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The metaverse is a dystopian nightmare – let’s build a better reality

nianticlabs.com

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Re: The metaverse is a dystopian nightmare – let’s build a better reality

#111

Post by beckman466 »

accountofme wrote: post #59
nynx wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My worry is that it’ll be impossible to stop this from happening.

Don't use it then?

> Don't use it then?

You can't 'choose' your way out of this system (e.g. IP laws), that seems like a somewhat naive take.

Technology and science (or culture in this metaverse case) being commoditized means the working class live with a plundered commons. A commons stripped of meaningful alternatives, and even if alternatives are possible they are quickly turned into a rent-seeking commodity, and the sharing of it criminalized.

In my eyes, you making this suggestion means you're likely not feeling the same level of alienation and you're able to live comfortably? In other words, you can live without it due to your position as labor aristocrat.

The metaverse will be just like Facebook free basics: digital colonialism. [1], [2], [3]

[1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/saritharai/2016/02/10/marc-andr...

[2] https://theconversation.com/facebook-is-no-charity-and-the-f...

[3] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jul/27/facebook-...

Re: The metaverse is a dystopian nightmare – let’s build a better reality

#112

Post by dopidopHN »

sen wrote: post #36
shock-value wrote: post #13

Whenever a company describes their vision of "the metaverse" (or I guess "reality channels" in this case) it's always exceedingly vague and never really explains in concrete terms what sort of utility or entertainment a person would derive from it. I guess it's just the latest vehicle to get investors or stockholders excited without needing to rely upon any work or logic beyond the unclear promise of technologies tha…

The reality of the "metaverse" as far as I'm seeing it, is literally just MMORPGs without a story/purpose, where you hang out with friends, chat, do shared activities, etc etc. Second Life done better, with the world size/style of WoW/Fortnite/Minecraft/Rust/etc (choose your graphics and fantasy genre). Plenty of people already join custom Minecraft servers just to hang out and voice-chat while messing around doing s…

Actually one of my first experience I can remember on the internet was something called “the 3D village” circa 1998.

A proto second life, inhabited by French and québécois teenagers.

Re: The metaverse is a dystopian nightmare – let’s build a better reality

#113

Post by jay_kyburz »

adrianN wrote: post #93
jay_kyburz wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah but, all the interesting stuff happens in the niche corners of the internet. Let the mainstream play Fortnite, we'll enjoy better games that nobody knows about.

If niche stuff is most interesting to you, then you interests are niche, by definition. The stuff that is interesting to many people naturally tends to become mainstream.

Actually, I think a lot of niche stuff is objectively good, but never gets mainstream attention because it doesn't have a large enough marketing budget. (or never goes "viral")

Re: The metaverse is a dystopian nightmare – let’s build a better reality

#114

Post by sen »

dopidopHN wrote: post #112
sen wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reality of the "metaverse" as far as I'm seeing it, is literally just MMORPGs without a story/purpose, where you hang out with friends, chat, do shared activities, etc etc. Second Life done better, with the world size/style of WoW/Fortnite/Minecraft/Rust/etc (choose your graphics and fantasy genre). Plenty of people already join custom Minecraft servers just to hang out and voice-chat while messing around doing s…

Actually one of my first experience I can remember on the internet was something called “the 3D village” circa 1998. A proto second life, inhabited by French and québécois teenagers.

Yeah I remember playing with VRML in ~1996-97 and developing a bunch of "virtual worlds" (tiny by todays standard) for companies then. It never got huge traction but it was definitely around, and there were some really fun 3D virtual chat worlds around at the time.

Re: The metaverse is a dystopian nightmare – let’s build a better reality

#115

Post by ineedasername »

smabie wrote: post #81
ineedasername wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if it involves interacting with the real world, I've always found Pokemon Go (and other Pokemon games) kind of brutal: basically capturing animals and making them fight until incapacitated. People go to jail for that sort of thing in real life. Of course there are plenty of game where you do things that would be illegal: GTA built an empire on it. But Pokemon is marketed towards kids .

Yeah pokemon deeply damaged me as a kid. unacceptable

Yes, I can see the signs: you probably breed & fight pitbulls right?

Re: The metaverse is a dystopian nightmare – let’s build a better reality

#116

Post by strken »

Nevermark wrote: post #96
strken wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm starting to think my relationship with books might have been unhealthy in some of the same ways as video games. Theatre and movies might be similar for others. Less "escaping reality" and more "passive consumption at the cost of active creation".

Books feed you minimum data ... a string of characters ... completely devoid of any of the senses that you actually imagine you are experiencing: an active colorful audible 3D world. Your own brain does almost all the work of manufacturing the reality, the author only provides the barest of guides. And your mind also adds layers of meaning onto whatever meaning the author makes explicit. So I would say the act of rea…

I think the slower pace indicates more effort and greater levels of integration of different concepts. The kind of creativity involved in reading is like paint-by-numbers, while writing is like actual painting. It takes much more than an order of magnitude more time to write fiction than to read it for me, because it's so much less structured.

Re: The metaverse is a dystopian nightmare – let’s build a better reality

#117

Post by horrified »

spywaregorilla wrote: post #109
horrified wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess one problem with the virtual world in RPO is that it is centralized, and therefore people are fighting each other to control it.

You'd think the creator would have thought of something like that, but nah, he wanted to leave it to the coolest teen. Or, in the movie version, the teen most able to identify weirdly personal details from the author's private life.

I guess he was certain that anybody so well versed in the 80ies cult products would have to be a good person.

Re: The metaverse is a dystopian nightmare – let’s build a better reality

#118

Post by Dracophoenix »

adrianN wrote: post #93
jay_kyburz wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah but, all the interesting stuff happens in the niche corners of the internet. Let the mainstream play Fortnite, we'll enjoy better games that nobody knows about.

If niche stuff is most interesting to you, then you interests are niche, by definition. The stuff that is interesting to many people naturally tends to become mainstream.

You do you realize that everything that is mainstream was once a niche that eventually got the attention of millions of people? Computers, for instance.

Re: The metaverse is a dystopian nightmare – let’s build a better reality

#119

Post by Nevermark »

strken wrote: post #116
Nevermark wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Books feed you minimum data ... a string of characters ... completely devoid of any of the senses that you actually imagine you are experiencing: an active colorful audible 3D world. Your own brain does almost all the work of manufacturing the reality, the author only provides the barest of guides. And your mind also adds layers of meaning onto whatever meaning the author makes explicit. So I would say the act of rea…

I think the slower pace indicates more effort and greater levels of integration of different concepts. The kind of creativity involved in reading is like paint-by-numbers, while writing is like actual painting. It takes much more than an order of magnitude more time to write fiction than to read it for me, because it's so much less structured.

I agree with that. Creative production and problem solving, accompanied by a strong internal standards pushing us further for higher quality or impact than we achieved before, is the pinnacle.

But reading is far more active form of receiving, than other forms of learning or entertainment.

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