This week we focus on Talking Metaverse, immortality, voice control and IoT, video game industry, cryptocurrencies vs tokens, London Fashion Week Fringe 2022, & more!
Spatial News™ 3-5 is live! “Life is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat.” ― Ralph Ellison, author of Invisible Man
Metaverse, Metaverse, Metaverse
Check out Immersal’s “Talking Metaverse” videocast series hosted by Tan Lay. Last month featured Leslie Shannon, Head of Ecosystem and Trend Scouting at Nokia.
What’s Leslie’s one sentence definition of the metaverse?
“I think of it as the post-text internet of experiences.”
Check out the full conversation above and subscribe to watch more Talking Metaverse episodes.
“In terms of industry progress towards the cloud-supported, scalable metaverse, no organization has come further than the U.S. Army. Their Synthetic Training Environment (STE) has been in development since 2017[…] The STE fundamentally differs from traditional, server-based approaches. For example, it will host a 1:1 digital twin of the Earth on a cloud architecture that will stream high fidelity (photo-realistic) terrain data to connected simulations[…]”
The article goes on to say that digital environments created for entertainment, commercial, or training purposes may not require an accurate representation of the earth.
“Still, the military metaverse could be a microcosm of what may soon be a large-scale, open-source digital world that is not controlled or dominated by a few commercial entities… pav[ing] the way for any cloud-based, open-source worlds that come after it…”
This shouldn’t be surprising to anyone. The US military-funded ARPANET is the technical foundation of what we know today as the Internet. Of course, the road to the metaverse would be paved with their bricks and mortars. (Couldn’t help it).
(Thanks again for sharing, Tom Ffiske.)
Rafael Brown raises important debates in his LI post last week.
“We have to solve the issues of biometric tracking, privacy, rights, and permissions, BEFORE we get to the future metaverse. What we have now is XR connecting via Cloud to the Internet with companies like Somnium Space doing things that even Facebook, Google, and Amazon, aren't ready to consider. Remember that Facebook quote, ‘Move Fast and Break Things’? The problem is not web vs web, but rather tech corporations, like Somnium Space, Facebook, or 23AndMe, asking for user biometric (or biological) data for free, pretending that data has zero value and then exploiting that data. User data is the single most valuable and important data. They need users to give that data for free thru a misdirection service, like a vampire asking to be let in. Always value user data. Don't let anyone take your data for free. This isn't about centralization or decentralization, web or cloud. It is just as bad for user biometric data to be on the blockchain as it is for it to be in a corporation server. Somnium Space does BOTH. Biometric data should protected, not be exploited. The deceased should NOT be turned into puppets using data that will be owned by a web3 corporation.”
In the comments Stephanie Woessner responds:
“I wouldn't condemn Somnium Space by default. They are part of the rather new deathtec[h] scene that is not bad in itself. I had an online space to keep the memory of my beloved cat alive about 20 years ago and it helped me grieve. Their intentions may be pure, who knows? I think we need to consider radically new social practices. Web3 is about data ownership and if I were to decide I want [t]o use their service I should have the right to make that decision if it is an informed decision.
I have had people want to protect me from myself when it comes to my personal data. And I really didn't appreciate it. It all depends on how Web3 develops and the decisions we make as a society, an international community concerning these questions.”
There are a few things going on here that I’d like to point out
1) the issue of “biometric tracking, privacy, rights, and permissions”
2) “misdirection” by a company to get as much of user data as possible vs. “Their intentions may be pure”
3) the “deceased should NOT be turned into puppets” vs. the use of deathtech to help people that are grieving, etc.
What say you, Spatialists? Love to hear your thoughts on any of these points.
Personally, I think the word ‘immortality’ in the title should be in quotation marks. I have a very (very) hard time believing that human-made technology (read: limited, imperfect, whatever) could capture the vast complexity of a human so as to enable that human to ‘live forever’ whether it be in a cloned body, a robotic chassis, a virtual world, or some other sci fi trope.
The question for me is, how much of that human complexity is sufficient enough for an artificial entity to help a person through the grieving process, legally represent a person in a virtual world, and so on?
That’s still not the same thing as immortality in the classic sense, though. Of course, the Ministry of Truth has been hard at work these days, so I expect a new definition of immortality any day now. Heck, how about even making it a fourth party slogan? DEATH IS LIFE. That has a ring to it…
From thought control to voice control (transition gold if I don’t say so myself).
“As more and more people use connected technology, the need for voice control increases as well. The hands-free capabilities make daily life easier, and users are happy to integrate technology into their cars, home and healthcare life. While the big players [Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana and Google Assistant] still dominate the IoT voice space, new, innovative companies are competing to enter the market. Every forecast indicates that the future of gadgets and devices is connected and intuitive. The faster they incorporate engaging functions such as these ones, the faster society will embrace them and take advantage of their potential.”
I felt like I was skipping with a huge grin on the way to buy an ice cream while I was reading that. The author Nacho has the chipper tone in the bag. (I just made myself hungry for a snack…)
(Thanks to Ivan Cavan for sharing the article.)
From voice control to game control(lers)…
“Amid an ongoing spree of mergers and acquisitions, fewer companies own more of the gaming industry than ever before[…] The stakes, then, have arguably never been higher, and for [game consultant and Hit Points newsletter author Nathan] Brown this poses a serious question: ‘With the way our world is structured at the moment, how do we feel about concentrating power overwhelmingly in the hands of another small number of corporations?’”
Worth an entire read if you are interested in this development.
Pic courtesy of theringer.com (I guess. That’s where I found it.)
Can you taste the difference?
(Thanks for sharing the article, Joaquim Matinero Tor.)
The event season is upon us. So this September 8th,
GIF credit: The Immersive KIND x Ivan Svanberg, entitled “The Other World”
The panel is part of London Fashion Week Fringe 2022 with IMMERSIVEKIND x Maison DAO x Gravity Layer x Dr Death 3D Fashion House x London College of Fashion x Jade McSorley x NFT SOHO.
Thanks for snacking with us, Spatialists! Snednig me fdeeabck is the olny way I can konw waht tsaets good and waht inst in good tsate.
Joh of Spatial8, not taking medicine for his ‘typoglycemia’
Comments