Ready Player One is about to be reality
Facebook's METAVERSE pivot and How The Force Can Fix The World
It had to happen eventually. Mark Zuckerberg (The Zuck) is bored with the digital Hades he unleashed on mankind with Facebook and has moved on to finding a way for us to live in it. While regulators and politicians are still bickering about how to control misinformation being spread within Facebook Groups about Anthony Fauci being a Martian, innovators like Zuck are building worlds. That world will be called the Metaverse. Have you ever seen Ready Player One?
In the film adaptation of Ready Player One (directed by Steven Spielberg) the world has basically gone to shit. Wars over resources, housing, pollution and climate problems have rendered the Earth a really crumby place to be. So some brilliant game designers and dreamers came up with a Virtual Reality space called OASIS. People pop on headsets and go there to get lost, climb mountains, battle dragons or just have coffee with friends on the other side of the world. After the creator dies, a battle begins over the future of the OASIS…between corporate interests (namely the company known as IOI) looking to sell ads, mods and experiential merchandise to players….and the players themselves looking to preserve this digital escape from the world.
If you haven’t seen Ready Player One. Now is a good time to do so. The question I have about The Zuck and the Metaverse, given that what it aims to do is identical to the aims of the OASIS…is what will it the Metaverse be like if it’s CREATED by the kind of corporate powerhouse that Ready Player One’s IOI cast as a usurper to that digital wonderland?
In Ready Player One, the “metaverse” is created by quirky visionaries with starry eyes dreams of empowerment, freedom, escape and rebellion against the world as it exists. You root for those creators. They’re the nerds inheriting the earth. The Zuck very much used to be viewed this way a decade ago. Facebook and Zuckerberg embodied all of those rebellious traits in the popular consciousness. I don’t think that is true anymore. Facebook is enormously powerful and has remodeled the world, government, and what many consider to be the human experience all together. These aren’t underdogs. That’s what worries me. We’re sort of starting at the problematic situation Ready Player One’s heroes were trying to avoid…which is cynical corporatists with no concern for governance, rights, or distinctly “American ideals” building a new world where they make the rules and hand down your rights, rather than “Secure them” like the U.S. Constitution is meant to do.
The Metaverse will need a Bill of Rights that is bound to something higher than the whims of a corporate board or enlightened leader in the form of a CEO.
To be honest, I’m still kind of excited about the Metaverse. I love gaming. I’d love to play around in a digital sandbox. But I’m really worried about the ideals (or lack thereof) that would underpin this particular sandbox. Only time will tell.
Y’all we are at less than two weeks until How The Force Can Fix The World hits bookstores. Have you gotten your copy yet? If not, please do!! We’re close, but not close enough to the pre-order threshold that would put the book on bestseller lists. If we make those lists, could be a game changer for the book.
Go grab a copy off Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08Y8LNNG8?tag=hacboogrosit-20
The Audible Edition is available for pre-order as well. Narrated by yours truly. Let’s have this book make a splash! When you order a copy, shoot me an email with your address and I’ll mail you a SIGNED bookplate insert for the first page. That way, you have a signed copy =)
This was my latest interview about the book, perhaps my favorite yet