> Let’s take off our cynic hat and put on our optimism hat with some kiddish imagination mixed in. > We watch movies right now on a screen, in front of us. Sur

> Let’s take off our cynic hat and put on our optimism hat with some kiddish imagination mixed in. > We watch movies right now on a screen, in front of us. Surround sound takes us a step closer to feeling like we’re in the movie. Some theaters have gusts of air or water droplets during certain parts of the movie to increase immersion. Now, imagine watching a movie around you, instead of in front of you. It’s the same reason the Harry Potter rides at Universal Studios are so popular. The feeling of a Quidditch ball racing at your face while you barely dodge it is just thrilling. Now imagine you’re able to experience this with your mom, who lives across the world, and you guys are able to share awesome experiences like these together. FaceTime has taken a huge step forward in connecting people and the next logical step is something like VR. (Teleportation is the end-goal, I guess) This can be built right now, no need to invoke the metaverse as a requirement. I do think the deep interoperability side of the whole metaverse schtick needs some more thought though. Like why doesn't it exist for the web today despite attempts like Gravatar? Or why doesn't it exist for games? Interoperability isn't just hard because we need common standards but because it doesn't fit the aesthetic and/or money making ambitions of the companies who would support it. Then on standards it just ends up laughably naive, we will build common standards together but Meta should do it? Has anyone looked at the web standards lately!? A non-corporately owned Metaverse won't happen for the same reason we couldn't build the Internet again today. All the power is concentrated into a few companies and they're not going to share it out of the kindness of their hearts.