As Facebook attempts to define “the metaverse” as something they will provide and control, it is useful to recall that trying to put a label on developing technologies is fraught with peril. But perhaps good for the stock price. IOW, it’s sloganeering.
Not to say Facebook doesn’t have the capital to bend the development of the tools supporting partial or full immersion tech in their favored directions. but that it’s not so easily accomplished.
One is reminded of a tactic employed by Microsoft (and others) in the war to control desktop software and hardware. One announces a breakthrough “coming real soon now” product, and suddenly the market turns to pursue it, though the product may be vaporware or arrive long after the announcement. Meanwhile, the investment in alternate products dries up.
One is also reminded that the early days of the internet featured sloganeering attempts to define and control this “new extremely capable thing”. “Information Super Highway” anyone? Did that slogan really define anything?
In fact, that label may have made it easier for telecoms to define a communication structure with hierarchic elements easier to control and dominate than bottom-up “service to all” through municipal and local networks. Similar perhaps to interstate superhighways which often define local towns and small cities as not relevant, and simply not accounted for in the grand architecture of the interstate system.
We are still in the process of defining and understanding what “the internet” is, partly because it continues to evolve. And so it will go with “The Metaverse” in the months and years ahead.
What is the metaverse? 2 media and information experts explain