META

Whilst Tim Cook is busy trying to re-fashion Apple as Netflix, Mark Zuckerberg has been watching ‘Ready Player One’ on repeat and is re-inventing… the world, apparently. At least he is virtually.?

Rebranding Facebook Group as Meta (Greek for beyond) his presentation employed some Apple-like launch techniques, to deliver his vision of the metaverse as a successor to the internet. I watched the 'Connect 21 launch’ this morning and whilst I’m a fan of VR/AR and its potential, it left me wondering about a few things with this grand vision of the future.?

Firstly, the statement on interoperability - "You need to know that you own your digital items, not the platform, and privacy is essential”.?Wow, a couple of huge leaps right off the bat, given Facebook’s history and its relationships with other tech giants.?There's currently next-to-no?interoperability between media and platforms, and purchased or subscribed media is locked firmly into?each platform. It’s a bit like wanting to?watch the football on Sky and the match is on BT Sport, so you subscribe to that too and?effectively pay twice. Amazon Prime, Apple TV+, Netflix, Disney+, Spotify, plus a growing host of others means that your media is fragmented between competing business models. Unless they all agree to one big cartel?or a universal NFT system,?interoperability?doesn’t seem that likely soon. Plus privacy hasn't been top of Mark Zuckerberg's agenda until recently. He says he's learnt lessons.

Another statement that got me thinking:

"In this future, you will be able to teleport instantly as a hologram to be at the office without a commute, at a concert with friends, or in your parents’ living room to catch up. This will open up more opportunity no matter where you live. You’ll be able to spend more time on what matters to you, cut down time in traffic, and reduce your carbon footprint.”

Ticks a lot of boxes, right? But I can’t help feeling that this seems like a?perfect match for the dystopian future of living in stacked shipping containers in a polluted megacity whilst having a perfect virtual life as an Avatar. Some?might say we’re almost there, courtesy of social media.

$150m towards?teaching Spark AR sounds good but detail on that was vague and Spark has some way to go in competition with ARKit and Vuforia so that comes back to the?interoperability question.?Some of the metaverse?‘experiences’ like?‘Hoppy’s Forest’?look straight out of Minecraft or The Sims, not the best sell IMO.?There’s no doubt that Meta is seriously invested in this and kids leaving college in the next few years might have great careers developing?and creating for the metaverse but might that take?away talent from other tech innovation, like?robotics and green-tech? Maybe Elon will change all that when he takes us to Mars?and hoovers up all the PR? And the cash.

Half way through the?presentation it?occurred to me that the metaverse is still firmly based around the VR headset and whilst AR works from other devices?I think the whole VR immersion thing is limited by the headset, regardless of new pancake lenses. I don’t mind wearing a VR headset for a while but I know some people who don’t like the experience at all and simply won’t wear it. Others will only?wear a headset for a short time. The recent Ray Ban Stories AR glasses, a collaboration with Facebook, raises some real privacy issues too, earning the unenviable nickname of perv-specs. So dependence on hardware is a big limiting factor for Meta's grand vision but perhaps advancement in VR rooms,?emitters and screen/wall technology might overcome some of this down the?road.

The lowest point of the presentation was Nick Clegg’s Party Political?Broadcast?on behalf of the Facebook Party,?delivered via Portal from his plush office,?which didn’t look virtual but who knows. If it was virtual then the lighting and shadowing was far better than the earlier demos.?He?talked about privacy and?transparency without?laughing, like politicians do.

The meta logo is a bit underwhelming. It looked like a blue?M?bius?strip at first but it’s a simple blue loop. Maybe I’m missing something but if that’s creativity at its best then I’m left?wondering what it cost. Meta as name suits the dream?I guess but it reminded me of MetaCortex, the?company Neo worked for in The Matrix movie. Maybe that’s what they’re?building?

Lastly, I was a bit disappointed when?Zuckerberg?picked his avatar. I was hoping he’d pick the robot?because it seemed more?appropriate; the similarities to Star Trek’s Data from the Congress hearings a few years ago won’t go away that fast.?He’s?obviously had some delivery coaching but he still came across as alien. Overall it was very similar to recent Apple launches; just too?saccharine sweet. I know it’s California but...

AR/VR is great technology, it’s rapidly advancing and has a place but I don’t think it’s the only place. At least I hope it’s not. How much are shipping containers?