Tag: metaverse

  • A digital multiverse

    It was towards the end of 2020 that I came across Roblox and wrote Metaverse : Get a second life. Since that post, Mathew Ball has written the definitive primer on the Metaverse1, and if you’re interested in the subject, it’s a must-read. The word “metaverse”, ICYMI, was coined by Neal Stephenson in Snow Crash, and the book is being referenced in many recent conversations. In fact, Stephenson has been quizzed for years, each time we seem to take a step in this direction, and his comments continue to be prescient, insightful and hugely creative. This one, from 2017, in Vanity Fair, is a favourite, and contains, among other succinct gems

    The purpose of VR is to take you to a completely made-up place, and the purpose of AR is to change your experience of the place that you’re in.

    Neal Stephenson
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  • Metaverse: Get a second life

    What’s real?

    I read The Real-Town Murders around the same time last year. It is set in England in the near future, or at least partly so, because it also features Shine, “the immersive successor to the internet” into which people are happily plugged in.

    More recently, in “Why is this interesting?“, I learnt of Roblox, apparently used by three-fourths of all 9- to 12-year-old kids in the United States at the moment. It’s more than a gaming platform, it is a single digital location that now offers all her old activities: playground, schoolyard, theater, and mall all in one. Thanks to the pandemic, and the digitisation that it has fast tracked, an entire generation might have a different definition of “real”. In the real world of adults, gaming is on a tear, and many reports claim that AR and VR are on the cusp of massive adoption. To note that Snapchat is the king among social networks for a particular generation.

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  • Snow Crash

    Neal Stephenson

    It’s really difficult to write a review of this book, because I’ve never read anything like it before. All I can say is that its extremely engrossing and while a lot of the stuff he has written about like avtars and virtual worlds are real now, it must have been quite original in 1992, when he wrote it. The originality is not so much in the concepts itself , because though not commonly used, they were prevalent then, it is the way in which he weaves it into the story and the detailing.
    The wonderful thing about the book is that it leaves so many thought bubbles in its wake, from Sumeran Myth to the future of the world – real and virtual, neurolinguistic viruses and so on. The other good part is the humour – this guy is pure evil, as far as satire goes. There are puns everywhere, right from the name of the central character – Hiro Protagonist.
    It is a thoroughly enjoyable read, especially for those who enjoy virtual worlds, science fiction, and Stephenson’s unique blend of myth and future