"I quickly realized that the metaverse was, with the exception of its games and exercise apps, best experienced sitting down.... Meta forces Horizon users to design avatars that look like real people — no giant bananas or huge robots — and many people choose to look as they do in real life, but pseudonymity is still part of the appeal. I, however, did use my real name and told people that I was a New York Times reporter who was recording my experience with a tool built into my headset. This P.O.V. camera was a little creepy, because it didn’t notify others when it was turned on. When I revealed I was recording, people would sometimes shout, 'She’s a fed!' and run away.... Putting on the headset was annoying, but once I started chatting in Horizon, I had a good time and was reluctant to leave. I liked meeting people spontaneously without the increasingly heavy-handed algorithmic intervention of traditional social media platforms. But explaining the metaverse through the lens of Horizon feels akin to unpacking the potential of 'the web' by surfing AOL chat rooms in the 1990s, during the days of dial-up modems...."
Writes Kashmir Hill in "This Is Life in the Metaverse/Every hour of the day and night with the gamers, parents, insomniacs, preteens and aspiring comedians who are the earliest adopters of the immersive, three-dimensional internet that Mark Zuckerberg has bet the future of his company on" (NYT).
This article went up 2 days ago and it was featured on the NYT podcast "Hard Fork" the same day, but it only has 109 comments. I scanned them and didn't see any that weren't pretty much the same as this one, the top-rated comment:
It just seems awful. Social media has promoted itself as "bringing people together," but that is far from what has happened in the real world. We think it's going to be some sort of School of Athens where deep and meaningful conversations happen, but it's just an opportunity to have your inauthentic self on display. If we need connection and belonging, maybe we should be having neighborhood dinners, where politics are prohibited, instead of strapping on a headset to get trolled by broken people. Hard pass.
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38 comments:
For the first time ever, I agree with a commenter on a left-wing NYT comment section.
I wonder how many people will choose a fat avatar that looks like them.
"...maybe we should be having neighborhood dinners, where politics are prohibited"
Lmao, talk about 'inauthentic selves'.
Geez Kash, get a life!
Add consequences to behavior in the metaverse and a society will evolve.
Would Eduardo Verástegui tone down his smoldering good looks in the metaverse?
Or will more people steal a picture of him for their avatar?
I have an oculus quest 2, and it's really fun for a lot of things. Great way to see the world without leaving through the Google Maps app that puts you in the street view.
Games are fun and good way to try out new things or things you can't do at thw moment, like sailing or mini golf or target shooting.
The social apps are entirely uninteresting. Facebook boomed because it connected social and family groups across distance. There's a very small set of people who want to interact with strangers while also lacking any social identifiers or standards. People who love extreme small talk? People who are both extroverts and lack live social connections? Trolls who are afraid to live out their antisocial desires as themselves?
Bleecchh. Like the world's worst cocktail party with all the negatives and none of the positives.
Joystick and hand controller.
The metaverse will be great for Jeffrey Toobin.
Virtual reality is an incredible technology. If you have not tried it, you can't believe how real it can seem.
My first experience was with a Lincoln electric welding simulator.
Put on a welding helmet and I was in a Nascar shop. They put a welding stinger in my hand and told me to lay down a bead on a piece that existed only virtually.
Visual and tactile feedback was so realistic I swore I felt sparks on the back of my hand.
After welding the bead, they showed me a printout with millimeter by millimeter evaluation of how well I did.
That was 7 years ago. It's come a long way since.
John stop fascism vote republican Henry
In the metaverse you can not only raise cattle on your virtual farm, but actually get gored by the bulls.
There are also some great exercise apps, if you want to have a aerobics class but not deal with the commute or people.
i guess, One advantage (THE advantage) of the "metaverse", is that..
If you want to be flat chested, your avatar can be flat chested.
If you want a big flabby penis, your avatar can have a big flabby penis.
If you want your name to be Joseph, your avatar can have the name Joseph
no drugs, no surgery, just design it so.
Then.. Tomorrow or the next week, when you miss being a girl; you can change it all back.
Unlike in the real world, where those changes can NOT be undone (unlike what they told you when)
"Social media has promoted itself as "bringing people together," but that is far from what has happened in the real world."
I started to comment that 'the internet certainly has been a disappointment when it comes to social media', but it's much worse than that. I think politics-on-the-internet is tearing this country apart to a degree not possible without it. Fortunately, I doubt that Zuckerberg's meta will make it even worse; seems like just window dressing to me. I eschew the social media crap as it is and won't be participating in his new shiny object.
