The American Metaverse
Courtesy of Howard Lindzon
The ‘metaverse’ is here. I saw it late last night waiting to get a key at my Vegas hotel and immediately changed my Twitter handle to ‘Metaverse Lindzon’…
Mom is on her way to gamble in the casino…probably on one of the super sized screens that have replaced slot machines. Her son will be by her side or in the room playing his games or trading ‘skins’ in the metaverse.
According to Arthur Hayes, mom is in the ‘meatverse’ while her son is in the metaverse.
I love this term ‘meatverse’ and this fantastic essay and explanation of the ‘metaverse’ from Arthur Hayes who says the metaverse is the future. This riff rings so true to me:
You Are Worthless
Compared with a self-learning intelligent machine, the vast majority of human labour is not worth the energy inputs it takes to sustain it. Regardless of how “smart” or “creative” you think you are, a machine will be better than you over the next few decades.
What to do now? Old people will play physical sports, hang out on the beach, go to physical nightclubs, etc. once we tire of COVID lockdowns. (By old I mean millennials and older.) Young people will play video games and create entire new worlds inside various digital metaverses.
The COVID shock just accelerated these trends. Now a large percentage of the world is locked in their dwelling; their only means of interaction is through internet-connected machines. Whether you like it or not, your online avatar will only grow in importance. The metaverse is now, and you are participating in its creation.
The metaverse will be anything the human mind can dream up and it won’t be held back by the traditional physical laws we take for granted in meatspace. Entire new economies and occupations we cannot imagine will come to be in these worlds. Hopefully these jobs create the same sort of self-satisfaction as traditional employment such that the population feels content with their lot in life. The alternative is billions of restless souls that will lash out at perceived and real inequalities especially as capital is further concentrated amongst our tech overlords.
The most powerful man in the world — as defined by the number of users he influences — is Mark Zuckerberg. He is betting all the marbles that the true Facebook-enabled community of the future is the metaverse. AR and VR devices that allow humanity to create communities in digital space is what Facebook believes the next iteration of digital community represents.
Take the time to read this short essay from Arthur which should help explain a lot of what you are hearing about and will continue to read about and witness.
