You only care about living in the "metaverse" when the real world doesn't appeal to you anymore - which could be, arguably, the very definition of a zombie: someone neither alive or dead, roaming between the two worlds while living in neither. As you said, the metaverse is just the new buzzword for what we've been experiencing for the past 20 years. Nothing is legal anymore, the joy and fun of even the most mundane activity has been sucked dry (looking at you online dating), and as the pandemic showed us, many people don't even see the point in going out and experiencing real things anymore. In a way, big tech steals the life essence from the world and then sells us the cheap synthetic copy. Which wouldn't be that bad if they were conscious of it, but I'm certain they're actually convinced of the goodness of their actions, and they genuinely feel bad and hurt when they see the backlash they receive. One must imagine Stalin soul in Forest Gump's mind.
I can't help but imagine many of these big tech warlords as spiritual children. Like James Halliday, they never understood other people, and the big world was this frightening place full of hurt and dangers. So they created their own and are now imposing it to us, actively worried that we won't accept the new shared delusion: silicon valley graphic art that looks like 7YO drawings. Super-duper storytelling written with simple words that must be understood by all and must not offend anyone. Manufactured childish excitement for the most trivial stuff (everything is "terrific", "the best", "exceptional"). And of course, the creation of a new playground for all the kids to play together. Even the ones who don't want to. But they want you to play. They NEED you to play. And like narcissistic children, they'll make your life hell if you don't agree to their tantrum.
However, i dont think this will always work. More and more people are rejecting the new ideals - just check the likes/dislikes ratios and the comments. We will prevail in the end, I am sure of it. But we must also brace ourselves for the coming wrath of the crybabies.
Counter-belief: for those that needs to be stuck in the metaverse, are either (a) those that pathologically inflict suffering unto the physical world (narcissists and psychos) (b) those that have no choice but to stay but will resist if they can ("the poors") (c) the entitled that only take detours like amusement parks (affluents). The affluents need to move and do some real art/craft/design while the anti-social should use the digital world as a ghetto, such that the public can return to reality and touch grass. All of these are becoming hard as the public and affluent are in a feud and that the affluent are tempted to preemptively use the metaverse as a prison for the masses. This is inherently a social organization problem, not just one based on technology.
‘ One must imagine Stalin soul in Forest Gump's mind.’ oof. This is exactly it.
It deserves its own essay, but a huge part of the problem is the Silicon Valley idea of ‘disruption’. Take an industry, replace it with an app, destroy a whole social infrastructure and hundreds of thousands of jobs and make life a little more alienated in the process. Uber instantly springs to mind and instagram also.
I read that before instagram there was a town in upstate New York where basically everyone worked at the Kodak factory with steady work, decent wages etc. Then instagram and smartphones happened and the old way (which involved tangibility and some craftsmanship) collapsed. And for what? Many such cases, as the man once said.
But insta was new and progress must march on, apparently. Such things are inevitable, apparently. And yes the Silicon Valley overlords are children and though it may be bitter if me I must confess that i take some solace in the fact that they will be ‘disrupted’ in turn by web3. Live by the sword, etc.
"but a huge part of the problem is the Silicon Valley idea of ‘disruption’. Take an industry, replace it with an app, destroy a whole social infrastructure and hundreds of thousands of jobs and make life a little more alienated in the process. "
That's a very astute observation and could indeed be worthy of a full essay
Earlier in the week I wrote a short DM to @ZachPrOph3t because it supports WGTMI about this very thing I think it is on subject and I wanted to share it with you. It follows:
This morning's word is "touch". Last night I read your newsletter and also The Blakey G's piece on entropy. How do those lead to the word touch you might ask. Answer is, as usual, I don't know. I got to thinking as I was lying awake that all of us ( as in mankind not, the social club) are seeking understanding or acceptance or God's love, or peaceful existence etc., whatever name you might call it. Some of us think about it more often and some of us don't realize that we are thinking about it. The different ways we imagine that we might understand that which we cannot understand are seemingly unlimited. Throughout life we all seem to long for one thing or another. Love, family, children, happiness, money, fame, whatever. When we get those things, something else usually comes along for us to long for. We reach out and try to touch those things. Whatever thing we most long for we want to touch. I was struck with the thought that the meta verse idea is very novel, but it's ultimate weakness, is that it fullfills mostly the sight,and sound senses, but it cannot at present fulfill the taste, smell and most importantly, touch, senses. A machine cannot put it's hand on your shoulder and encourage you. You can indeed find encouragement online. But it seems to me that "reaching out to touch someone" as the saying goes is more meaningful in person. Parent to child, pastor to parishioner, husband to wife God to man, all seem better outside of the meta. In anycase the human to human connection revolves a great deal around "touch" Think of all the uses in language. Reach out, Grasp the obvious, That is touching, etc. Even the word for our emotions is connected to "touch". - Feelings. I fell asleep with Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel painting in my head. God creates Adam. But to me it really looks like Man reaching out trying to "touch" God. Just some musings I wanted to share. Have a nice day.
