverse to the general public, right. 0:07:12.560 --> 0:07:15.400 But if you can create a framework that allows people 0:07:15.680 --> 0:07:18.640 to pick and choose what they want from various virtual 0:07:18.720 --> 0:07:22.440 environments and then use them across the entire spectrum of 0:07:22.760 --> 0:07:26.920 worlds within the metaverse, you might be onto something. But 0:07:27.760 --> 0:07:31.080 that's not easy to do. In fact, it's questionable about 0:07:31.120 --> 0:07:34.200 whether it will ever be possible to do. Not from 0:07:34.240 --> 0:07:37.120 a technical standpoint, I mean, technically you could get to happen, 0:07:37.360 --> 0:07:41.040 but from a cooperation standpoint, because you've got so many 0:07:41.120 --> 0:07:44.920 different companies in this space, getting them all to agree 0:07:45.000 --> 0:07:48.560 upon this would be very difficult. This is where some 0:07:48.640 --> 0:07:52.400 of that NFT stuff plays in. By the way, NFTs 0:07:52.400 --> 0:07:55.880 have often been positioned as a way to create the 0:07:56.040 --> 0:08:01.720 underlying foundation to allow the interoperability or the interchanging of 0:08:02.240 --> 0:08:06.080 assets from one virtual world to another, without actually proving 0:08:06.120 --> 0:08:10.840 that that could really be accomplished. And also there are 0:08:10.840 --> 0:08:13.680 all these other issues with NFTs. Right This idea of 0:08:13.720 --> 0:08:17.560 linking digital items to non fungible tokens to create a 0:08:17.560 --> 0:08:21.400 foundation for portable experiences regardless of who owns the virtual 0:08:21.440 --> 0:08:25.000 environment in question just hasn't really held up to much scrutiny. 0:08:25.560 --> 0:08:28.440 We are not anywhere close to being able to do that. 0:08:29.200 --> 0:08:31.920 And there was such a huge gold rush on NFTs 0:08:32.000 --> 0:08:36.000 on in the early days that it was so absurdly transparent, 0:08:36.040 --> 0:08:38.680 that it was a greedy, you know, like cash grab approach, 0:08:39.360 --> 0:08:42.760 both on the behalf of speculators and companies that just 0:08:42.880 --> 0:08:46.760 dove headfirst into NFTs. That the general public doesn't really 0:08:46.760 --> 0:08:50.080 have trust in NFTs anymore like any trust that was 0:08:50.080 --> 0:08:53.360 there who has pretty much been eroded away. Now, maybe 0:08:53.360 --> 0:08:56.680 one day folks will be more accepting of NFTs, despite 0:08:56.760 --> 0:09:00.880 their many drawbacks. But it's only going to happen if 0:09:00.920 --> 0:09:02.840 it's evident that the whole thing isn't just some sort 0:09:02.840 --> 0:09:08.800 of digital Ponzi scheme. Most definitions of the metaverse assume 0:09:09.400 --> 0:09:12.880 that it will span numerous virtual environments created by different 0:09:12.880 --> 0:09:16.360 companies and organizations and people, and that you could dip 0:09:16.440 --> 0:09:18.280 in and out of these worlds the same way you 0:09:18.320 --> 0:09:21.800 could visit different websites or use different apps. That the 0:09:21.880 --> 0:09:24.480 experience you have will be dependent in part on the 0:09:24.520 --> 0:09:27.440 equipment you have at your disposal and the folks who 0:09:27.480 --> 0:09:30.400 are creating the virtual world that you're visiting now. In 0:09:30.440 --> 0:09:34.200 that vision of the metaverse, it starts to sound a 0:09:34.200 --> 0:09:37.800 lot like a variation of the Internet itself. While several companies, 0:09:37.880 --> 0:09:42.679 primarily Meta, have pushed very hard to be the metaverse company, 