\nSnow Crash’s Metaverse walked so that Second Life could do that creepy crawling bit from The Ring so that Zuckerberg’s Metaverse could quiver damply on the floor
in his review of Snow Crash, Mark Rosenfelder pointed out that way back in 1992 neal stephenson didn\u2019t seem to really know what we might use the internet for–it turns out the answer was \u201ceverything,\u201d from shopping to work to school and so forth, but as a result his metaverse seems kind of… aimless.
and of course it would be! imagine how frustrating the internet would be to use if you imposed a strict and consistent metaphor of 3d space on it, down to needing to use simulated mass transit to get around. does the metaverse even have fast travel? even highly social spaces online, whether forums back in the old web or social media sites now, don\u2019t use the metaphor of physical spaces. that metaphor is useful mostly for specialized applications like games, where it\u2019s of intrinsic value; otherwise, it\u2019s just an encumbrance that inhibits whatever you want to do, rather than facilitating it.
anyway, in that sense, the zuckerverse is a pretty amusing demonstration of the problems of stephenson\u2019s vision, though far more embarassing, since we\u2019ve had thirty years of farting around with virtual reality since to demonstrate these principles, and also neal stephenson didn\u2019t spent billions of dollars writing his novel
A lot of the current crop of silicon valley Innovators\u2122 strike me as being like a cargo cult. Where if they just keep replicating the motions of the 90s tech boom, they will see similar profits.
I think virtual reality, like 3d movies, is one of those ideas that\u2019s so potent in our imagination of What The Future Should Be Like that people pursue it on the assumption it will offer some utility beyond current tech, without asking themselves hard questions what that utility actually is, and whether it can be obtained some other way. Like yeah, super high quality VR would be stunning! But would it be useful? Is there a business case there, besides niche applications like games and porn? There doesn\u2019t seem to be.
Two more that occur to me: manipulating 3-d models for architecture and engineering design, and (though it fills me with dread to say this) Zoom meetings
Those are still niche applications, though. The classic cyberpunk vision is to use it as a user interface in general, which is horrible idea. And since UI designers love pushing horrible ideas on us, I suppose they will keep trying it.
the Snow Crash metaverse was an extrapolation of MUDs
(or rather, MUSHes)
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