That was great, thanks for sharing. It pleases me no end to see people connecting in the social club and it becoming a self-sustaining entity that doesn’t need my constant input and oversight. And I’m nit just saying that because I’m workshy!
Great essay, Tom. Not zeitgeisty at all, as you mentioned in the STSC one day. The only zeitgeisty thing about it is the buzzword but the concept itself it's quite timeless, in my opinion.
> We have no need of other worlds. We need mirrors. We don't know what to do with other worlds. A single world, our own, suffices us; but we can't accept it for what it is.
Ultimately, this is what any kind of metaverse is, either dystopia or utopia. It provides you means if necessary (I believe) escapism but eventually turns itself into the reflection of our world. It embeds in life so deeply that becomes a new normal where people spend most of their time and some of them eventually get bored. It is natural for them to leave it behind seeking fresh experience and I think once the metaverse (or whatever it will be called) gets into this stage, the only realm able to provide one with means of escapism will be the real, physical world. Instead of escaping into yet another virtual reality with endless possibilities, some people will seek a hideout in analogue things.
This is both my speculation and my personal belief and I'm writing a story about it (based on the essay I linked). I think this is what will happen - most of the economical life (work, shopping, etc) + some big part of the communication will happen online (we're already there in many areas) hence it will stop satisfying escapism criteria anymore. At the same time it gives the opportunity for the artful part of life to thrive in the real world because essentially one of the functions of art for me is to provide with this necessary escapism making life strange again and allowing you to look back on the life which is currently real (either in virtual or physical real). This is an existential problem, as you mentioned, and we cannot escape it. That's why I believe there will be this transition.
I have a great example. There's a chapter in Barnes's novel 'A History of the World in 10½ Chapters', which I've been shilling for a while and doing again now, about a man who gets into heaven where people do what they want forever, the eternal cycle of indulging their desires. But 'after a while, getting what you want all the time is very close to not getting what you want all the time.' The protagonist chooses to stop this and die in heaven because it's not fun anymore. The last sentence goes like this 'I dreamt that I woke up. It’s the oldest dream of all, and I’ve just had it', which strikes me on some profound levels. We had a great discussion with fellow cult member David, whom I am incredibly grateful for that conversation, about the topic and he put it perfectly 'Familiarity is alienating in high doses.' I think the same will happen with the metaverse.
It's been quite a chaotic comment. Perhaps, I should write another text to structure all my thoughts about it before I jump into writing the story.
Sidenote1: I was also wondering why do people get inspiration for innovations from dark dystopias. do they want to make it 'right'? go another way? I doubt that. I don't want to talk about Facebook, but I believe their metaverse will be merely another consumption layer with infinite possibilities for artificial scarcity and establishing the attention monopoly digital worlds provide.
Sidenote2: Thanks for the fun fact about 'meta' meaning dead, it adds another layer of meaning to it (still giggling)
This is a very interesting point here. I believe old Lindyman himself made the point that in the past the internet was entered via a single household computer which was housed in a particular room and only used at certain times. It was its own domain. And then smartphones came around and everyone could access the internet everywhere and at all times and so they did and the boundary between online and offline was largely eradicated.
So now with the metaverse, with VR, perhaps the domains will be separated once again. For a while I have been saying that the best approach is to be fully online when you are online and fully offline when you are off.
I’m intrigued to see what you can do with all of this storywise. Your recent short story run is inspiring me to get back in the game myself. And yes that was an extremely chaotic (and long) comment but it was insightful and erudite and so I thoroughly enjoyed it. Don’t change.
When you make 50K / year and people are making 50K in 3 days flipping jpeg images of rocks ...
