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Nice article. It's amazing how much bike-shedding there is here around the name and logo, and how little capacity most have for what these changes actually mea

Nice article. It's amazing how much bike-shedding there is here around the name and logo, and how little capacity most have for what these changes actually mean. Meta is going full in on the metaverse... so that's going to be hitting some critical mass fairly soon (less than a decade). And that's nuts. We should take this time to enjoy living before that moment. Who knows what changes it will bring, but surely enough that there will be no going back.

_jal 5y ago
Meh. I've ignored them for the last 20 years. I expect to ignore whatever their services metastasize into for the next 20, too.
mathgladiator 5y ago
I think as technology goes more... meta, the more valuable reality will become. I can't help but thing of Duncan Trussell's quote: "Some poor, phoneless fool is probably sitting next to a waterfall somewhere totally unaware of how angry and scared he’s supposed to be." The way I see this playing out is that the metaverse is going to be for poor people while reality is enjoyed by those with resources for "all five senses".
- seph-reed 5y ago
  > The way I see this playing out is that the metaverse is going to be for poor people while reality is enjoyed by those with resources for "all five senses". Given my experience in Alt Space thus far, I think there's a really good chance you're right.
  - ihumanable 5y ago
    I don't claim to know what exactly the metaverse will look like, but I remember the first time I put on an Oculus Quest. The first experience you have is being dropped into your "home" and mine defaulted to a big mountain side house, warm wood, fireplace, massive window looking out into a beautiful valley. It was virtual but convincing enough and I still sometimes enjoy just taking in the virtual view before or after playing a VR game. I remember thinking it a bit odd, the actual world around me could be awful, but in here it was just good enough to trick my brain. Throw $10B at that experience and I'm curious to see what happens. Maybe a scarcity-free utopia where everyone can "live" in whatever beautiful environment they want to, maybe a dystopia where you get home and enter your unadorned concrete cube and plug in to your real home, needing just enough physical space to use the VR. If they can ever get it fully jacked into your brain, I could see people just plugging in and never coming out.
    - pessimizer 5y ago
      My home isn't primarily for looking at. It's mainly where I keep my things, a collection of comfortable surfaces, a place to cook and entertain, and a place for privacy. VR gives you none of those. edit: home is also a place to work on projects, so I guess that VR fulfills that in a minecraft-type fashion.
deleted 5y ago
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AlexandrB 5y ago
> Meta is going full in on the metaverse... so that's going to be hitting some critical mass fairly soon (less than a decade). That's a stretch. Tech history is littered with big companies who went hard on a technology only for their attempt to flop. See: Newton, Virtual Boy, Windows Phone, and most recently Google Stadia. There's also little reason to think that CEO Mark Zuckerberg of 2021 is as in-touch with the what the public wants and tech trends as college student Mark Zuckerberg was in 2004. Edit: Another way to look at is: Has Facebook ever launched a product as successful as their primary business? They've acquired some wildly successful properties (I'm thinking Instagram & WhatsApp) - but their in-house product efforts outside of Facebook itself have either flopped or been marginal at best - Facebook Phone, Facebook Portal. Oculus might be the exception - for now - but there's healthy competition in the VR headset space and the market isn't yet big enough for a "metaverse" to be widely accessible like the Facebook website was in 2004.
- stevofolife 5y ago
  And there's also little reason to think that anyone on Hacker News is more in-touch than Zuckerberg of 2021 with what the public wants and the tech trends. Someone who owns Facebook and Instagram can identify the trend easier than you. Unless you also happen to have a platform of more than billion of users, then please share your thoughts about trends.

_jal 5y ago

Meh. I've ignored them for the last 20 years. I expect to ignore whatever their services metastasize into for the next 20, too.

mathgladiator 5y ago

I think as technology goes more... meta, the more valuable reality will become. I can't help but thing of Duncan Trussell's quote: "Some poor, phoneless fool is probably sitting next to a waterfall somewhere totally unaware of how angry and scared he’s supposed to be." The way I see this playing out is that the metaverse is going to be for poor people while reality is enjoyed by those with resources for "all five senses".

seph-reed 5y ago
> The way I see this playing out is that the metaverse is going to be for poor people while reality is enjoyed by those with resources for "all five senses". Given my experience in Alt Space thus far, I think there's a really good chance you're right.
- ihumanable 5y ago
  I don't claim to know what exactly the metaverse will look like, but I remember the first time I put on an Oculus Quest. The first experience you have is being dropped into your "home" and mine defaulted to a big mountain side house, warm wood, fireplace, massive window looking out into a beautiful valley. It was virtual but convincing enough and I still sometimes enjoy just taking in the virtual view before or after playing a VR game. I remember thinking it a bit odd, the actual world around me could be awful, but in here it was just good enough to trick my brain. Throw $10B at that experience and I'm curious to see what happens. Maybe a scarcity-free utopia where everyone can "live" in whatever beautiful environment they want to, maybe a dystopia where you get home and enter your unadorned concrete cube and plug in to your real home, needing just enough physical space to use the VR. If they can ever get it fully jacked into your brain, I could see people just plugging in and never coming out.
  - pessimizer 5y ago
    My home isn't primarily for looking at. It's mainly where I keep my things, a collection of comfortable surfaces, a place to cook and entertain, and a place for privacy. VR gives you none of those. edit: home is also a place to work on projects, so I guess that VR fulfills that in a minecraft-type fashion.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

AlexandrB 5y ago

> Meta is going full in on the metaverse... so that's going to be hitting some critical mass fairly soon (less than a decade). That's a stretch. Tech history is littered with big companies who went hard on a technology only for their attempt to flop. See: Newton, Virtual Boy, Windows Phone, and most recently Google Stadia. There's also little reason to think that CEO Mark Zuckerberg of 2021 is as in-touch with the what the public wants and tech trends as college student Mark Zuckerberg was in 2004. Edit: Another way to look at is: Has Facebook ever launched a product as successful as their primary business? They've acquired some wildly successful properties (I'm thinking Instagram & WhatsApp) - but their in-house product efforts outside of Facebook itself have either flopped or been marginal at best - Facebook Phone, Facebook Portal. Oculus might be the exception - for now - but there's healthy competition in the VR headset space and the market isn't yet big enough for a "metaverse" to be widely accessible like the Facebook website was in 2004.

stevofolife 5y ago
And there's also little reason to think that anyone on Hacker News is more in-touch than Zuckerberg of 2021 with what the public wants and the tech trends. Someone who owns Facebook and Instagram can identify the trend easier than you. Unless you also happen to have a platform of more than billion of users, then please share your thoughts about trends.