On the positive side, the ability to learn and do research on the internet has fulfilled its promise in spades. Virtually everything I could need to increase my understanding of the science topics I am interested in is right at my fingertips. I love it.
Every once in a while I wonder if there is overlap between NYT readers and Althousers. That comment might have been made by one of our luminaries.
Thanks again for doing what I won't.
I remember back in high school in the 60s there was a number you could call, it was like a party line. There would be dozens of young boys and girls all chatting at once. It was all nonsense, no deep thoughts. Just guys trying to be funny and failing, stuff like that. This new thing reminds me of that. People don't change.
but it's just an opportunity to have your inauthentic self on display.
I dunno if this is a social media problem, really. Who generated this idea that we're supposed to get, or give, an unfiltered look at everybody around us? It seems to me that this is the root of what most people now consider to be the ‘social media problem’ without really realizing that what everybody wanted from social media when it started was to allow that unfiltered look *because nobody gives an unfiltered look at themselves to nominal strangers in real life, either.* Heck, most of us don’t even give our friends or even spouses totally unfiltered 360-degree looks. There might be core parts of my personality that people who see me at work, church, the historical railroad would all agree on but when I’m with my church folks I have my church hat on, and the same with the railroad and at work. And you know, I’m perfectly comfortable with that!
Appears to me this is the root of all that ‘take your whole self to work’ bullshit, and not a small part of what is driving the whole trans lunacy. People need to have space to have different personas when they are fulfilling different roles, and the idea that this is somehow ‘inauthentic’ and should be avoided is a real problem.
But we are so much cooler on line. Song by Brad Paisley
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6EaWO-wbYE
"[...the sound of] someone coughing, which made me flinch even though the real-world germs were very far away."
Virtue signaling by the author, or an accurate description of how she reacts to a cough? In either case that colored the rest of the piece with an air of ridiculousness for me, not that I had high expectations to begin with in the first place.
Zuckerberg flunked marketing classes where he would have learned to identify the potential users of this technology before betting the company on it. If the total available market is so small that an article about the tech only draws 100 comments, uniformly negative, then you might be inventing New Coke. Just sayin’.
"We think it's going to be some sort of School of Athens where deep and meaningful conversations happen..."
People seem wedded to this delusion and refuse to see the reality. In a place where every moment of every day, the hue and cry for censorship is raised and answered, "deep and meaningful conversations" are not possible.
Twitter didn't even seek to hide from its root "twit"
Twit
To vex by bringing to notice, or reminding of, a fault, defect, misfortune, or the like; to revile; to reproach; to upbraid; to taunt; as, he twitted his friend of falsehood.
[1913 Webster]
I find that "hue and cry" is a very appropriate name for what happens on social media using the older definition
Hue and cry (Law), a loud outcry with which felons were
anciently pursued, and which all who heard it were obliged
to take up, joining in the pursuit till the malefactor was
taken; in later usage, a written proclamation issued on
the escape of a felon from prison, requiring all persons
to aid in retaking him. --Burrill.
[1913 Webster]
Yet, especially the most abusive users of social media still proclaim that it is for reasoned discourse.
I would have expected much, much better graphics than what I see in her video samples. Very surprising.
The technology may be state-of-the-art for a commercial product but the look is 80's. Maybe 90's.
And if they're going to be used for porn, as they will, that's not going to cut it.
"When I revealed I was recording, people would sometimes shout, 'She’s a fed!' and run away...."
The people shouting are probably correct.
Social media has promoted itself as "bringing people together," but that is far from what has happened in the real world. We think it's going to be some sort of School of Athens where deep and meaningful conversations happen, but it's just an opportunity to have your inauthentic self on display.
Unfortunately, for some people the self they display online very much is their authentic self.
It does seem like a bit of a departure from recent thinking to once again believe that we really do have "authentic" selves that are different from the selves we show each other every day.
I spent a lot of time involved with vr in the late 80's to mid 90's. VRML. The folks at Sun Microsystems were the folks in charge at the time. The headsets sucked and the controls were nonexistent, but all the young techs we absolutely certain that VR was going to replace -- well, everything. Zuckerberg wasn't a part of that VRML group, but he was of the same age as the techies. I'm pretty sure that he was influenced by that mindset.
VR wasn't ready then, and it's not ready now. Until there are some high grade BCIs VR is going to remain a toy. A really cool toy imo. But Zuckerberg, like the 90's geeks, is chasing a phantom that won't materialize for decades.
That said, I can't wait to get my hands on the PSVR2 coming out next year. The graphics won't be that much better, but I expect the games will be way beyond anything Quest can offer.