You only care about living in the "metaverse" when the real world doesn't appeal to you anymore - which could be, arguably, the very definition of a zombie: someone neither alive or dead, roaming between the two worlds while living in neither. As you said, the metaverse is just the new buzzword for what we've been experiencing for the past 20 years. Nothing is legal anymore, the joy and fun of even the most mundane activity has been sucked dry (looking at you online dating), and as the pandemic showed us, many people don't even see the point in going out and experiencing real things anymore. In a way, big tech steals the life essence from the world and then sells us the cheap synthetic copy. Which wouldn't be that bad if they were conscious of it, but I'm certain they're actually convinced of the goodness of their actions, and they genuinely feel bad and hurt when they see the backlash they receive. One must imagine Stalin soul in Forest Gump's mind.
I can't help but imagine many of these big tech warlords as spiritual children. Like James Halliday, they never understood other people, and the big world was this frightening place full of hurt and dangers. So they created their own and are now imposing it to us, actively worried that we won't accept the new shared delusion: silicon valley graphic art that looks like 7YO drawings. Super-duper storytelling written with simple words that must be understood by all and must not offend anyone. Manufactured childish excitement for the most trivial stuff (everything is "terrific", "the best", "exceptional"). And of course, the creation of a new playground for all the kids to play together. Even the ones who don't want to. But they want you to play. They NEED you to play. And like narcissistic children, they'll make your life hell if you don't agree to their tantrum.
However, i dont think this will always work. More and more people are rejecting the new ideals - just check the likes/dislikes ratios and the comments. We will prevail in the end, I am sure of it. But we must also brace ourselves for the coming wrath of the crybabies.
Great take Tom. Always a pleasure
Counter-belief: for those that needs to be stuck in the metaverse, are either (a) those that pathologically inflict suffering unto the physical world (narcissists and psychos) (b) those that have no choice but to stay but will resist if they can ("the poors") (c) the entitled that only take detours like amusement parks (affluents). The affluents need to move and do some real art/craft/design while the anti-social should use the digital world as a ghetto, such that the public can return to reality and touch grass. All of these are becoming hard as the public and affluent are in a feud and that the affluent are tempted to preemptively use the metaverse as a prison for the masses. This is inherently a social organization problem, not just one based on technology.
‘ One must imagine Stalin soul in Forest Gump's mind.’ oof. This is exactly it.
It deserves its own essay, but a huge part of the problem is the Silicon Valley idea of ‘disruption’. Take an industry, replace it with an app, destroy a whole social infrastructure and hundreds of thousands of jobs and make life a little more alienated in the process. Uber instantly springs to mind and instagram also.
I read that before instagram there was a town in upstate New York where basically everyone worked at the Kodak factory with steady work, decent wages etc. Then instagram and smartphones happened and the old way (which involved tangibility and some craftsmanship) collapsed. And for what? Many such cases, as the man once said.
But insta was new and progress must march on, apparently. Such things are inevitable, apparently. And yes the Silicon Valley overlords are children and though it may be bitter if me I must confess that i take some solace in the fact that they will be ‘disrupted’ in turn by web3. Live by the sword, etc.
Thanks as always, mate. Great stuff here.
"but a huge part of the problem is the Silicon Valley idea of ‘disruption’. Take an industry, replace it with an app, destroy a whole social infrastructure and hundreds of thousands of jobs and make life a little more alienated in the process. "
That's a very astute observation and could indeed be worthy of a full essay
You could well be right...
Earlier in the week I wrote a short DM to @ZachPrOph3t because it supports WGTMI about this very thing I think it is on subject and I wanted to share it with you. It follows:
This morning's word is "touch". Last night I read your newsletter and also The Blakey G's piece on entropy. How do those lead to the word touch you might ask. Answer is, as usual, I don't know. I got to thinking as I was lying awake that all of us ( as in mankind not, the social club) are seeking understanding or acceptance or God's love, or peaceful existence etc., whatever name you might call it. Some of us think about it more often and some of us don't realize that we are thinking about it. The different ways we imagine that we might understand that which we cannot understand are seemingly unlimited. Throughout life we all seem to long for one thing or another. Love, family, children, happiness, money, fame, whatever. When we get those things, something else usually comes along for us to long for. We reach out and try to touch those things. Whatever thing we most long for we want to touch. I was struck with the thought that the meta verse idea is very novel, but it's ultimate weakness, is that it fullfills mostly the sight,and sound senses, but it cannot at present fulfill the taste, smell and most importantly, touch, senses. A machine cannot put it's hand on your shoulder and encourage you. You can indeed find encouragement online. But it seems to me that "reaching out to touch someone" as the saying goes is more meaningful in person. Parent to child, pastor to parishioner, husband to wife God to man, all seem better outside of the meta. In anycase the human to human connection revolves a great deal around "touch" Think of all the uses in language. Reach out, Grasp the obvious, That is touching, etc. Even the word for our emotions is connected to "touch". - Feelings. I fell asleep with Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel painting in my head. God creates Adam. But to me it really looks like Man reaching out trying to "touch" God. Just some musings I wanted to share. Have a nice day.
