Meet the metaverse, your new digital home

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"If lifelogging technology becomes commonplace," the report suggests, "those who have access to complete records have a distinct advantage over those who still rely on their faulty 'meat' memories. The choice of operating without personal-memory technology could become as self-crippling as living today without a phone of any sort, or without electricity."

But not everyone bought into that scenario.

In fact, the report suggests that one agreed-upon theory is that the augmented-reality scenario--in which people walk around with technology practically embedded in them, and in which that technology provides constant data on surroundings, will be "something of a baseline world, almost inevitable, even if the other metaverse scenarios don't occur."

"To the generation brought up in an augmented-reality world," the report says, "the metaverse--this ubiquitous cloud of information--is like electricity to children of the 20th century: essentially universal, expected and conspicuous only in its absence."

One notable element of the summit, its predictions and the draft report is how quickly things change.

The summit took place last spring, before YouTube was a household word and Second Life became a media darling, and not long after Digg became the influential site it is today.

As a result, the landscape governing people's predictions has changed, even as some of the long-term forecasts came true almost overnight.

"A lot of the scenarios that people came up with at the summit--they're so quaint," Agabra said. "Someone said that (Second Life land baroness) Anshe Chung would make a million dollars by 2011."

Chung announced last fall that she'd reached millionaire status.

But one distinct issue with the report stems from a summit problem: agreement on the future direction of the metaverse was very difficult to reach, even as individuals had very strong opinions. Would the metaverse be a 3D operating system controlled by Google? Would Microsoft buy Second Life? Would virtual worlds be a major part of most people's everyday existence?

As a result, the boldness of the report's predictions don't read as all that bold.

"I thought it was a kind of nice overview of these kinds of technology spaces," said Bob Moore, a researcher at the Palo Alto Research Center, or PARC, who reviewed the draft report for CNET News.com. "It certainly meshes with what I know of these emerging technologies...I would consider using it as an overview for someone who was unaware of these technologies. On the other hand, I didn't think it was very provocative...I thought this was kind of conservative."

Moore added that he didn't think that was a bad thing and that if a goal of the report was to lay the groundwork for investment in the metaverse space, characterizing that space as stable and easily understandable probably makes sense.

He said he recalled that at the summit, individual participants had been much more stark in their predictions than is reflected in the report. He acknowledged, however, that the report is intended to reflect the theories of the entire group at the summit, not that of individual participants.

Corey Bridges, co-founder of Multiverse Network, a company working on a virtual-world platform and a sponsor of last year's summit, agreed that the difficulty finding common ground at the event had probably made it hard to focus on many specific forward-thinking predictions.

"Perhaps that lack of unity of vision kept the particular document from being able to coalesce a larger number of predictions," Bridges said.

He added, however, that he had faith that the report could still affect positive change.

"The Roadmap project is already hinting towards successful," Bridges said, "because it's going to spur us and others to build their versions of this."

[wildchild_plasma_gyro]

Data Cloud Interfaces

I have seen the future inall and when we go 3D we'll be working with top notch user interfaces that goe beyond the mouse and allow us to do alot more than simply jump from one space to another or look at a 3d will.
It will be more like clouds of media and raw data that we work with and by the time we reach 2016 we'll really have only just got started.
Also the OS inside the bonnet will be using multiple fragment OS systems on super viirtulisation sort of like an eco system of kernels and such with no central kernel (A hive minded PC)
Oh year i can do the future pridicting thing also.
Another thing to look out for in the future data systems is the intervetion of non-binary processors that will take us closer to high commercial use of Quantium systems.
Also another thing that will change is the analises data instead of correlating small information graphs the computer will generate special graphs that allow us to interpret many mopre areas of research at once.
For example when looking at data on smoking you'll be able to see the effect in total of that *** in just one special transformation graph(Thats the true power of Quantium baby).

[Orion Blastar]

But who controls the Metaverse?

Whoever controls the Metaverse and the information that people see, can control people. Slant news in their favor, use it to manipulate people into buying things they don't want or vote a certain way, totally trash someone's good name that they don't like, and many other abuses.

We kind of see abuses like that already on blogs, whomever controls the most blogs controls the people who read those blogs and accept them as the truth. People are actually paid to blog a certain set of views and opinions, or just repeat stories already biased on one side by one news source and then link to them as if it was the truth and facts instead of just views and opinions. People today cannot tell the difference between the truth and facts and views and opinions.

I'd much rather live in reality, where I get to decide by myself using critical thinking and trying to find out both or more than two sides of the same story. Not have my information digitally reimaged and remixed with a type of spin so that it no longer resembles anything factual any more and is more fluff and opinion than anything else. I don't want someone else's views and opinions shoved down my throat on a daily basis, thank you very much.

[getclear]

Metaverse-how much is too much

I recently asked someone who worked with me to get the phone number for a potential vendor. They came back and told me they couldn't find the website. I asked if they'd tried 411. Oops, they'd forgotten that there is more than one way to locate information. Sometimes old techniques, including talking actually still work!

So, in an era when there is already an abundance of information, and few people that I know of complain about lack of access or inconvenience, how exactly does the "metaverse" improve our quality of life?

[Stating]

Try Lifelogging In A Hospital

Try snapping some pictures or video in a hospital -- you will get met with suspicion and disdain. Do you think hospital staff will sanction your lifelogging all their little medical mistakes? Do you think heavy handed, Taser wielding cops will want you lifelogging their takedowns? Think politicians and celebs will want you lifelogging them getting drunk and stupid at the restaurant? For that matter, do you want trial lawyers subpoeaning YOUR lifelog? No my friends, the world is not ready for the stark, cold reality laid bare by a lifelogged world.

[mattumanu]

Just another way in which people...

Who can't afford these new "metaverse" gadgets will be left behind. Oh well, have fun everyone.

[Prokofy Neva]

Who Are These Guys?!

What I've long found annoying and frustrating about this Metaverse Roadmap is that only those people who are already involved in game companies, or virtual world software makers, or ludologists, or those on the sort of Web 2.0 circuit go to make it. Yet if anything of what they say is true, the Metaverse will profoundly affect the human race. Most people have never heard of the term, no had a chance to think about it. The great intellectuals and writers and artists and politicians of the world haven't had hardly any exposure to virtuality -- yet -- despite saturation coverage.

And ordinary people have had even less of a chance to participate. If there were more professions and more minds and more ordinary folks on this effort, it might be built quite differently. Why four categories? Because some things will end up being influenced by virtuality that aren't even electronic, the way CNN influenced street demonstrators around the world.

It's a good there is an intellectual effort to create a document. Why they have to call it a "roadmap" as if they get to tell everyone where they are driving is beyond me. It should stay descriptive and not prescriptive.

[GGGlen]

And yet..

Shakespeare never metaverse not worthy of some prose