0:09:43.520 --> 0:09:47.400 in its hypothesized form, the metaverse wouldn't be the domain 0:09:47.480 --> 0:09:52.040 of any one organization. You wouldn't say that Google is 0:09:52.280 --> 0:09:55.600 the Internet. Some days it might feel that way, but 0:09:55.600 --> 0:09:58.520 you wouldn't say it. You wouldn't say Meta is the 0:09:58.520 --> 0:10:03.240 metaverse or that the Metaverse belongs to Meta, but companies 0:10:03.480 --> 0:10:06.640 like Meta are trying to create the technologies that would 0:10:06.760 --> 0:10:12.240 presumably power the Metaverse, and that in itself is its 0:10:12.240 --> 0:10:15.480 own issue. I'll explain more, but first let's take a 0:10:15.559 --> 0:10:27.960 quick break. So I said before the break that Meta 0:10:28.120 --> 0:10:31.880 in particular, but other companies too, are pushing to create 0:10:32.600 --> 0:10:37.199 the building blocks of the Metaverse. There's a rush, or 0:10:37.240 --> 0:10:40.960 at least there was a rush. It's debatable about whether 0:10:41.040 --> 0:10:44.079 or not it's still happening, but there was a rush 0:10:44.120 --> 0:10:47.160 to define the standards that the Metaverse would be built 0:10:47.240 --> 0:10:53.199 upon for it to be this interoperable series of virtual worlds. 0:10:53.760 --> 0:10:56.600 And I'm sure you can understand why this was the case. 0:10:57.000 --> 0:11:00.240 Because if you build the tool, they every no one 0:11:00.320 --> 0:11:02.160 has to use in order to be part of something 0:11:02.240 --> 0:11:04.440 that is big, or at least it's being talked about 0:11:04.960 --> 0:11:07.840 as if it will be big. Well, that means everybody 0:11:07.880 --> 0:11:10.160 has to come to you first, because you're the one 0:11:10.200 --> 0:11:12.440 who build the tool, and that means you can charge 0:11:12.440 --> 0:11:15.920 folks to use your tools. Licensing fees are a great 0:11:15.920 --> 0:11:18.559 way to generate revenue. You spend the resources to make 0:11:18.600 --> 0:11:20.800 the tool, then you sit back and rake in the 0:11:20.840 --> 0:11:22.880 cash as everyone pays you for the right of using 0:11:22.920 --> 0:11:25.080 that tool, and then they have to re up their 0:11:25.080 --> 0:11:29.040 subscription when it expires. It's more complicated than that, but 0:11:29.120 --> 0:11:31.160 that's the basic idea. That's where a lot of this 0:11:31.840 --> 0:11:35.160 rush in the metaverse was really focusing was how can 0:11:35.200 --> 0:11:37.880 we be the ones to build what everyone else is 0:11:37.920 --> 0:11:39.559 going to have to use if they want to be 0:11:39.600 --> 0:11:42.040 a player in this space. But it's also a very 0:11:42.080 --> 0:11:45.600 unlikely idea because again, it requires the cooperation of tons 0:11:45.640 --> 0:11:48.199 of companies that all want to be a major player 0:11:48.240 --> 0:11:51.760 in the metaverse. And while it's not impossible that we're 0:11:51.760 --> 0:11:55.440 going to see consolidation and convergence over time, the fact 0:11:55.520 --> 0:11:59.240 is any development in the metaverse space is pretty much 0:11:59.360 --> 0:12:03.080 independent of all the other efforts to innovate in the 0:12:03.080 --> 0:12:07.800 metaverse space. This could mean that a realization of the metaverse, 0:12:07.920 --> 0:12:10.760 if in fact that ever becomes a thing, could be 0:12:10.800 --> 0:12:14.320 pushed off several years, not because it's too hard on 0:12:14.360 --> 0:12:17.320 a technical basis, although it would be very challenging to 0:12:18.160 --> 0:12:20.960 get a full realization of some of the more out 0:12:21.000 --> 0:12:25.440 there visions in the metaverse. Technical limitations are one thing. 