That was great, thanks for sharing. It pleases me no end to see people connecting in the social club and it becoming a self-sustaining entity that doesn’t need my constant input and oversight. And I’m nit just saying that because I’m workshy!
Great essay, Tom. Not zeitgeisty at all, as you mentioned in the STSC one day. The only zeitgeisty thing about it is the buzzword but the concept itself it's quite timeless, in my opinion.
In Solaris, a novel, there's a quote that inspired one of my essays very closely related to the topic (shilling shamelessly https://lifeboat.substack.com/p/a-citizen-of-the-metaverse).
> We have no need of other worlds. We need mirrors. We don't know what to do with other worlds. A single world, our own, suffices us; but we can't accept it for what it is.
Ultimately, this is what any kind of metaverse is, either dystopia or utopia. It provides you means if necessary (I believe) escapism but eventually turns itself into the reflection of our world. It embeds in life so deeply that becomes a new normal where people spend most of their time and some of them eventually get bored. It is natural for them to leave it behind seeking fresh experience and I think once the metaverse (or whatever it will be called) gets into this stage, the only realm able to provide one with means of escapism will be the real, physical world. Instead of escaping into yet another virtual reality with endless possibilities, some people will seek a hideout in analogue things.
This is both my speculation and my personal belief and I'm writing a story about it (based on the essay I linked). I think this is what will happen - most of the economical life (work, shopping, etc) + some big part of the communication will happen online (we're already there in many areas) hence it will stop satisfying escapism criteria anymore. At the same time it gives the opportunity for the artful part of life to thrive in the real world because essentially one of the functions of art for me is to provide with this necessary escapism making life strange again and allowing you to look back on the life which is currently real (either in virtual or physical real). This is an existential problem, as you mentioned, and we cannot escape it. That's why I believe there will be this transition.
I have a great example. There's a chapter in Barnes's novel 'A History of the World in 10½ Chapters', which I've been shilling for a while and doing again now, about a man who gets into heaven where people do what they want forever, the eternal cycle of indulging their desires. But 'after a while, getting what you want all the time is very close to not getting what you want all the time.' The protagonist chooses to stop this and die in heaven because it's not fun anymore. The last sentence goes like this 'I dreamt that I woke up. It’s the oldest dream of all, and I’ve just had it', which strikes me on some profound levels. We had a great discussion with fellow cult member David, whom I am incredibly grateful for that conversation, about the topic and he put it perfectly 'Familiarity is alienating in high doses.' I think the same will happen with the metaverse.
It's been quite a chaotic comment. Perhaps, I should write another text to structure all my thoughts about it before I jump into writing the story.
Sidenote1: I was also wondering why do people get inspiration for innovations from dark dystopias. do they want to make it 'right'? go another way? I doubt that. I don't want to talk about Facebook, but I believe their metaverse will be merely another consumption layer with infinite possibilities for artificial scarcity and establishing the attention monopoly digital worlds provide.
Sidenote2: Thanks for the fun fact about 'meta' meaning dead, it adds another layer of meaning to it (still giggling)
Great essay, great topic,
Cheers,
[ɪˈvan] / aivan / john
This is a very interesting point here. I believe old Lindyman himself made the point that in the past the internet was entered via a single household computer which was housed in a particular room and only used at certain times. It was its own domain. And then smartphones came around and everyone could access the internet everywhere and at all times and so they did and the boundary between online and offline was largely eradicated.
So now with the metaverse, with VR, perhaps the domains will be separated once again. For a while I have been saying that the best approach is to be fully online when you are online and fully offline when you are off.
I’m intrigued to see what you can do with all of this storywise. Your recent short story run is inspiring me to get back in the game myself. And yes that was an extremely chaotic (and long) comment but it was insightful and erudite and so I thoroughly enjoyed it. Don’t change.
Cheers, Ivan.