This topic is for discussion for the "Opening keynote with Dr. Siva Vaidhyanathan." To go back to this session in Cadmore click here.
Many of the ideas that Meta/Facebook is now latching on to have previously been developed in Second Life, which was partly inspired by the Snowcrash novel and is still going strong. This recent video contains both an update and a retrospective Second Life's Lab Gab - Oberwolf and Philip - YouTube
One point mentioned by Philip Rosdale is that participating in a metaverse is a choice, and has appeal for some people for various reasons (some examples: creativity, art exhibits, social interaction when homebound) but doesn’t hold appeal for everyone. Similarly, it is also a choice whether to engage with technology services offered by Google, Microsoft, etc. but often the choice has been made for us. It will be interesting to see how factors influencing our choices about engaging in metaverses and AR evolve and how we adapt as this technology evolves and becomes more beneficial in the workplace and in society.