Some warnings on Metaverse

Pokémon Go creator John Hanke called metaverse a “dystopian nightmare” in the title of his blog published on 10 August 2021 on the website of his company, Niantic.

While drawing attention to the core plot of the famous novels by Gibson and Cline, Hanke wrote, “A lot of people these days seem very interested in bringing this near-future vision of a virtual world to life, including some of the biggest names in technology and gaming. But in fact, these novels served as warnings about a dystopian future of technology gone wrong.”

One of the biggest red flags comes from the inventor of AR — Louis Rosenberg. Writing for Big Think, Rosenberg says that it could be a “dystopian walk in the neighborhood.”

“After all, the shared experience we call ‘civilized society’ is quickly eroding, largely because we each live in our own data bubble, everyone being fed custom news and information (and even lies) tailored to their own personal beliefs. This reinforces our biases and entrenches our opinions. But today, we can at least enter a public space and have some level of shared experience in a common reality. With AR, that too will be lost,” writes Rosenberg.

By the time metaverse becomes mainstream, maybe we will have systems like Starlink widely available to deliver high-speed data to the remotest corners of the planet. But even though the reach increases, metaverse might still struggle to entice people.

As Second Life creator Philip Rosedale told Time, “If you live a comfortable life in New York City and you’re young and healthy, you probably are going to choose to live there. If I offer you the life of an avatar, you’re just not going to use it very much. On the other hand, if you live in a rural location with very little social contact, are disabled or live in an authoritarian environment where you don’t feel free to speak, then your avatar can become your primary identity.”