There is this illusion that tech is something that happens somewhere and has no cost, cultural
or physical. Which is untrue. My question is whether the Metaverse is becoming a space for increased consumerism. You can own a 1,000 dresses, but then you have to power it and maintain it. And it has its own economy of trading, forgery, and ownership. The ecosystem around it doesn't just end when you put your goggles on or switch on your phone. I somehow suspect that owning a real wardrobe might be less costly long term.43
That may be the way to look at things, as all things come with a cost.Ffree is not free, regardless of what the tech companies would have you believe.
Maybe, at the end of the day, maybe common sense might engage and the initiative might die of its own accord. Listen to Jason Scheirer:
The one question I keep asking is: Do people actually want something like this? So, I asked Twitter. Out of 17,650 people who answered my survey, 64.5% said nope, they would not regularly use a Ready Player One-style metaverse. Fewer than 20% said they would.44
Some evidence supports this less than scientific study. “Google Trends shows that in the last 12 months, searches for “metaverse” gained traction from October to December 2021. However, since the beginning of 2022, the search interest has continued to drop, hitting its lowest point in March.”45
This disinterest – or at least mild concern – was what probably led to Facebook suffering $230 billion in losses right after their announcement. Though the stock of the company has regained some of its initial losses, the message was clear: stick to what you know – social networking. And this makes sense. Again, Jason Scheirer:
Facebook captured the attention of about a quarter of the planet by offering a smart solution to a difficult problem — staying connected. But now, it’s trying to create a
solution to a problem that doesn’t exist. When tech executives like Zuckerberg preach the metaverse, they are promising visions that either already exist, are ill-defined or that nobody actually wants.46
To this point: researchers are now predicting parents will be having and cuddling virtually designed kids in the metaverse within 50 years – namely, "Tamagotchi kids:" 'responsive, programmable and highly realistic children’ named after the digital toys from Japan.47 Whether or not this is hype, all examples point to the need for regulation and oversight – both in terms of the general practices of the firms and in terms of the environmental cost their activities are causing.
People need to engage by using their common sense to guide them through this world which seems to be coming at them regardless of their interest. As noted by Dinis Guarda:
For a metaverse to succeed, we need to make sure that we are all conscious that this is happening now! It is part of all of our life’s present, not in the far-flung future! The Metaverse needs to be built by all of us, with conscience, seamless and trusted, where the citizen — each of us — uses these new tools, like the invention of fire before, to empower themself by owning and evolving with the new metaverse platforms and technologies, not being a slave to them.
Therefore, we must be conscious that we need to build and make the Metaverse, the AI platforms for the amplifications of humanity, their very best instead of a dystopian prison! Only in this way will we ensure that the present building of our Metaverse becomes the ultimate set of tools and platforms for helping us to dream bigger and unlock more powerful narratives, rather than trapping us in a prison built from within our own biggest fears and nightmares.48
That may be the way in which common sense can bring us back to reality. How else might dignity be found in this world and the next?
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