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By Guest Blogger Doug Rowat
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At one time the internet was just an intriguing data-sharing idea pioneered by the US Department of Defense.
Even as it gained traction, it was still incredibly basic. Yahoo was initially just a list of websites that two Stanford University students personally found helpful. eBay’s creator was originally paid through mailed cheques that users only sent him if they found the site worthwhile. And Amazon only sold books, with some guy named Bezos often personally delivering them himself.
But when it became clear that the internet was actually an unstoppable force, reshaping our lives and the global economy, my parents were horrified. In their eyes, an unnecessary and impersonal hellscape had been created.
Flash forward to Web 3.0, or as it’s more commonly known: the metaverse. In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years, the metaverse refers to an online, virtual world that individuals can not only interface with but actually inhabit. It’s essentially the transplanting of our physical world onto a digitized 3D platform.
If you’ve played video games such as Fortnite or Minecraft, you’ve already dabbled in the metaverse. If you’ve strapped on a pair of Oculus goggles and live-streamed a concert, you’ve already dabbled. If you’ve virtually toured an art gallery in a distant city, you’ve already dabbled. If you’ve wandered through a house, room by room, while real estate shopping online, you’ve already dabbled.
The treadmill in my hotel gym the other day allowed me to virtually run through the New Zealand outback, so in another basic way, I’ve dabbled in the metaverse too. It wasn’t a spectacular digital experience, but it was certainly better than staring at the wall.
According to Bloomberg, by next year, the metaverse will have already reached a market size of US$800 billion. But like the internet of decades past, the metaverse has suffered its share of growing pains. The comically primitive graphics of Mark Zuckerberg’s metaverse avatar being a recent example:
Mark Zuckerberg’s avatar: needless to say, the metaverse is still in its infancy
Source: Forbes
And the failed rebrand of Facebook from social media company to “metaverse-first” company is also proof that the transition to the metaverse won’t always be smooth. Facebook, or Meta Platforms as it’s now known, has lost about 50% of its market value since the announced strategy change back in October 2021.
However, despite these initial problems, the growth of the metaverse is likely to be explosive. JP Morgan says that the full market potential of the metaverse is “limitless” and believes that it “will likely infiltrate every sector in some way in the coming years”. JP Morgan was also the first major bank to enter the metaverse, opening a ‘lounge’ in the popular virtual world of Decentraland about a year ago—apparently, if you visit, you’ll be greeted by CEO Jamie Dimon’s avatar. And if you think that’s scary, ‘real estate’ prices in Decentraland are also skyrocketing. Yes, you can buy ‘property’ in the metaverse.
JP Morgan isn’t alone in its bullishness. Goldman Sachs believes that the global metaverse market will reach US$8 trillion in the next 20 years. For some perspective, that’s more than a third of the value of the entire US economy presently. Morgan Stanley goes a step further and forecasts the metaverse market hitting US$8 trillion in China alone. But Citi trumps them all as it believes the metaverse could reach a global market valuation of US$13 trillion before the end of THIS decade and could boast as many as 5 billion users.
So are these forecasts just ridiculous hype? Perhaps. But not likely. Even if all of these major banks are only half right, the market opportunity is extraordinary. Consumers already spend US$54 billion every year on virtual goods—yes, digital crap that can only be used in fictional online worlds.
But other opportunities to monetize the metaverse abound. Obviously, if you wanted to visit the Louvre in Paris and could afford it, you would go. But if you can’t afford it, would you pay 100 bucks for a virtual self-directed tour? Many would. And for a few dollars more the tour might be guided by an art-expert AI bot. And afterwards, you might virtually visit the gift shop.
Airline pilots, as we know, are already heavily trained via augmented-reality technologies, but augmented-reality training will soon apply to almost all industries. Imagine, for example, a medical student testing a surgical procedure in the metaverse with no real-life consequences? Such training is already happening. Walmart also recently made a large purchase of Oculus headsets as the company is understanding the advantages of training large numbers of employees across many locations simultaneously. PWC estimates that augmented reality and virtual reality will create almost 24 million new jobs in the near future.