0:12:25.800 --> 0:12:29.120 It's really because everyone is trying to make their own 0:12:29.280 --> 0:12:33.320 flavor of the ding Dan durned thing, and those flavors 0:12:33.360 --> 0:12:37.840 aren't interchangeable or interoperable, and I lost my metaphor. But 0:12:37.960 --> 0:12:41.280 you get what I'm saying, right like, if everyone's trying 0:12:41.320 --> 0:12:44.480 to be the one to define the thing, then you 0:12:44.559 --> 0:12:47.959 just end up with a bunch of different things, and 0:12:48.000 --> 0:12:52.720 that kind of ends up being antithetical to the concept 0:12:52.800 --> 0:12:55.520 of the metaverse, or at least one of the concepts. 0:12:56.040 --> 0:12:58.720 In the meantime, you still have a lot of companies 0:12:58.720 --> 0:13:03.800 and platforms referring to stuff as a metaverse, not the metaverse, 0:13:03.840 --> 0:13:08.880 but a metaverse, and that itself is confusing. Really, it 0:13:09.000 --> 0:13:12.600 typically means the term is losing whatever little meaning it 0:13:12.679 --> 0:13:16.120 had to begin with. A company could reference that an 0:13:16.120 --> 0:13:19.720 event that's happening within a game like Fortnite as being 0:13:19.800 --> 0:13:24.199 a metaverse event, you know, or maybe on Roadblocks that 0:13:24.200 --> 0:13:28.080 that is a metaverse event, but that suggests that Fortnite 0:13:28.520 --> 0:13:32.600 and or Roadblocks are a metaverse when really they're just 0:13:33.280 --> 0:13:36.520 it's an online world and it is persistent, but it 0:13:36.600 --> 0:13:41.040 has its own real limitations. It doesn't extend far beyond 0:13:41.080 --> 0:13:45.400 its borders. Right, meta is working to push social interactions 0:13:46.080 --> 0:13:49.600 into a virtual world, and that's probably to do stuff 0:13:49.600 --> 0:13:52.440 like sell us lots of virtual items and costumes and 0:13:52.440 --> 0:13:55.400 outfits and that kind of thing, And that would be 0:13:55.520 --> 0:13:59.199 their version of a metaverse. But that's very different from 0:13:59.200 --> 0:14:02.720 what we're looking at things like roadblocks or Fortnite. Microsoft 0:14:03.000 --> 0:14:06.120 is pushing to create online virtual environments, but for business 0:14:06.120 --> 0:14:09.720 see business reasons. So Microsoft's version is more about like 0:14:09.800 --> 0:14:14.319 virtual conference rooms and virtual seminar spaces and that kind 0:14:14.360 --> 0:14:17.360 of stuff. The problem, as I see it, is that 0:14:17.400 --> 0:14:20.320 people are using the word metaverse to reference pretty much anything, 0:14:20.440 --> 0:14:23.000 which is the same way as saying the word metaverse 0:14:23.080 --> 0:14:26.880 means nothing. It's like that depressing saying that when everyone 0:14:26.960 --> 0:14:30.040 is special, no one is. I don't buy into that 0:14:30.080 --> 0:14:32.720 particular philosophy, by the way, but that's because I'm a 0:14:32.760 --> 0:14:36.560 gen X guy. We're deeply, hopelessly romantic. Also, we tend 0:14:36.600 --> 0:14:41.480 to overgeneralize. Back on track. While most of the media 0:14:41.920 --> 0:14:45.960 has focused on the metaverse from the consumer side, or 0:14:46.000 --> 0:14:50.280 how companies like Meta have poured and arguably lost billions 0:14:50.320 --> 0:14:54.120 of dollars in development for something that no one really 0:14:54.120 --> 0:14:57.040 seems all that jazzed for in the first place, there 0:14:57.080 --> 0:15:00.600 are other aspects to the metaverse. Microsoft focus on business 0:15:00.600 --> 0:15:03.960 solutions is an example, though again I'm not convinced that 0:15:03.960 --> 0:15:06.440 the average business wants to shell out the money necessary 0:15:06.480 --> 0:15:09.320 to equip all its staff with the stuff they need 0:15:09.400 --> 0:15:12.680 just so that they can attend a virtual all hands beating. 