Life comes at you fast. Meta-Averse is taking a break. Hopefully not for long, but that remains to be seen. Some unexpected changes in the earn-a-living portion of my work life mean I need to shift focus, at least for awhile, away from the podcast and towards other tasks. I don’t know exactly how long the shift will take, but I do know that while it’s happening I won’t be able to produce the pod on a regular basis. For a number of reasons, I’d rather call time-out than try to put episodes out when I can grab the time, and not on a regular schedule. So I’m calling time out, taking a break, and going on hiatus for a bit. Thank you to all of you who’ve listened, read, emailed, helped, or otherwise engaged with the pod. This episode captures some of my thoughts on what I’ve learned over the course of the first ten episodes — TL;DR: Cryptocurrencies aren’t all that interesting to me right now, probably because I’m not big on risky, speculative investments. Web3 and the blockchain hold interesting potential for community building, organizing, and expanding our notions of what “assets” and “identity” mean online. But, personally, out of all of this stuff, I’m most interested in the potential of Augmented and Extended Reality (AR/XR). There’s a lot of science behind current explorations of what VR sessions can do to a person’s brain and body, and as VR hardware becomes lighter, cheaper, and more powerful, I’m optimistic in the potential of the tech to further human well-being. Similar technologies also hold promise in the realm of so-called “AR Smart Glasses,” that can dynamically layer data over a person’s field of vision, reacting dynamically to both the user’s environment (eg, Serving as tour guide in a museum or on a walking tour, Showing turn-by-turn navigation directions in a driver or cyclist’s field of view, etc), and data coming from external networks (Showing incoming messages akin to a phone screen embedded in your glasses, et al). Personally, I’ve long been interested in AR/VR/XR, and subscribed to the notion that while VR will likely remain a “niche” technology, AR has serious mainstream potential. I’m keeping an eye on two potential watershed moments in the field that may be on the horizon: * The launch of Apple’s mythical smart glasses. Apple has a track record of pushing emergent consumer tech into the mainstream. I’ll leave it at that. * The evolution of dynamic vision correction technology. If and when I can replace my progressive vision lenses (aka Bifocals) with tech that can sense where I’m looking and dial up the best Rx for my eyes, on the fly … well, sign me up! Couple that with AR-style data in the field of view, and we could be looking at a game-changer. Several companies have filed for patents, and even launched pre-order concepts along these lines, so I’m remaining cautiously, excitedly, optimistic on this front. There’s plenty to keep tabs on, remain skeptical of, and get excited about when it comes to the metaverse, Web3, and XR. So stay tuned, keep learning, and remind yourself to use all of this new tech to further well-being for all. I’ll see you on the other side, hopefully sooner than later! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit metaaverse.substack.com