What about retailing in the metaverse? You can already try on clothes virtually both for yourself and your avatar—and purchase both simultaneously. A joke? Far from it. Fashion brand Forever 21 did just that recently on the gaming platform Roblox and sold a million units of a popular beanie hat (a digital version and a physical version). Gucci, Nike, Dior, Burberry and Ralph Lauren, to name but a few, all have a presence in the metaverse on various platforms. Ford and General Motors will soon enter the metaverse to allow virtual test drives of their vehicles.
And all of this metaverse usage will create more and more demand for software and hardware development, as well as the need to expand telecommunication and computing networks. Mark Zuckerberg’s avatar will soon seem like Atari’s Pong as the metaverse moves towards a Call-of-Duty level of realism. The technology spend will only add to the metaverse revenue stream.
How fast is the future approaching? Very fast. Researcher Gartner forecasts that by 2026, 25% of people will spend at least an hour a day in the metaverse. That might not mean you specifically, but it’ll almost certainly mean somebody close to you. And such a forecast isn’t a stretch. Think of how much time you already spend every day buried on your smartphone. The metaverse is only one small step beyond this.
Like my parents’ reaction to the internet, I’m horrified by the metaverse. But it’s coming.
And if you think you won’t end up participating in it, you’re wrong.
Doug Rowat, FCSI® is Portfolio Manager with Turner Investments and Senior Investment Advisor, Private Client Group, Raymond James Ltd.
134 comments ↓
Early start today…
Off we go to save the world…..again !!!
We already have access to free metaverse via Google Maps street view.
If one is horrified by “cutting-edge” tech, does it mean being uncool? Count me in!!
Awesome subject Doug. As an IT professional, I was introduced to the metaverse a year ago where we meet with clients in virtual meeting rooms and began to design architectures to meet business requirements. But like all human inventions, it can be used for good or for bad. Always remember the word ‘virtual’ as only thoughts and concepts are real in the metaverse. It is essentially an illusion, and if you take the blue pill you will find yourself “Lost in Space”, like Will Robinson.
Metaverse?
It’s already here.
In the steerage section.
Is my 2034 retirement date close enough that I will be able to avoid somebody deciding that teenagers should strap on VR headsets in their bedrooms instead of going to a physical high school.
Thank you Garth & team TI. And this is free.
Blog, 0. Doomers, 1.
Sorry Oracle Doug, but I could not resist. Score is my like of the Metaverse.
No legs, heine & private parts – what kind of fun is that?
Let the bullets fly Garth.
The metaverse will be WFH 2.0. Who needs to work-from-home when your avatar can do it for you. Add in ChatGPT and the future sounds fun…. and wickedly scary!
https://www.rubyhome.com/blog/metaverse-real-estate-stats/
and this
https://www.banklesstimes.com/metaverse-property-prices/
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YVR, GTA RE clickbait.
Did they test that on claustrophobic and paranoid persons?
It’s like smoking weed or eating magic shrooms. Or LSD.
Deja Vu all over again.
Another way to escape reality.
Psychiatrists will have a field day.
I’ll stick with beer.
And my Philosophy books.
” You can already try on clothes virtually both for yourself and your avatar—..” – DR ++
Why bother with clothes if you just want to hang out in some virtual world? Embrace your naked, superficial self and maybe load up on vitamin D unless you plan on emerging from your virtual world ‘hideout’ every now and then.
If this takes off and reduces the number of annoying tourists in places I like to visit I am all for it. Less freaks, less cars…,jeepers.. what’s not to like?
A Highbrow weblog with a Lowbrow comments section. Just the way we like things.
RIP Middle Class, March 2020.
Our Rulers going in for the killshot this year:
Double digit property tax hikes
Double digit food price inflation
Double digit Rent prices inflation
Triple-digit Interest Rate hike inflation
2022-2022 – When small businesses were ordered closed – for years. Then, hard working middle classes were fired over any hint of non-compliance.
Check the history books for how this unfolds. What our Rulers fear most is not rebellion but Non-Compliance.
