"Take the monastery and the ranch house next door. Both were built by Ogar, an in-demand meta-architect in the metaverse. His real name is Alexandre Vlerick, and he lives in the real-life Lille, France.... Right after he finished the monastery for a German client, he got another request: an American client asking for a ranch house alongside it, on land where he could raise virtual chickens, horses, and a goat. Once the client moved in, he got a red barn, a tractor, and bales of hay. The owner of the monastery wasn’t pleased with the clashing aesthetics, and a familiar homeowners’-association-style conflict erupted. 'The first client was like, "Man, can’t you do it in another place? I’ll swap parcels with you so you have a bigger space far from my place,"' Ogar said. 'But he said no.'... Many early users came to the space because they were excited to hang out virtually with like-minded people who believe in blockchain technology; others were digital artists excited about new platforms.... But for newcomers paying upwards of $100,000 worth of crypto for a parcel, participation in the metaverse might be less about the liberatory potential of blockchain and more about speculating with crypto on digital assets. There is a clear tension between the idea that the metaverse is a utopian blank canvas, socially and visually, and the fact these spaces are based on money-backed property rights.... [T]here is already a kind of nostalgia setting in among longtime users of these platforms... 'The big money is moving in....'"
From "Does the Metaverse Need a Zoning Board? As new crypto investments flood online worlds, conflicts between virtual neighbors are on the rise" (NY Magazine).
It's a replication of the problem of gentrification. First come the young creatives. They make the place cool and alive. Then come the people who just buy their way in. But what are they buying? They don't really live there... or do they spend time there in some way. Is it art or is it investment?
In any case, Ogar has a nice job for himself. Speaking of jobs, there must be lawyers. There must be government. Or maybe not. It's a game, isn't it? I don't understand it, but I got to thinking about the board game Risk.
There's never a point in Risk where government emerges. You just play to the death, every time. Sometimes you feel real emotio
FROM THE EMAIL: Steve writes:
It's funny that the article didn't mention Neal Stephenson's 1992 novel, Snowcrash (at least, I didn't catch a mention if it was there). In his novel, Stephenson predicted a virtual world called the Metaverse. He also described the cacophony of style arising from the lack of physical limitations and diversity of taste and personalities of the inhabitants. He even discussed some of the rules used (like zoning laws) by the creators and early adopters of the Metaverse to manage all the weirdness. It's an awesome book, but it feels like the kind of thing you wouldn't enjoy, for some reason. Also, I know you don't like mixed metaphors, but I think "cacophony of style" is a keeper.
AND: George emails:
Great comment by Steve about Neal Stephenson’s 1992 novel Snow Crash. As Steve says, it IS an awesome book. And you might like it. It’s about viruses: biological viruses, computer viruses, and viral ideas. All timely topics for today. All interconnected in the novel from ancient Sumerian mythology to a futuristic virtual reality called the Metaverse. Language is a key theme, beginning with the Biblical story of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9) and continuing to the modern concepts of DNA (the language of biology) and the binary language of digital computers.
A quote from the book about the title: Hiro: “This Snow Crash thing—is it a virus, a drug, or a religion?” Juanita shrugs. “What's the difference?”
Whether I'd like — or even be able to read — this book depends entirely on the writing style. I have to be able to tolerate the sentence-by-sentence experience, and science fiction books tend to be in a style that gets on my nerves. So I'll look at the first page (on Amazon). Sorry, got to take a pass. You get hit in the face with an immense clutter of details before you're given any reason to care. Sintered armorgel indeed!
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