Don’t mock the metaverse
The metaverse is already here. It’s just not evenly distributed
“A REVOLUTIONARY APPROACH on how to connect our world without being super-weird…In the Icelandverse, there’s…skies you can see with your eyeballs, volcanic rocks you can caress, and really big geysers you can observe from a safe distance.” So runs a viral advert designed to lure tourists to Iceland. The target of the parody is Mark Zuckerberg in particular, and Silicon Valley in general, for whom the idea of the “metaverse”—a sort of 3D sequel to today’s two-dimensional internet, in which users work, play, buy and sell inside immersive virtual worlds—has become the latest Next Big Thing.
This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline “Don’t mock the metaverse”
From the November 20th 2021 edition
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