Slavery, Camps, Oppression, War cannot take place without your Compliance. I will back up my statements with some data.
https://www.mercatus.org/research/working-papers/indoor-vaccine-mandates-and-covid-19
Nine cities that imposed mandates were examined, and researchers said they found no significant impacts on COVID-19 vaccine uptake, cases or deaths.
When embarking on this study, he expected the U.S. city vaccine mandates would show they had less of an impact, but he said he was surprised at just how ineffective they turned out to be.
And he thought the citywide mandates might’ve worked in some places and not others, but that also wasn’t the case. He said the results city-to-city consistently showed they didn’t have the intended results.
I like your Internet history Doug, but you forgot to mention that early on the big users of the Internet were in the sex trade.
Not much has changed:
Meta Had to Create Avatar ‘Bubbles’ to Stop Virtual Groping
https://www.thedailybeast.com/meta-had-to-create-avatar-bubbles-to-stop-virtual-groping
The metaverse has a groping problem already (by MIT – you know, University Students)
https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/12/16/1042516/the-metaverse-has-a-groping-problem/
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Probably why Doug went running in the New Zealand outback. Or, were you being chased Doug?
Garth perhaps it’s time to metaverse your blog. Imagine the fun to view sail wind and the rest of the steerage gang. You could even sport a crown and magic wand. We could call it the Garthverse.
@133 under the radar on 03.04.23 at 5:02 am++
Real Estate – Amusing to hear about owners of large commercial office portfolio’s handing back keys to bondholders. Pimco, Brookfield and now Blackrock. They were supposed to be the smartest in the room. Financing a long term asset with floating rate debt and not hedging is for rookies. O & Y learned that lesson. 20 to 40% vacancy rates as WFH becomes entrenched enough to matter. Many more landlords with variable debt will default as office and retail footprints shrink . +++
Who needs to go to the office when you can have pointless non productive meetings in the Metaverse? Have I mentioned my theory that a Revolution might be underway? I’m working on the Manifesto at the moment…
Do your clients have any exposure to this “metaverse” in their portfolios?
I as well am horrified of this technology, but might as well make a few bucks from the inevitable trillions that will be made. The first metaverse ETF anyone?
…continued. I maintain that country leaders are just actors. Distractors. We are shown clownish characters on a permanent North Korean move set. Tee-Vee actor Trump is set to return. Our tax farm has a tearful, weeping, dress-up icon leading the comedy show.
Why it matters not who is charge! UK’s elected PM Liz stepped aside for an elite, rich, appointee.
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3305952/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1
Prior to his political career, he obtained a degree in law and created a production company, Kvartal 95, which produces films, cartoons, TV comedy shows, including Servant of the People (2015), in which Zelenskiy played the role of President of Ukraine
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No the real sauce is taking place at the Provincial and Municipal levels. Daily changes and new laws, re-making the world. Uppa up.
We were given a fun version of the A.I. to kick its tires. What fun, it even knows Rutabaga Culture.
Pay attention, the veil of civility and compassion was dropped in 2020. Look who is running the show:
https://vancouversun.com/news/world/this-government-aide-says-it-knows-what-voters-want-its-also-an-ai-bot/wcm/9163bedf-abfa-4bc0-b976-bc405b3c4884/amp/
Romania’s prime minister has just unveiled a new colleague to his cabinet – a deep-voiced AI-powered “adviser” encased in a mirror which is being described as the world’s first AI-powered government aide.
Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca claims the bot, which calls itself “Ion,” is capable of interpreting the opinions of the country’s population and conveying them back to him and his government, helping them choose how to make decisions.
#13 Dolce Vita
* chaste
I could imagine one of the assistants walking into Garth’s office, and seeing him with the goggles on swinging his right hand back and forth.
“What are you doing boss?”
Slapping Drakes face…
M48BC
What I find most troubling about technology such as the Internet/Metaverse etc. is that so many use it as a form of escape from ‘real’ life. It has become quite common to see people sitting together in a public setting, not talking directly to each other but via text. One may see some lifting their faces & looking at the person they are interacting with via an interface, making some face or laughing & then looking down again to respond to the next text. It is as if they do not actually exist ‘here’. When traveling, one sees plenty of people taking selfies in front of famous attractions, having negotiated their way to said attracting via Google Maps or some other platform. They then take said selfie & move on – not actually looking at or interacting with the real life experience of being there. All those little people puppets, acting as data collecting bots for the mighty machine.
