What do you think about the metaverse in general?

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The metaverse is a giant hype fest, at least as it's defined by Mark Zuckerberg. I am not a fan of the idea that we're going to strap goggles onto our head and live in an immersive experience like that. I do believe that there will continue to be more fusion between technology and the real world, but in the Facebook/Meta definition of the metaverse, there is a serious flaw in the assumption that technology will evolve quickly enough for the user interface or the display technology to catch up to what is necessary for the vision to be realized. At some point in the future, we'll probably have holodecks and other things that we've seen in movies like Star Wars. But I don't know that we're going to see a holodeck in our lifetime and the substitutes we’ll get in the meantime won’t be that impactful.

Answer

Part of the metaverse’s potential rests on access to technology. To truly experience the metaverse, you need to have something plugged in, like a headset — is everyone going to have one? Maybe, but right now, there's still a strong divide between those who can and those who can't, not to mention the layer of those who can and just don't want to. But what I mean by those who can and those who can't, is that we have global challenges with connectivity.

In New Zealand, there’s inequality in what technology people have access to. All of these things that compound digital access is what will make the metaverse sink or swim. For a long time, companies that try to succeed in the metaverse will be successful offline first and will continue to be more successful offline than they are online. That may flip over time and we may see a change in digital access if that speeds up, but that will require a huge amount of investment from philanthropists or potentially the government. But it's not something the government should be part of — we've seen how badly they mess up everything else, so why let them get involved in this as well?

Answer

My team members are asking me about the metaverse and whether or not I care about it, so I can't completely write it off. I think there will be things we're going to learn from it. It may not get us to a holodeck-like experience in this iteration, but the worlds of gaming and enterprise are going to influence each other.

When I think about collaboration, we're still trying to figure out how to do it over Zoom in creative ways. There are lessons to be taken from the multiplayer game space and how people collaborate at distances in those settings. But for businesses, the metaverse’s appeal will depend on how much investment the company wants to make in order to learn and evolve its technology in the other spaces.

What do you think about the metaverse in general?

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