Apple is sinking a bunch of $ in AR, which has more practical uses than VR, but even so it's still a risky bet.
PacWest,
By AR, do you mean augmented reality?
If so, there are a lot of really exciting industrial applications already in use.
-systems that superimpose images of components as they are assembled
https://www.lightguidesys.com/
-Industrial grade google glasses that put wiring diagrams, parts lists etc in the user's eyeball also allow 2 way audiovisual comms.
Www.realwear.com
-hybrid systems that allow 2 people, 1 remote to work on a piece of equipment.
Www.helplightening
And much more. In terms of practical use AR is here now. Some companies use vr for training, machine demos and walk through and more. Not like at though
I am currently writing an article on industrial uses of vr and AR. If you (or anyone else) work withese technologies I'd love to talk on or off the record call me 787-550-9650
John stop fascism vote republican Henry
Blogger Darkisland said..."Virtual reality is an incredible technology. If you have not tried it, you can't believe how real it can seem.
My first experience was with a Lincoln electric welding simulator."
Now that, training simulators, sounds like a great application of this technology. Social media? Meh.
Article on some AR technologies as of 2 years ago
https://www.packagingdigest.com/automation/6-options-remote-packaging-machine-servicing
John stop fascism vote republican Henry
Is there advertising in the metaverse?
@John Henry
I'm just a hobbyist now, but I do keep up on it. Almost all the HMDs coming out are putting AR (augmented reality) as the main focus. Apple's first entry is focused on it although it will have VR capability. I've seen some AR apps that you are talking about and others like surgical training, but the haptics (force feedback to the hands or body) have a long way to go. HoloLens (Microsoft) is used by the military for awhile now, but I hear it has some problems. The use of AR goes clear back to stringing wire harnesses on Boeing jets in the 90's.
Is there advertising in the metaverse?
Up to 80% of your field of view before inducing seziures :)
"I have an oculus quest 2, and it's really fun for a lot of things. Great way to see the world without leaving through the Google Maps app that puts you in the street view."
That's exactly what I want to do. Does it really work?
"does it work"
It does! The only weakness is it is limited to what Google Maps has and that static view, but you can go down to the street and see all over the world and even in some museums, etc. You basically move within their interface and can look all around in each spot.
There are some other travel and nature apps that allow more dynamic experience in more narrow places like national parks.
I have 3 VR headsets, an Oculus Go, Samsung HMD, and Oculus Quest. None of them have ever been used for social media. My favorite is the Oculus Go, which is like a private movie theater with a big screen. The Samsung is for gaming. The Oculus Quest is what most people think of now of a VR headset, but I rarely use it. When I have, it is to do something like what Paddy O. described. I haven't tried the Google Maps app, but there are some great 360 VR of places that are hard to get to in person. My favorite one of those is an inside tour of Notre Dame with before and after images from the fire. I also heard someone was making similar videos with stereo microphones, so you can see and hear as if you were present.
Does it really work?
Depends on the meaning of work. With Google Maps, you can move around, which you do with the joystick as described in the article. Alternatively, your hand can work like a laser pointer, and you point to where you want to "jump to" next. The videos I watch allow you to look around, but where you go is wherever the videographer goes. You simply have the choice to look in a different direction, sort of like riding a single person tour bus.
Some of the games support actual walking (if you have the space, which you can digitally fence to avoid running into things), but only a couple of yards in any direction. It is more like you can box, fight, dance, or pretend to move things within a small space. The older headset had external posts that set limits. Newer headsets have extra cameras that watch out for obstacles and determine which way you are looking. The only negative is they need light to function. Negative, in that my older 1st gen Oculus Go uses accelerometers to determine pointing and doesn't need light, so I can watch movies at night.
I've watched the elderly in assisted living residences scrolling Facebook and looking at photos of their great-grandchildren. It does have its uses for people who are isolated. Still, I have to agree that nothing takes the place of things like shared meals.
I'll pass on the metaverse and virtual reality. Actual reality is sufficient.
I spend a lot of time socializing virtually with gaming guilds. Of course our avatars are extreme -- beautiful, horrific, buff -- but that's the point. When we chat, though, we're real people. It all mixes together. We're not just randomly meeting. We have a purpose, a gaming goal. That's the key to a successful interaction. Random people do wander about, but our instinct is to group up and to connect.
Here's the app that works close with Google maps: Wander
I went to an interactive Van Gogh exhibit in Atlanta last year. Interesting blend of art and technology. The last item was VR. Sat in a chair, flew across a countryside showing where he worked and the scenery became his paintings.
Quite interesting.
Thanks for the info
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