The MetaMatrix

 

Hasn't this thought exercise already been conducted?

Zuck's been posting messages for Meta on Bloomberg lately talking about augmented reality and how it'll help firefighters working in a burning building, among other things. This got me thinking about the Digital Twin work I've been doing in the highway traffic management space, along with The Matrix, Total Recall, and Wall-E.

From the sound of it, the huge investment Meta's made in the Metaverse hasn't gained a lot of traction, but I wonder if it's because we're at a 'good enough' phase of living life online. For example, you can watch movies while doing dishes or driving- who wants to be tied down with a clunky headset? With a very small sample size of kids and adults in my neighborhood, it seems like the grown-ups get disoriented while the kids get a hot-spot on their forehead from the weight of the device. It seems like most of enjoy some good, always-on distraction, but don't want to get too removed from reality.

In the world of engineering and construction, the sexy Digital Twin and augmented reality is currently seen as a really cool, but costly and non-critical toy. In  power plants, traffic operations control rooms, or manufacturing facilities, 'mimic buses' and crude digital twins have been the norm for decades. I suppose you can slap a VR headset on that and make it immersive, but at this point, not critical. Again, I think having one-foot in reality also keeps your mind open to other stimuli outside of your immediate situation. 

The Meta ads immediately threw me down a rabbit hole of thought that goes something like this:

1. We're regaled with the possibilities of the virtual social space and office. Look around! It feels like we're all in the same room! You're in Calcutta, Dave's in Portland, Adele's in Capetown, and yet here we are at the virtual table. How long will it be before you can spoof yourself with a virtual body double that you can deploy with ChatGPT while you're enjoying cocktails with your friends at a sidewalk cafe? Which brings me to:
   
2. Do you ditch your work meeting because you have an immersive happy hour or networking event elsewhere? Unlike the real world, can you tell a few little fibs to get that quiet night in you want, or can your friends upgrade to see what you're really up to? Can you deploy ChatGPT alternate-you #2 to be in two places at once and just get the transcripts to review tomorrow morning?
   
3. In the funhouse that's the virtual world, do we start booking vacations or virtual trips to Angkor Watt, or book tickets and virtually tailgate at a Buffet concert, or maybe even pay a visit to The Bunny Ranch? Do we just get used to this and stop leaving the house?
4. Do we have jobs in the Metaverse? For all of its promise, do we all become so deeply ingrained that we don't need real venues like museums and concert halls? Can we let our roads go into disrepair because no one goes anywhere? How important is a high-status apartment, car, or house when you can have all of these things in the Metaverse?
5. Who would choose to live in the real world? The rich, because they can afford to? The poor, because they have no choice?
6. Do we just become a nation of bloated carcasses binging on entertainment all day while gig workers deliver food to our homes?
7. I suppose there's just as much of an opportunity for human betterment and creativity, but will our brains accept this as accomplishment or will it fail to compute and throw people into depression?
8. Going back to the more innocuous uses for the Metaverse, does a building owner or water treatment plant really want to put their critical infra in a space that's notoriously not secure, regularly experimented with, and exploited for ad or influencer revenue? I definitely see a value proposition, but not a for an 'entertainment' medium.

Perhaps I'm greatly overthinking it and the Metaverse, once they come up with a truly lightweight, affordable headset will be an innocuous place where you can be amazed with incredibly immersive entertainment. Movies! Participate in your favorite war! Simulate driving a Lamborghini through the streets of an empty city at 185 miles per hour! Watch the 1986 Chicago Bears win the Super Bowl from Mike Ditka's point of view! Hook up with People's sexiest man/woman alive! I guess anything's possible, but at the end of the day, is this really progress?

For what it's worth, I'm going to double down on my engagement with the real world. Hope to see you at the bar, trailhead or track soon!