Good post Doug, thanks!
I see the metaverse used as a global defense system that could very easily flip 180 degrees.
As follows:
Enter the metaverse and immediately have real-time access to drones, high-def satellite imagery, face recognition, coordinates, precision weapons of all types, plus the capacity to immediately deploy them from any location on earth. And machines never sleep. Send in robot Joe armed with hell on earth to cave complexes or underground bunkers.
No more deploying Seal Team 6 to Afghanistan. Cheetoh Charlie can do it without pants.
Imagine AI controlling the weapons. Or worse: the lefties.
Flash… Boom… fade to black
#13 Dolce Vita on 03.04.23 at 11:25 am
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Probably why Doug went running in the New Zealand outback. Or, were you being chased Doug?
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In this instance I couldn’t look behind me. But I don’t doubt gyms will soon provide headsets the same way they provide towels.
—Doug
Would rather work in the metaverse than downtown toronto. As Ray Whitney once said toronto is the worst place on earth. expecially true for commuters. been proven in several studies on commute times.
DELETED
We are about half way through this economic transformation that began since that little pathogen interrupted our lives. When this is over, the new path of metaverse world will be the norm….similar as the transformation that took place in the early 80’s.
The youth will live through this, continue to change and and adapt during their generation until the next transforation.
Boomers will be like their forefathers and reminisce the “good old days” until they no longer are on this side of the grass.
Cycle of life continues…
It is apparent these days that far fewer people access remote areas than even 20 years ago. When hunting, we rarely see any pressure except with road hunters. A few hours’ hike in? Nobody. And very few people under 30 even hunt at all.
5 years ago, we did a backcountry family trek in Yellowstone at peak season, prudently staying up late to book as soon as reservations opened… then when we got there, the campgrounds more than a day’s hike were almost, or even completely, empty. Some rangers came by on horses and they said barely anybody leaves cell/wifi service area anymore. Front country and the paved roads were packed.
I love the scarcity of people. But… it is human interest that protects the wild areas, so may become an issue.
You can watch the movie “Ready Player One” for a possible glimpse of our alternate reality future.
#129 millmech on 03.04.23 at 12:32 am
Always cut the loses to keep them small, that is the beauty of options just watch them and if they go against you just close the position not that hard really, using a momentum system now and it works well. Gary Anotacci wrote a great book on it and Edward Thorpe also uses it as well, along with many other traders ,so I seen the indicators that I needed to make my decision, not that hard to make money, this is coming from a person who actually rode the short bus to school because of a learning a disability.
Cheers and have a great weekend!
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That is exactly what Smoking Man would have wrote (but with many speling errors)
Bought mine at Christmas.
Hi Doug,
Smoking Man asks if there are any massage joints in the Metaverse.
You know, to keep the prostate healthy.
It’s a glorified video game with crappies graphics
#147 Ponzius Pilatus on 03.04.23 at 10:18 am
137 Damifino on 03.04.23 at 8:29 am
I too am preparing for a Trudeau-free Canada. There’s 50 cases of beer down in my storage locker. And I don’t even drink. It’s for friends. Everyone will be invited. Except you-know-who….
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If it’s German beer.
You better check the expire date.
____________________________
Even Canadian beer will be colonized by sea monkeys after about a year, yet many cases don’t sport a date, or if they do it’s a secret code. I’ve bought beer that had to go right back for refund. It’s third reason I brew it after flavor preference and tax creep protest.
As for me and the me-taverse Doug, it’s been pretty cushy under my rock so far, thanks for the heads up!
Lest we forget all those who we depend on to deliver this metaverse to us. Spend a few moments to reflect on the thousands of miners risking their lives every day to go far into the tunnels they dig into the mountains of the Congo chasing the mineral veins so that the world can have the cobalt containing cell phones and computers we need for the metaverse to work. And they do this for $2 a day, if they are lucky. For too many of them, their lives end deep down in a tunnel which becomes their graves because no one has the money to dig them out. So celebrate this new world but don’t forget all those who are making it happen.
