Depends whether you think the metaverse’s primary output be entertainment or patents, whether you’ll get communities of distraction or whether you’ll get communities of care. We don’t actually know, it’s a question about human nature that has never been tested before.
The market for entertainment goods in the virtual world isn’t as big as meta want you to believe. The best experiences you can (or could) have on the metaverse currently are (were) decidedly high in piracy, people wearing likenesses they don’t own, watching movies together that weren’t licensed for the platform. These experiences were and will remain very janky and rough. It’s very difficult for copyright holders to adapt to a new world, if you look at say, Beatsaber, you can see a great example of licensing deals just failing to be made, so people mod their beatsaber to play unlicensed music, and meta permit this (ambiguously, it’s pretty inconvenient to do it), and I expect that to continue.
And the potential to generate real value in the metaverse (eg, patents, education, computer-mediated engineering work, logistical labor, remote robot operation labor) is higher than you’d think. Virtual reality is more able to support social connection than prior online mediums, so there’s more potential for people getting organised and caring about each other and doing real stuff together and learning from each other, but there’s also more potential for people to feel more socially cut off from industrious people, to develop reduced interest in written content, to consummate in communities of entertainment. It’s possible that increasing social health decreases distractive behaviours, Rat Park style, and once you have actual online community maybe the internet manifests its potential as a place of learning.
And if it does then the metaverse increases wealth by producing innovations that make primary goods cheaper, creating real jobs, and by increasing everyones’ access to training.
Depends whether you think the metaverse’s primary output be entertainment or patents, whether you’ll get communities of distraction or whether you’ll get communities of care. We don’t actually know, it’s a question about human nature that has never been tested before.
The market for entertainment goods in the virtual world isn’t as big as meta want you to believe. The best experiences you can (or could) have on the metaverse currently are (were) decidedly high in piracy, people wearing likenesses they don’t own, watching movies together that weren’t licensed for the platform. These experiences were and will remain very janky and rough. It’s very difficult for copyright holders to adapt to a new world, if you look at say, Beatsaber, you can see a great example of licensing deals just failing to be made, so people mod their beatsaber to play unlicensed music, and meta permit this (ambiguously, it’s pretty inconvenient to do it), and I expect that to continue.
And the potential to generate real value in the metaverse (eg, patents, education, computer-mediated engineering work, logistical labor, remote robot operation labor) is higher than you’d think. Virtual reality is more able to support social connection than prior online mediums, so there’s more potential for people getting organised and caring about each other and doing real stuff together and learning from each other, but there’s also more potential for people to feel more socially cut off from industrious people, to develop reduced interest in written content, to consummate in communities of entertainment. It’s possible that increasing social health decreases distractive behaviours, Rat Park style, and once you have actual online community maybe the internet manifests its potential as a place of learning.
And if it does then the metaverse increases wealth by producing innovations that make primary goods cheaper, creating real jobs, and by increasing everyones’ access to training.
So it’s hard to call.