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To Build the Metaverse, Meta First Wants To Build Stores (nytimes.com) 52

Posted by msmash from the closer-look dept.
One of Mark Zuckerberg's first steps toward building the metaverse may be physical instead of virtual. From a report: Meta, the social media company formerly known as Facebook, has discussed opening retail stores that will eventually span the world, said people with knowledge of the project and company documents viewed by The New York Times. The stores would be used to introduce people to devices made by the company's Reality Labs division, such as virtual reality headsets and, eventually, augmented reality glasses, they said.

These devices are gateways to the metaverse, a futuristic digital world where people move from virtual to augmented versions of reality almost seamlessly. Mr. Zuckerberg, Facebook's founder and chief executive, last week renamed his company Meta and laid out a vision for pursuing the metaverse as the next social platform. The stores would help show people that virtual reality and augmented reality can be fun and exciting, exactly the way Mr. Zuckerberg sees it. The aim of the stores is to make the world "more open and connected," according to the company documents viewed by The Times. They are also intended to spark emotions like "curiosity, closeness," as well as a sense of feeling "welcomed" while experimenting with headsets in a "judgment free journey," according to the documents.
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To Build the Metaverse, Meta First Wants To Build Stores More

To Build the Metaverse, Meta First Wants To Build Stores

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  • virtual toilet paper for the upcoming real apocalypse.

  • Metaverse? Sims anyone?

  • Dystopia (Score:3)

    by flyingfsck ( 986395 ) on Friday November 05, 2021 @10:17AM (#61959887)
    Dystopia may have been a better name.

  • To sell what? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Friday November 05, 2021 @10:28AM (#61959913) Homepage Journal

    VR devices locked to their authentication platform, and non-water-resistant Ray Bans that turn you into glasshole 2.0?

    Whoopee!

    • VR devices locked to their authentication platform

      Just wait till the brain implants are locked to their authentication platform, that’s when the real fun starts.

  • to generate power to run the MeatVerse with no blue or red pill choice.

      It all comes "Free" with your BookFace account.

    #GrimMeatHookFuture indeed.

  • What will be the carbon footprint of all of this ? Will it help or hinder our efforts to stay within the 1.5 centigrade target ?

  • Ready Player One (Score:3)

    by DrXym ( 126579 ) on Friday November 05, 2021 @10:33AM (#61959937)
    I think Zuckerberg has watched that movie too many times. Except instead of rooting for the heroes he rooted for the evil corporate asshole who wanted to shove advertisements in everyone's faces.

    • Re:Ready Player One (Score:4, Informative)

      by burtosis ( 1124179 ) on Friday November 05, 2021 @10:53AM (#61959987)
      If I had a nickel for every time dystopian literature intended to be a warning was instead used as an instruction manual, I’d have enough money to create a dystopian future.

    • I think Zuckerberg has watched that movie too many times. Except instead of rooting for the heroes he rooted for the evil corporate asshole who wanted to shove advertisements in everyone's faces.

      "We can sell 80 percent of the screen WITHOUT inducing seizures!
      readyplayerone "

      Or he's hoping to induce "Blipverts" in the deadbeats.

  • I’m sure all of these services will be mysteriously “free” as well. Facebook announced they will be removing all facial recognition including over one billion templates, yet Meta made no such claim. Since we have already started to scorch the skies, any bets on how long it takes for humanity to wind up in pods hooked up to the meta verse by a direct connection to the brain stem?

    • It'll be a choice until the government decides it's the best way to keep people safe. They'll have to spend a few months selling it to people with "think of the children" rhetoric including, but not limited to, "Don't you want your newborn to be safe their entire life?"

      Fuck me. Every time I think our dystopia is already here they find another way to up the ante. I hope Musk at least manages to get some of us off this rock before the entire human race goes septic. We're pretty close already. It's a race

    • Facebook announced they will be removing all facial recognition including over one billion templates, yet Meta made no such claim.

