Facebook is now...Meta

[Free]

I mean their corporate name, not how they reference themselves!

Facebook’s new name is Meta

Mark Zuckerberg revealed the new name

www.theverge.com

 

[Khamon]

second verse same as the first

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

Have they hired Rosedale as consultant?

 

[Khamon]

He will be a compelling member of the team.

 

[Luisa Land]

Already at the beginning of August, the news portal "Tagesschau" (ARD)" reported under the headline "Future ideas of the tech corporations".




The tech industry in Silicon Valley has a new pet project: the metaverse. The digital parallel world is supposed to expand the internet three-dimensionally. Facebook has even founded its own department for it.
Marcus Schuler, ARD San Francisco Studio

The 2018 science fiction adventure "Ready Player One" by Steven Spielberg comes quite close to the idea of the "metaverse". In the film, the main character, a teenager, spends most of his time in a virtual world consisting of countless simulations. But the metaverse is not just gaming, says Matthew Ball. It is a kind of successor to the mobile internet, as the former Amazon manager and current tech investor says in an interview with ARD. Ball caused a stir a few weeks ago with a major essay on the Metaverse. In it, he describes what the successor to the internet could look like. Even Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg has declared Ball's articles compulsory reading for his employees.

"The metaverse is an extension of our current internet," says Ball. "It's not about the super-computer in our pocket or that we are constantly connected to the net. It's about us spending more and more time, leisure as well as work, in virtual worlds and simulations."

For Ball, the metaverse is a permeable web. Technology silos, sealed-off services like Apple's iMessage or Facebook's WhatsApp, Signal or Telegram do not exist there. Data from different providers can be exchanged without any problems - keyword interoperability. Logging in and out of different accounts is no longer necessary.




The metaverse has its own economy with its own currency. Offline and online worlds are moving closer together. But it will take many decades before such a metaverse actually exists, says Ball. But we could already experience a change now. As examples, he cites cryptocurrencies, which are just as much a part of our everyday lives as the huge gaming communities of Roblox or Fortnite.

"In 2015, less than five billion dollars were spent on virtual goods. Last year it was already 55 billion," says Ball. "In 2015, there were hardly any people participating in big game simulations like Fortnite, for example. Today, there are more than 350 million people every day. And cryptocurrencies also show us that there is a social shift here towards virtual things."

Gaming platforms in particular are leading the way. Young people meet at Fortnite. Events from the offline world take place there online, for example concerts. Online games are played together. For Ball, however, an even better example is the online game platform Roblox, which is made for children and young people and has 40 million users every day: "There, you have a single identity across all levels, a continuing network of friends, always the same access and a common currency. That is probably the closest to the idea of the metaverse at the moment.

n Silicon Valley, Ball's essays, the ideas of Tim Sweeney, founder of the games company Epic, or David Baszucki, head of Roblox, have shaken up the tech elite. Microsoft boss Satya Nadella recently spoke of a shift towards "metaverse" business models. And Facebook has even had its own department for a few days to deal with strategic approaches.

From the consumer's point of view, a metaverse would be welcome because it would be easier to transfer data from one provider to another. Ball is particularly critical of companies that want to cook their own soup and seal themselves off. They could lose out, he predicts - for example, the billion-dollar company Apple.


Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Wird das "Metaversum" zum Nachfolger des Internet?

Die Tech-Industrie im Silicon Valley hat ein neues Lieblingsprojekt: das Metaversum. Die digitale Parallelwelt soll das Internet dreidimensional erweitern. Facebook hat dafür sogar eine eigene Abteilung gegründet. Von Marcus Schuler.

www.tagesschau.de

https://www.matthewball.vc/all/themetaverse

 

[Romana]

" As examples, he cites cryptocurrencies, which are just as much a part of our everyday lives as the huge gaming communities of Roblox or Fortnite."???
Let him speak for his own everyday life. The only way cryptocurrency is part of my everyday life us seeing how many particularly obnoxious Twitter trolls have that in their bios.

 

[Luisa Land]

" As examples, he cites cryptocurrencies, which are just as much a part of our everyday lives as the huge gaming communities of Roblox or Fortnite."???
Let him speak for his own everyday life. The only way cryptocurrency is part of my everyday life us seeing how many particularly obnoxious Twitter trolls have that in their bios.

Well, as I understand it, he is trying to show the importance of virtual worlds already have and that elements and activities in the virtual worlds also influence areas of the real world already
For example, the scarcity of high quality graphics cards has been attributed to the purchase of these cards for cryptocurrency mining... as one factor, among others.
Wikipedia gives the figure that 220 million people use cryptocurrencies.
And Linden Dollars are nothing but a cryptocurrency.
I didn't read him as saying that cryptocurrencies, especially bitcoins, are a great benefit to humanity. In my opinion, he is stating this without judgement.

as I see it, it is a question of discussing what potential the further development of virtual worlds has or whether it is just a new hype without substance.

 

[Soen Eber]

Meta

An image tagged big lebowski

imgflip.com

Some one had to say it. Thank you, I'll show myself out now.

 

[WolfEyes]

" As examples, he cites cryptocurrencies, which are just as much a part of our everyday lives as the huge gaming communities of Roblox or Fortnite."???
Let him speak for his own everyday life. The only way cryptocurrency is part of my everyday life us seeing how many particularly obnoxious Twitter trolls have that in their bios.

It plays a much larger part in your life than it does mine. It has no part at all in my life.

 

[bubblesort]

I always liked the term 'cyberspace' better than 'metaverse', when referring to VR. Unfortunately, it looks like the military co-opted cyberspace, and companies like facebook are using metaverse to refer to VR.

... and I'm just sitting here on the information superhighway, wondering why they don't just call it virtual reality.

 

[Free]

... and I'm just sitting here on the information superhighway

Now that is a term I really hate.

 

[Noodles]

That is probably the closest to the idea of the metaverse at the moment

[GARBLED ENRAGED AVATAR NOISES]

 

[Free]

[GARBLED ENRAGED AVATAR NOISES]

I guess it won't be a real introduction to the metaverse until one of these Big VR News presentations ends with giant flying penises attacking the presenter.

 

[Free]

 

[bubblesort]

I just saw John Carmack's keynote from earlier today, and it was actually pretty interesting. Right before explaining that the metaverse is, "a honey pot trap for astronaut architects," he said this:

... I was quoted all the way back in the 90s as saying that building the metaverse is a moral imperative, and even back then, most people missed that I was actually making a movie reference...

This leaves me scratching my head. I thought I could pick up on most common movie references to VR, but I can't place this one. What do you guys think? What movie is this from?

 

[Free]

This leaves me scratching my head. I thought I could pick up on most common movie references to VR, but I can't place this one. What do you guys think? What movie is this from?

Though if that's the reference, I don't see how it connects with his points about the metaverse.

 

[Free]

 

[bubblesort]

This means FAANG is now MANGA. Here's a clip from the upcoming hit movie, The Weeb of Wall St...

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

And Linden Dollars are nothing but a cryptocurrency.

They are not, in any sense of the word. They are a private currency, but they are logged and traded in a conventional centralized database.

 

[Sid]

I think that name is chosen to describe Zuckerberg's ego size.
They somehow mixed up mega with meta though.