0:15:13.640 --> 0:15:18.560 There's also a concept called the industrial metaverse. Now this 0:15:18.600 --> 0:15:21.960 does get loosey goosey with the details, like any metaverse definition, 0:15:22.760 --> 0:15:26.760 but generally speaking, this concept behind the industrial metaverse is 0:15:26.840 --> 0:15:33.840 to create digital virtual copies or twins of real world infrastructure. 0:15:34.840 --> 0:15:38.000 So think of stuff like public utilities, or power plants 0:15:38.280 --> 0:15:43.000 or huge manufacturing facilities. Imagine that. Imagine creating a perfect 0:15:43.640 --> 0:15:48.000 digital virtual copy of one of those, and it's tied 0:15:48.400 --> 0:15:52.120 to the real world version. Right, You've got sensors, you've 0:15:52.160 --> 0:15:55.960 got all these different systems that are creating readings based 0:15:56.000 --> 0:15:58.960 upon what's going on in the facility. Imagine using that 0:15:59.080 --> 0:16:01.360 data to feed into the virtual one, so that the 0:16:01.480 --> 0:16:04.640 virtual one is perfectly copying what's happening in the real world. 0:16:05.120 --> 0:16:07.600 So why would you do that. Well, with this kind 0:16:07.680 --> 0:16:11.800 of virtual construct, you could have experts from all around 0:16:11.840 --> 0:16:15.120 the world convene virtually in a space that's tied to 0:16:15.160 --> 0:16:18.600 a real place on the planet. So imagine that you 0:16:18.880 --> 0:16:23.200 are running a manufacturing facility, and one of your indicators 0:16:23.280 --> 0:16:26.240 is suggesting that there's a potential issue, something that might 0:16:26.400 --> 0:16:30.760 escalate into a serious problem unless you intervene. So you 0:16:30.880 --> 0:16:34.280 tap in by bringing in your top experts in your 0:16:34.320 --> 0:16:39.080 company who are really knowledgeable about these systems, but they 0:16:39.120 --> 0:16:40.880 happen to be in different parts of the world. So 0:16:40.920 --> 0:16:44.920 you all convene in this virtual representation of the actual 0:16:45.000 --> 0:16:49.600 physical space to talk over the problem and come up 0:16:49.600 --> 0:16:52.960 with a solution. That's the sort of use case that 0:16:53.000 --> 0:16:57.880 proponents of the industrial metaverse are suggesting. Companies like Siemens 0:16:58.280 --> 0:17:01.200 have created digital twins of exists sting facilities for just 0:17:01.280 --> 0:17:05.520 that purpose. Now, whether that becomes a practical practice across 0:17:05.640 --> 0:17:10.560 industries remains to be seen. Siemens has spent billions of 0:17:10.600 --> 0:17:13.280 dollars building out facilities, but whether that pays off by 0:17:13.320 --> 0:17:17.000 becoming the way of the future is undecided. Questions may 0:17:17.000 --> 0:17:19.800 arise about whether or not added components of a virtual 0:17:19.920 --> 0:17:23.080 recreation are even necessary, or maybe it just makes more 0:17:23.119 --> 0:17:26.840 sense to depend heavily on sensors connected to your facilities, 0:17:26.880 --> 0:17:29.960 and then those provide data that you could then read 0:17:30.000 --> 0:17:33.280 out in a normal computer display