      In fact they explicitly said they're taking that tech out of Facebook, and using it in their Metaverse software.

  • This metaverse could be a really good thing (Score:4, Funny)

    by wakeboarder ( 2695839 ) on Friday November 05, 2021 @10:50AM (#61959975)

    Maybe if all of the crazy people stay in a virtual world all of the issues with facebook dividing people could just stay in the metaverse (like consparacy theories, political polarization, ect). What happens in the metaverse stays in the metaverse. Maybe they could build a virtual capitol for people to storm.

    • Hmm, this sounds like a solution to Autism Spectrum Disorder. Instead of just huddling in a corner of their mother's basements, they can now huddle together in a big virtual basement.

  • You can pry meatspace from my cold dead fingers.

  • These devices are gateways to your privacy, a futuristic digital world where people monetize your life and give you sweet fuck all for it.

  • The wrong person & company to drive it. (Score:3)

    by Morpeth ( 577066 ) on Friday November 05, 2021 @11:57AM (#61960183)

    The concept has been around for a while (Gibson, Stephenson, et. al.) and a few things come to mind:

    Suckerberg seems to be unaware that most of those visions are cautionary, even if the idea is 'cool' it's not without some serious issues

    1) He and Facebook have zero trust. Most people will keep their FB accounts b/c they're free and out of habit, but I seriously doubt anyone will spent serious money to join his fucked up vision of a metaverse, knowing it will be only for monetization, data capturing & marketing.

    2) Look at what they did with the Quest, once they decided to force the FB connection to use it, many potential users were like nope. Plus they lied and have since started putting ads in it too. I have a Vive Pro and while it has some ties to Valve, it's not required for everything, and I can use it offline if I want. And no ads.

    Those two items alone make me think (and hope) it will be a huge money sink with a disastrous outcome for them.

    • Dont underestimate Mark Suckerperv and his ability to trick fools in to using his privacy circus virtual world. Once all the fools are using it, then it will become mandatory and everybody NOT using it ...will automatically become persons of interest ...as various 3 letter organisations like to coin it.

  • They are also intended to spark emotions like "curiosity, closeness," as well as a sense of feeling "welcomed" while experimenting with headsets in a "judgment free journey," according to the documents.

    Right, right. That sense of "who was wearing this headset last?" And "WTF is that smell?" And "I hope I don't catch anything from this."

    This is a hell of a time to open a store like this.

  • Metaverse == ‘Second Life’ (Score:3)

    by takionya ( 7833802 ) on Friday November 05, 2021 @01:24PM (#61960451)
    “Second Life is an application that allows people to create an avatar for themselves and have a second life in an online virtual world, or metaverse [wikipedia.org].”

  • Either this is the tvision/internet/computer pitch, where "all societal interaction will be in the metaverse" actually becomes true over the course of a couple decades... ...or this is the biosphere/flying-cars/jetpacks/lunar-colony/space-travel/telesurgery/space-elevator pitch that takes a hundred years to fail with nothing but a fizzle.

    Meanwhile, we're in the middle of nuclear-fusion/autonomous-cars/AI pitches, which are still fizzling away.

    It took a 5-year global pandemic for video conferencing to succee

  • Hell, no, more like 'more locked down in a walled garden'. Facebook wants to be the 21st century version of AOL, even supplanting reality.
    Facebook is evil, 'Meta' is evil, and Zuck is evil. To hell with all of it.
    Oh and by the way: how about we fix actual reality instead of hiding in fake reality?

  • Lessons learned from the real world: 0

  • I strongly prefer real reality over the augmented or virtual varieties.

  • Imagine walking down the road in a city you never visited before and the moment you look at a store, your augmented reality system will display the details of the store customized according to your life's history. This is exciting. What is super exciting is to try to break into your subconscious mind with the help of augmented reality because you have no way to disassociate with it once you start believing it as normal part of your daily life.

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