The metaverse is already here, it's called the internet

There are worse things incredibly rich people could do to have fun. Why not just build a metaverse?

> In the end, the metaverse will be the internet, but mostly experienced through the medium of VR/AR.

Depends on who gives the smart glasses it's 'killer app' and the ecosystem it needs to take off and who ever executes that properly, will win. The games are going to come first.

Probably will come from either Meta, Apple, Google or Microsoft. Most likely from Meta with the support of the Web and PWA's first.

> In the meantime, all we can do is make sure that Facebook’s cut of VR social networks stays as small as possible.

I don't see anything out there right now to counter what Meta is about to do, unless Mastodon or something else is planning to persuade the masses to not make money on the metaverse and stay on the fediverse.

Either way, this decade is going to introduce the smart glasses and it will come from Big Tech again as it did with smartwatches. Sorry.

I think there’s prior questions of what does interoperability actually add and why doesn’t it already exist?

For example with the web the interoperability is really between the browser and websites rather than between websites. Although a few do interoperate. This is more similar to how Roblox or Steam works where one program lets you join lots of different games and maintains some common state than common ideas of interoperability in the metaverse.

The thing about the internet as we interact with it today that makes it so pervasive is that it generally enhances real world experiences. It doesn't replace them. It fills in the gaps in down time. People whip out their phones to text or take a video or catch up on social media or share something because the interaction is fast and the interfaces are complementary and the right balance of distracting enough to draw your attention, but not distracting enough that you can't convince yourself that you are loosely aware of what's around you. AR might work, but VR outside of your home seems like a stretch.

So I totally agree we need to build a metaverse collectively. Letting it go to Facebook would be very bad. Most people here totally dismiss the whole thing, which isn't helping.

Anyway, back to what you said, I agree that seamless transition is the very big factor. IMO, "metaverse" requires seamless transition between assets not worlds. Current VR experience, even assuming a perfect browser, means that you switch between world when switching between websites. I believe that most usages would be that pages are mostly assets, not whole worlds. Kinda frames I guess. I don't think there is any specification at the moment for such a thing.

(Now I'm daydreaming of a VR RSS reader, where I move in my various news. Nope that doesn't sound like a good UX)