Seriously, What Is the Metaverse?

Uncanny Valley | WIRED

WIRED

Technology

4.1 • 572 Ratings

🗓️ 30 June 2022

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Technologists have been crowing about “the metaverse” for a long time now, and here at WIRED we’ve written about it quite a bit, too. But sometimes we’re still unsure exactly how to define this next generation of the internet, which is contingent on 3D experiences (instead of the flat, 2D screens we’re currently glued to) and also a persistent, continuous federated identity. Still confused? It’s OK: On this week’s Gadget Lab, we talk to Matthew Ball, a strategist, venture capitalist, and author, whose new book The Metaverse: And How It Will Revolutionize Everything, hits shelves July 19.

We ask Ball how he defines the metaverse, how the internet can possibly be reinvented when the current version is so driven by corporate interests, whether the metaverse should be regulated, and what a realistic vision of “interoperability” might be.

Show Notes

Matthew Ball’s book is The Metaverse: And How it Will Revolutionize Everything. Read Gilad’s June cover story about Web3. Follow all of WIRED’s metaverse coverage here.

Recommendations

Matthew recommends the show The Old Man on FX and the legal podcast about the US Supreme Court Strict Scrutiny. Gilad recommends trying out an electric car sometime. Lauren recommends the 5-4 podcast, also about analyzing the Supreme Court.

Matthew Ball can be found on Twitter @ballmatthew. Gilad Edelman is @GiladEdelman. Lauren Goode is @LaurenGoode. Michael Calore is @snackfight. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab. The show is produced by Boone Ashworth (@booneashworth). Our theme music is by Solar Keys.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Galat.
0:01.1	Lauren.
0:01.7	Galad, how do you personally experience the Metaverse? I rig up a cup and a wire that runs to another cup at my best friend's house across the street. That's it. That's it. That's the Metaverse. All this talk from Mark Zuckerberg these past several months and figured it out. All I needed was two cups in a string. Wow. And do we have fundamental human rights in the Metaverse? Well, hard question to answer because it's all virtual.
0:23.9	Virtual human rights in the metaverse?
0:21.3	Well, hard question to answer because it's all virtual.
0:23.9	Virtual human rights?
0:24.9	Possible.
0:25.5	All right.
0:26.0	Well, maybe it would be helpful if we first defined what the metaverse is.
0:30.2	And I can't think of a better person to ask about this than the person we're about to have on the show.
0:34.1	Let's do it.
0:41.1	Hey, everybody. to have on the show. Let's do it. Hey everyone, welcome to Gadget Lab. I'm Lauren Good. I'm a senior writer at Wired.
0:45.5	And I'm Gilad Edelman. I'm also a senior writer at Wired. Today on the show, we have a very special
0:50.4	guest. We're joined by Matthew Ball. Matthew is the former head of strategy at Amazon
0:55.2	Studios. He has now joined the world of venture capital, and he gained a new level of notoriety
1:00.4	when he published on the internet not long ago a nine-part series on The Metaverse. And now he has a new
1:07.4	book coming out on July 19th called The Metaverse and How It Will Revolutionize Everything.
1:13.6	Matt, thanks for joining us on Wired's Gadgelab.
1:15.6	It's really my pleasure. Thank you.
1:17.5	Okay, so we're going to get right into it.
1:19.1	What is the Metaverse in plain terms?
1:21.7	In plain terms, we should think of it as a 3D version of the Internet,
	...

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