"You have violated the terms of service and your account has been suspended. You no longer have access to Reality."
You know you're going in the wrong direction as a species if a corporation can have control of your every interaction, and they can take that access away if they so wish. They do it today, why should it be any different when the metaverse exists?
I think it's fine if a company can control what I do in their property, real or virtual.
The issue (and I wouldn't say this usually) is government. There need to be updated monopoly laws so that that companies with defacto state-level control over what people do cannot exist or are treated as utilities that everyone had a right to.
And government has to stop restricting people from doing stuff in real life, so that we're not pushed into on online dystopia. Importantly, this includes ready ways for everyone to go about their lives and interactions with government without a need for a smart phone, digital ID, or anything similar. Maybe if governments solve the monopoly problem this can be revisited.
Rosenberg contends AR will be practically impossible to live without [1], and that its most obvious use case is labeling persons in your environment — and labeling them in a way they have zero control over, and limited ability to opt out of. Rosenberg hints this may exacerbate interpersonal conflict, and that removing the shroud of anonymity from public spaces could make the metaverse difficult to escape from.
I play a concerning amount of VR Chat because it helped me greatly during COVID while I was single. It is an amazing experience, but I find it very dangerous for society in some ways. It has improved my mental health I think, but it's limiting my real world socialization so I don't know if it's that healthy.
You can very easily replace your real life with it outside of work and bills, and get all of your social needs from it. As someone with crippling social anxiety, it removes something that triggers my social anxiety and I'm able to easily make friends. People are more open, identity just isn't a thing because everyone is anything they want to be, people are more open to being 'close' to other people and forming relationships with them. I've been comparing it to the early internet in the 90's and 2000's, especially since the entire game outside of the base code is something like 99% community created by artists with great creativity.
I dance a lot in VR in EDM clubs which I have never done in real life. The other night I went to a real world concert and I danced for the first time in my life. I felt confident and knew other people didn't care, finally. People started talking to me, they were interested in me. I honestly didn't even know how to process it until the show was over, but it was definitely because of my gained confidence in VR.
You say it's limiting your real world socialization but given you're now comfortable dancing at concerts and making friends it sounds like overall it's been positive socially in a way that could have been harder to achieve without it
It's interesting how much your experience echo's mine (I just jumped out of a VRC dance meet a moment ago)
I can definitely see social VR eating more of the world in the long run however. I can't say for sure this is a bad thing, just different. I think it's something the next generations won't feel negative about in the same way, for them it'll just be the nature of the world
Hate sounding like an ad myself but the builtin adblocker on Brave is a lifesaver for cleaning up shitty mobile sites (ie, almost all of them).
Not looking forward to have to whitelist the programs being side-loaded into my VR interface so I don't get giant modal popups blocking my entire universe.
I can’t help but draw a comparison between metaverse, and meta as is used describe an optimal play strategy in competitive games. In the latter, the meta is controlled by the company pushing out new content. In the former, I imagine the company formerly known as Facebook will have control over the metaverse in a similar way. The difference being one is an entertaining game and the other will have real effects on the real world.
Somewhat ironic is that lots of people are looking forward to virtual worlds where they can explore without reality getting in the way.
Slowly at first, in fits and starts, but likely people will get ensnared into it and like social media, find it difficult to live without.
Then, the company, or whoever controls it will become pretty powerful not only in this synthetic realm but also in reality as the barrier from one to another is blurred.
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You know you're going in the wrong direction as a species if a corporation can have control of your every interaction, and they can take that access away if they so wish. They do it today, why should it be any different when the metaverse exists?
The issue (and I wouldn't say this usually) is government. There need to be updated monopoly laws so that that companies with defacto state-level control over what people do cannot exist or are treated as utilities that everyone had a right to.
And government has to stop restricting people from doing stuff in real life, so that we're not pushed into on online dystopia. Importantly, this includes ready ways for everyone to go about their lives and interactions with government without a need for a smart phone, digital ID, or anything similar. Maybe if governments solve the monopoly problem this can be revisited.
How much of the world do you own that you get to "make the rules" for?
If corporations are allowed to "make the rules" for property with impunity-- you will find yourself at their mercy for the vast majority of your life.
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[1]: https://bigthink.com/the-future/metaverse-augmented-reality-...
You can very easily replace your real life with it outside of work and bills, and get all of your social needs from it. As someone with crippling social anxiety, it removes something that triggers my social anxiety and I'm able to easily make friends. People are more open, identity just isn't a thing because everyone is anything they want to be, people are more open to being 'close' to other people and forming relationships with them. I've been comparing it to the early internet in the 90's and 2000's, especially since the entire game outside of the base code is something like 99% community created by artists with great creativity.
I dance a lot in VR in EDM clubs which I have never done in real life. The other night I went to a real world concert and I danced for the first time in my life. I felt confident and knew other people didn't care, finally. People started talking to me, they were interested in me. I honestly didn't even know how to process it until the show was over, but it was definitely because of my gained confidence in VR.
It's the bleeding edge of the metaverse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1wUg9HCODU
It's interesting how much your experience echo's mine (I just jumped out of a VRC dance meet a moment ago)
I can definitely see social VR eating more of the world in the long run however. I can't say for sure this is a bad thing, just different. I think it's something the next generations won't feel negative about in the same way, for them it'll just be the nature of the world
I don't want to have to do that for everyday living too.
Not looking forward to have to whitelist the programs being side-loaded into my VR interface so I don't get giant modal popups blocking my entire universe.
How about modal NPC bystanders blocking your way, forcing you to notice some commercial signage. You will be a targeted individual in meta!
Slowly at first, in fits and starts, but likely people will get ensnared into it and like social media, find it difficult to live without.
Then, the company, or whoever controls it will become pretty powerful not only in this synthetic realm but also in reality as the barrier from one to another is blurred.