When Mark Zuckerberg announced ambitious plans to build the 바카라metaverse바카라 바카라 a virtual reality construct intended to supplant the internet, merge virtual life with real life and create endless new playgrounds for everyone 바카라 he promised that 바카라you바카라re going to able to do almost anything you can imagine.바카라
That might not be such a great idea.
Zuckerberg, CEO of the company formerly known as Facebook, even renamed it Meta to underscore the significance of the effort. During his late October presentation, he effused about going to virtual concerts with your friends, fencing with holograms of Olympic athletes and 바카라 best of all 바카라 joining mixed-reality business meetings where some participants are physically present while others beam in from the metaverse as cartoony avatars.
But it바카라s just as easy to imagine dystopian downsides. Suppose the metaverse also enables a vastly larger, yet more personal version of the harassment and hate that Facebook has been slow to deal with on today바카라s internet? Or ends up with the same big tech companies that have tried to control the current internet serving as gatekeepers to its virtual-reality edition? Or evolves into a vast collection of virtual gated communities where every visitor is constantly monitored, analyzed and barraged with advertisements? Or foregoes any attempt to curtail user freedom, allowing scammers, human traffickers and cybergangs to commit crimes with impunity?
Picture an online troll campaign 바카라 but one in which the barrage of nasty words you might see on social media is instead a group of angry avatars yelling at you, with your only escape being to switch off the machine, said Amie Stepanovich, executive director of Silicon Flatirons at the University of Colorado.
바카라We approach that differently 바카라 having somebody scream at us than having somebody type at us,바카라 she said. 바카라There is a potential for that harm to be really ramped up.바카라
That바카라s one reason Meta might not be the best institution to lead us into the metaverse, said Philip Rosedale, founder of the virtual escape Second Life, which was an internet craze 15 years ago and still attracts hundreds of thousands of online inhabitants.
The danger is creating online public spaces that appeal only to a 바카라polarized, homogenous group of people,바카라 said Rosedale, describing Meta바카라s flagship VR product, Horizon, as filled with 바카라presumptively male participants바카라 and a bullying tone. In a safety tutorial, Meta has advised Horizon users to treat fellow avatars kindly and offers tips for blocking, muting or reporting those who don바카라t, but Rosedale said it바카라s going to take more than a 바카라schoolyard monitor바카라 approach to avoid a situation that rewards the loudest shouters.
바카라Nobody바카라s going to come to that party, thank goodness,바카라 he said. 바카라We바카라re not going to move the human creative engine into that sphere.바카라
A better goal, he said, would be to create systems that are welcoming and flexible enough to allow people who don바카라t know each other to get along as well as they might in a real place like New York바카라s Central Park. Part of that could rely on systems that help someone build a good reputation and network of trusted acquaintances they can carry across different worlds, he said. In the current web environment, such reputation systems have had a mixed record in curbing toxic behavior.
It바카라s not clear how long it will take Meta, or anyone else investing in the metaverse, to consider such issues. So far, tech giants from Microsoft and Apple to video game makers are still largely focused on debating the metaverse바카라s plumbing.
To make the metaverse work, some developers say they are going to have to form a set of industry standards similar to those that coalesced around HTML, the open 바카라markup language바카라 that바카라s been used to structure websites since the 1990s.
바카라You don바카라t think about that when you go to a website. You just click on the link,바카라 said Richard Kerris, who leads the Omniverse platform for graphics chipmaker Nvidia. 바카라We바카라re going to get to the same point in the metaverse where going from one world to another world and experiencing things, you won바카라t have to think about, 바카라Do I have the right setup?바카라바카라
Nvidia바카라s vision for an open standard involves a structure for 3D worlds built by movie-making studio Pixar, which is also used by Apple. Among the basic questions being resolved are how physics will work in the metaverse 바카라 will virtual gravity cause someone바카라s glass to smash into pieces if they drop it? Will those rules change as you move from place to place?
Bigger disagreements will center on questions of privacy and identity, said Timoni West, vice president of augmented and virtual reality at Unity Technologies, which builds an engine for video game worlds.
바카라Being able to share some things but not share other things바카라 is important when you바카라re showing off art in a virtual home but don바카라t want to share the details of your calendar, she said. 바카라There바카라s a whole set of permission layers for digital spaces that the internet could avoid but you really need to have to make this whole thing work.바카라
Some metaverse enthusiasts who바카라ve been working on the concept for years welcome the spotlight that could attract curious newcomers, but they also want to make sure Meta doesn바카라t ruin their vision for how this new internet gets built.
바카라The open metaverse is created and owned by all of us,바카라 said Ryan Gill, founder and CEO of metaverse-focused startup Crucible. 바카라The metaverse that Mark Zuckerberg and his company want is created by everybody but owned by them.바카라
Gill said Meta바카라s big splash is a reaction to ideas circulating in grassroots developer communities centered around 바카라decentralized바카라 technologies like blockchain and non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, that can help people establish and protect their online identity and credentials.
Central to this tech movement, nicknamed Web 3, for a third wave of internet innovation, is that what people create in these online communities belongs to them, a shift away from the Big Tech model of 바카라accumulating energy and attention and optimizing it for buying behavior,바카라 Gill said.
Evan Greer, an activist with Fight for the Future, said it바카라s easy to see Facebook바카라s Meta announcement as a cynical attempt to distance itself from all the scandals the company is facing. But she says Meta바카라s push is actually even scarier.
바카라This is Mark Zuckerberg revealing his end game, which is not just to dominate the internet of today but to control and define the internet that we leave to our children and our children바카라s children,바카라 she said.
The company recently abandoned its use of facial recognition on its Facebook app, but metaverse gadgetry relies on new forms of tracking people바카라s gaits, body movements and expressions to animate their avatars with real-world emotions. And with both Facebook and Microsoft pitching metaverse apps as important work tools, there바카라s a potential for even more invasive workplace monitoring and exhaustion.
Activists are calling for the U.S. to pass a national digital privacy act that would apply not just to today바카라s platforms like Facebook but also those that might exist in the metaverse. Outside of a few such laws in states such as California and Illinois, though, actual online privacy laws remain rare in the U.S.
