4 ms·

I would realllllly like to know what tge heck the "metaverse" actually is? I think Mark just put out some buzzwords to buy time.

valdiorn 4y ago
Like Web 3.0, it is whatever you want it to be.
brushfoot 4y ago
There's a lot of playing fast and loose with the definition right now, but the lowest common denominator is basically online virtual worlds with more Web3 and XR. Think Roblox + VR + blockchain. The consulting companies (Gartner, McKinsey) will tell you that something like Roblox is metaverse already but that Web3 and VR are integral to what it's becoming. I.e., it's tech that's already here, just in its infancy and not working in concert yet. The envisioned ideal combines it into an interoperable ecosystem where you're making global payments and moving virtual posessions from one platform to another. Games are often the example, but imagine 3D multiplayer environments for collaboratively architecting buildings, public transportation systems, computer chips, or software. You use voice and gestures to speak components into existence and shape flows. Other engineers are in the environment with you in real time. Tools are created to assist you, and you can transport them from one platform to another while retaining ownership. That's sort of the promise and what people are excited about. Where we are now is like looking at a clunky applet from the early days of the web and going, "This is Web 2.0. Someday all our apps will run in the browser." It maybe was Web 2.0 in an aspirational sense, but it hadn't really been realized yet. Same with the metaverse.
- TheOtherHobbes 4y ago
  That shows a misunderstanding of how architecture, transport system design, and computer chips are built. The important elements are calculated. TThey're not created with an airy wave of the hand and some vague hopes. Transport flows, airliner wings, electronic circuits, and more are literally engineered with differential equations. Voice + gesture is not an effective way to work with them. A more plausible benefit would be visibility of more parts of the system at the same time. This could be especially useful for software. Multiple wall-sized zoomable displays of all the elements in a big project would be much easier to work with than our current small screens, which provide tiny windows into a very much larger space.
  - brushfoot 4y ago
    > The important elements are calculated. TThey're not created with an airy wave of the hand and some vague hopes. Why not? AI (DALL-E) can now build images that were once painstakingly created by graphic designers selecting from stock photography and creating layer masks. Now they can use language as a starting point and then adjust the details. What if you and a group could start with a concept: "a hotel shaped like a pyramid," and then AI does those calculations and prompts you for more specifications? We're on the verge of automating those kinds of tasks, and a collaborative environment only enriches the possibilities.
- oneoff786 4y ago
  Sounds like absolute nonsense to me. Blockchain is irrelevant. What they want is platform control over the next big medium.
  - brushfoot 4y ago
    Some of it is hype, like blockchain, which doesn't make sense without massive legal and economic changes. But there's no they per se. Metaverse != Meta, they're just investing in it.

valdiorn 4y ago

Like Web 3.0, it is whatever you want it to be.

brushfoot 4y ago

There's a lot of playing fast and loose with the definition right now, but the lowest common denominator is basically online virtual worlds with more Web3 and XR. Think Roblox + VR + blockchain. The consulting companies (Gartner, McKinsey) will tell you that something like Roblox is metaverse already but that Web3 and VR are integral to what it's becoming. I.e., it's tech that's already here, just in its infancy and not working in concert yet. The envisioned ideal combines it into an interoperable ecosystem where you're making global payments and moving virtual posessions from one platform to another. Games are often the example, but imagine 3D multiplayer environments for collaboratively architecting buildings, public transportation systems, computer chips, or software. You use voice and gestures to speak components into existence and shape flows. Other engineers are in the environment with you in real time. Tools are created to assist you, and you can transport them from one platform to another while retaining ownership. That's sort of the promise and what people are excited about. Where we are now is like looking at a clunky applet from the early days of the web and going, "This is Web 2.0. Someday all our apps will run in the browser." It maybe was Web 2.0 in an aspirational sense, but it hadn't really been realized yet. Same with the metaverse.

TheOtherHobbes 4y ago
That shows a misunderstanding of how architecture, transport system design, and computer chips are built. The important elements are calculated. TThey're not created with an airy wave of the hand and some vague hopes. Transport flows, airliner wings, electronic circuits, and more are literally engineered with differential equations. Voice + gesture is not an effective way to work with them. A more plausible benefit would be visibility of more parts of the system at the same time. This could be especially useful for software. Multiple wall-sized zoomable displays of all the elements in a big project would be much easier to work with than our current small screens, which provide tiny windows into a very much larger space.
- brushfoot 4y ago
  > The important elements are calculated. TThey're not created with an airy wave of the hand and some vague hopes. Why not? AI (DALL-E) can now build images that were once painstakingly created by graphic designers selecting from stock photography and creating layer masks. Now they can use language as a starting point and then adjust the details. What if you and a group could start with a concept: "a hotel shaped like a pyramid," and then AI does those calculations and prompts you for more specifications? We're on the verge of automating those kinds of tasks, and a collaborative environment only enriches the possibilities.
oneoff786 4y ago
Sounds like absolute nonsense to me. Blockchain is irrelevant. What they want is platform control over the next big medium.
- brushfoot 4y ago
  Some of it is hype, like blockchain, which doesn't make sense without massive legal and economic changes. But there's no they per se. Metaverse != Meta, they're just investing in it.