Facebook is Spending $50 Million To 'Responsibly' Build the Metaverse (theverge.com) 25
Facebook has announced a $50 million fund that it says will help it develop the metaverse more responsibly. From a report: It's officially called the XR Programs and Research Fund, and the company says it'll be invested into "programs and external research" over the course of two years. Facebook has previously funded academic research into the social impact of AR wearables and solicited VR hardware proposals. Facebook's announcement blog calls the metaverse the "next computing platform" and says that the company will be working with policymakers, researchers, and industry partners while building it. The announcement also gives us Facebook's definition of the sometimes nebulous word "metaverse." The company describes it as "virtual spaces where you can create and explore with other people" that you're not physically with, spread out over a variety of products and services.
Maybe they should save the money (Score:3)
for all the lawsuits from William Gibson, Second Life, and of course The Oasis.
Re: (Score:1)
All except for Gibson were failures.
Re:Maybe [Facebook] should save the money (Score:2)
Interesting FP branch, but I think we'll have trouble agreeing on the definition of cyberpunk terms. I've only read nine of Gibson's books (plus two he contributed to) and don't even remember his use of "metaverse". Where did he mention it? (The Wikipedia article cites two non-Gibson books, but I haven't read Snow Crash yet. For Ready Player One it was a while back.)
But since we're talking about the money, I want to speculate about the source. Facebook must be profiting enormously from their support of
Really!!! (Score:2)
When has Facebook done ANYTHING responsibly. If they won't to regulate a tech company that's out of control it's facebook.
Re: (Score:2)
Basically just the ACK, though I don't think regulation is the answer. Gamesters will merely look for new ways to cheat the rules. I think the incentive structure needs to be changed. In particular, I'd like to see a tax structure in favor of freedom and against bigness. But "You can't get there from here."
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I'll believe it when I see it - on its new Raybans (Score:1)
Facebook and Responsibly... (Score:3)
Responsibly? (Score:5, Informative)
develop the metaverse more responsibly
Gotta love those nebulously defined and wonderfully non-specific weasel words. Responsible according to whose criteria? "Policymakers, researchers, and industry partners"? I read that as lobbyists, Facebook's well-paid staff, and other companies who will also benefit from controlling people's experiences and raping their privacy more deeply. Responsible to whom? Why, I bet they're talking about the shareholders there!
I really wish more folks out there would learn to translate puff-piece press releases into what's really being said rather than turning a blind eye to the psychopathic predators issuing said releases.
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Matrix Ressurections (Score:3)
I wonder if the Agents will all be wearing the Facebook logo - and, when they morph, if they briefly look like Zuckerberg.
What's the metaverse? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
It's like dreamland except you're not in complete control.
A drop in the bucket amount for them (Score:2)
Which I'm sure will be a "no-show" effort. The Zukerbot makes more than $50M on his average restroom break.
Re: (Score:2)
Well, it WILL be enough to set up an office with a FAX machine and people to send out press releases about how much good they're doing.
NOPENOPENOPE (Score:2)
Only way this might work is if they donate teh $50m to fund a new independent company that will do it while not touching Facebook with a 30ft pole.
Animal crossing for "dumb fucks" (Score:1)
People like Zuckerberg can't help themselves. They want to control everything and can't let go of the delusion of everyone living inside his little fantasy world where he reigns supreme over his subjects AKA "dumb fucks".
Facebook and responsibility are like oil and water (Score:5, Insightful)
Facebook promising to do anything responsibly gives me pause. Promising to develop the "metaverse" responsibly gives me the heebee jeebees right down to my core. Ostensibly the metaverse would be immersive, and I'm sorry, I'm not allowing Facebook to control my view of ANYTHING. EVER. Hell, it annoys me they have their damn sharing logos all over web pages I visit. FUCK letting them control my entire view of the "metaverse." All I see when I see the Facebook logo or link is "data suction commence."
We need a way to opt-out of their damn shadow profiles as well. This type of garbage meant to grab more of my life, more of my world, and more of my data is transparent as hell to anybody with two brain cells to rub together. Say no to Zuckerberg's attempts to rape what's left of our lives. No.
Re:Facebook and responsibility are like oil and wa (Score:4, Insightful)
We need a way to opt-out of their damn shadow profiles as well.
That's becoming more and more difficult. I noticed a trend since a few months ago, by using the Facebook Container add-on in Firefox(*), of more and more sites in which you presumably are creating a standalone accounts, in fact feeding your e-mail address to Facebook. So even if you have everything Facebook explicitly blocked, and ads blocked, if the sites you have accounts integrate their login with Facebook, then even if they don't require you to login using a Facebook account, everything you do there will still feed your shadow profile. And with your "explicit" consent, as this is certainly informed in tiny print somewhere in those sites' EULAs.
(*) Among other things the add-on shows an icon besides e-mail fields informing you that whatever you type there will be sent to Facebook.
Quark's holodecks (Score:3)
Nobody will see what your VR world holodeck sex simulations are other than us, our partners, which are all companies, the government, who also buys the info, and the government, by secret security letter, and the government, via backdoor we gave them to back off anti-trust investigations.
But nobody else! Assuming no hack leaks of course.
"Meta" means self-referential (Score:3)
metalogical: logic about logic
metadata: data about data
Ergo: "Metaverse" doesn't really make sense. It just sounds catchy to pseudo-techie wannabes I guess.
Much in the way such people used to point at a tower computer and say: There's the CPU, which you combine with the monitor.
To be clear, a virtual representation of the world (such as a VR-like meeting space) is not "meta" in any correct sense of the word.
Now a sys-admin's representation of all the different virtual spaces, if done as such a space itself. That would be meta.
A Real Metaverse
- - - - - - - -
To call it a meta-verse...
Your logic could not be worse.
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Ads r us (Score:2)
Let's fix that corporate statement (Score:1)
"Virtual spaces where you can create and explore new ways to harass people with others who share your malignant views"
See how much more accurate that is.