It’s not often you can say that one of the richest people in the world has been the victim of bullying. But at least if someone firmly puts their tongue under their cheek, you can say the same about Meta and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who was recently denounced for his metaverse selfie.
The image was obtained from the company’s metaverse project called Horizon Worlds, a digital arena in which users travel through a virtual space filled with digitized versions of themselves.
It sounds awfully futuristic, but alas, Zuckerberg’s digital self was a bit like a character from a decade-old cheap video game – conjuring up not so much a brilliant new future as a fake past.
The taunts were so loud and merciless that Zuckerberg posted a follow-up, promising that things would get better soon.
The question, however, is why go to all these lengths at all?
The answer is that Zuckerberg poured a staggering $10 billion of his company money into the project, believing it represents the next major evolution of technology. If the metaverse sounds like idle curiosity, the scale of the investment suggests it’s not at all.
However, despite all the hype, what will the metaverse actually do?
Most likely, instead of becoming a space in which we all communicate with virtual reality technologies on our heads, the metaverse will become the next evolution of e-commerce and enterprise technologies.
However, this may not be what the Meta is hoping for. As Facebook begins to stabilize in growth and is displaced by TikTok as a cultural import, the company has its eyes on what it hopes will be the next big thing.
Based on the Meta’s demonstrations and statements, it appears that Zuckerberg and company believe the Metaverse will be some sort of 3D replacement or evolution of what exists now. If today we meet on Zoom, post messages and chat on Facebook, then in the metaverse we will do the same actions, but in 3D, wearing virtual reality headsets to come together with cartoon versions of ourselves and our friends.
But that doesn’t sound so much futuristic as it sounds implausible, not least because technology is unlikely to ever get better by increasing friction.
Think about it: who wants to go through the extra hassle of VR to host a team meeting or just say hello to a friend, rather than doing what we’re doing now. Even if supporters promise things like virtual concerts, the pandemic we continue to experience suggests that people are much less inclined to socialize virtually when better, more human options exist.
That said, if the notion of a 3D metaverse in which we all spend our social time sounds unappealing — let alone dystopian — there are reasons not to be too dismissive of the concept as a whole.
For example, recently Pay Later service Afterpay conducted a study that showed that more than half of Canadians believe the metaverse will be part of everyday life in 10 years, while 70% of Gen Z shoppers want to be able to buy real goods. objects of the world from the metaverse. People, especially young people, are not so skeptical.
It makes some sense. Instead of, say, playing a guessing game when shopping for shoes or furniture online, with a virtual version, one can “hold” or “walk” an item, which may well give a better idea of what is being bought.
Industrial or corporate applications are also of interest. As one researcher I spoke with suggested, the ability to plan physical objects such as cars or buildings in virtual space would help deal with a huge $3 trillion global leak caused by architectural planning errors that were previously discovered only after how something was built.
So while it may not be a social space, the metaverse can still be used.
In this sense, the metaverse is not so much an evolution of Facebook as it is the transfer of commerce, logistics and design to a three-dimensional or virtual space.
If that’s the case, then at least the Meta’s massive investment makes some sense – even if it’s possibly misguided. We may not all be registered with the virtual Facebook, but the idea of a “digital twin” – a virtual copy of the physical world – seems not only plausible, but quite possible as the next major area of technology.
We only ever understand reality through complex systems of language, ideas, aesthetics and design. Writing has changed the way we think about the world and, in its own way, Excel spreadsheets.
The Metaverse as it is currently shown may seem frivolous, even laughable. But if seen as a way to anticipate and shape the world, it could actually be the next big thing — even if right now all we can see is Mark Zuckerberg’s clumsy fantasies.
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