and then act upon 0:17:33.320 --> 0:17:35.160 in some other way, like getting on a phone call. 0:17:35.600 --> 0:17:39.359 A lot of companies that had been investing heavily into 0:17:39.400 --> 0:17:43.240 the metaverse have recently kind of pulled funding for those 0:17:43.280 --> 0:17:48.040 projects and switched resources to other areas, primarily AI. To 0:17:48.160 --> 0:17:51.000 the surprise of no one, AI has kind of taken 0:17:51.040 --> 0:17:54.960 the place of the metaverse as the darling DuJour of 0:17:55.040 --> 0:17:57.840 the tech space. So earlier this year, reports were that 0:17:57.880 --> 0:18:01.760 Microsoft had canceled its own industrial Metaverse division, and this 0:18:01.960 --> 0:18:05.480 was like within four months of them launching the project, 0:18:05.560 --> 0:18:08.920 which is kind of crazy. Disney shut down its own 0:18:08.960 --> 0:18:12.880 metaverse projects as part of a massive layoff in the company. 0:18:13.760 --> 0:18:17.480 Even Meta shut down a gaming platform called Krata that 0:18:17.600 --> 0:18:20.040 had metaverse connections, and they had just purchased that company 0:18:20.040 --> 0:18:22.800 a couple of years earlier. So yeah, things are not 0:18:23.240 --> 0:18:27.879 going super well. And one reason for this is because 0:18:28.680 --> 0:18:32.520 funding is fickle, and like I said, AI is kind 0:18:32.560 --> 0:18:35.920 of drinking the milkshake of the metaverse right now. All 0:18:35.960 --> 0:18:39.040 that funding is going towards stuff like AI, and even that, 0:18:39.400 --> 0:18:42.399 according to Gardner, anyway, is on the precipice of going 0:18:42.880 --> 0:18:46.560 over the peak of inflated expectations. So maybe that money 0:18:46.560 --> 0:18:49.239 will be going somewhere else pretty soon. On top of that, 0:18:49.840 --> 0:18:53.119 you still have proponents of the metaverse. You still have 0:18:53.160 --> 0:18:56.080 its cheerleaders and evangelists. A lot of those people are 0:18:56.119 --> 0:19:00.399 also tied very closely to the cryptocurrency world, which raises 0:19:00.480 --> 0:19:05.920 some questions as to the reliability of their expertise because 0:19:06.080 --> 0:19:11.000 a lot of the value of those crypto communities is 0:19:11.080 --> 0:19:14.280 tied to widespread adoption. One way to get widespread adoption 0:19:14.400 --> 0:19:17.240 is to convince a bunch of companies that the blockchain 0:19:17.520 --> 0:19:24.280 and related technologies are absolutely pivotal for a new process 0:19:24.480 --> 0:19:28.639 or a new product like the metaverse. And so I 0:19:28.680 --> 0:19:33.000 would take anyone who's really pushing a metaverse narrative with 0:19:33.040 --> 0:19:35.480 some skepticism. Doesn't mean that you know it's not going 0:19:35.560 --> 0:19:37.320 to become a thing. It doesn't mean that they're wrong. 0:19:37.960 --> 0:19:42.359 Just use critical thinking when you start seeing those kinds 0:19:42.359 --> 0:19:45.960 of stories or claims. So, yeah, that's an update on 0:19:46.000 --> 0:19:48.760 the state of the metaverse. I guess I could sum 0:19:48.840 --> 0:19:50.680 it up. And the too long, didn't read version has 0:19:51.280 --> 0:19:55.199 still not a thing and possibly never will be. I 0:19:55.200 --> 0:19:58.159 hope you're all well and I'll talk to you again 0:19:58.840 --> 0:20:08.680 really soon. Tex Stuff is an iHeartRadio production. For more 0:20:08.760 --> 0:20:13.520 podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or 0:20:13.520 --> 0:20:15.479 wherever you listen to your favorite shows.