How is this not just rebranded online video games?
Grocery shopping in the metaverse — I’ll buy that for a dollar!
#22 Sail Away on 03.04.23 at 12:22 pm
It is apparent these days that far fewer people access remote areas than even 20 years ago. When hunting, we rarely see any pressure except with road hunters. A few hours’ hike in? Nobody. And very few people under 30 even hunt at all.
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We are entering the Commie zone..
Here in BC….I see the Workers Paradise Party… ie B.C. NDP…is going full bore to tank the B.C. economy.
They are dusting- off the “Spotted Owl” issue…they have (4) Spotted Owls allegedly residing in the Spuzzum BC area…and the calls by Gov’t and FN are to stop logging to preserve their habitat. One “bad” owl was found outside the logging freeze area.
In California.
…….their Commie DEM Gov’t uses some small fish species (that is actually an invasive one)as an excuse to release water from dams to “save” their habitat ….that also reduces hydroelectric potential and deprives their massive agriculture sector of desperately needed water. Farms are shutting down.
A Merritt BC lumber mill has had their logging permits delayed over a year….when usually takes 45 days.
etc. etc.
I don’t know Doug.
I spent a *lot* of time doing Shared VR both here and in Europe, when SGI and Sun ruled the world, SIGGRAPH was packed to overflowing, and Microsoft were trying to purchase VR startups, like Liquid Reality.
What dies “the meta verse” give you that you can’t get now?
I’d rather (As others have posted here) Wander around IRL following my phone, or sitting on a park bench, in the sun, than putting on another headset and sitting in an air-conditioned room.
The closer you get to simulating nature, the harder it gets. Picture sitting in a grassy field, sun shining, a gentle breeze blowing, your senses are all at work. Try simulating THAT.
The further one gets from nature, (for instance, the obvious aircraft training simulators) the easier it is to synthesize that environment. However, we are “beings” produced and tied irrevocably to Mother Earth.
Maybe it’s just because I’m an old fart, or maybe because I spent more than a decade doing VR, or maybe it’s just because (like, for instance, Sail Away) I like being in our natural world.
But then, what do I know??
M63ON
#26 Sail Away on 03.04.23 at 12:22 pm
It is apparent these days that far fewer people access remote areas than even 20 years ago. When hunting, we rarely see any pressure except with road hunters.
___________________________________
Attrition has taken out the poachers in my area.
Coyotes wiped out the rabbit hunters, even those with GPS dog collars and lazer guided guns.
And the McCartneys, extincted the trappers, via no value paydays.
Wild life is even colonizing cities, as per internet stories.
#26 Sail Away on 03.04.23 at 12:22 pm
It is apparent these days that far fewer people access remote areas than even 20 years ago. When hunting, we rarely see any pressure except with road hunters. A few hours’ hike in? Nobody. And very few people under 30 even hunt at all.
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Dudes at work in their 60s are letting their northern hunting camp leases go, kids aren’t interested. My multi-decade fave local fishing spot is almost inaccessible via car today, overgrown road, no evidence of fishing on the shoreline, seagulls don’t come in for a landing when you show up rod in hand. This isn’t even a remote area.
On the flip side, the fishing is better than ever. There are a few YT channels that feature anglers accessing actual remote lakes in northern Ontario (and suffering mightily in the process). Near zero fishing pressure. Once in, there are Pike and Walleye every few casts. 70-80 fish in 3-4 hours.
Maybe virtual fishing is taking over.
#19 Flop… on 03.04.23 at 11:37 am
I could imagine one of the assistants walking into Garth’s office, and seeing him with the goggles on swinging his right hand back and forth.
“What are you doing boss?”
Slapping Drakes face…
M48BC
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What’s the going rate to slap Ryan Reynolds and Michael Buble’ ?
I can’t afford to punch the TV screen anymore…
You overestimate the ability for graphics compute to scale. Look at the size of todays graphics cards, 3x as powerful and 3x as big. A PC which can run Call of Duty well is 30lbs and massive. We won’t be wearing that on our face any time soon.
Zuck has acknowledged this hasn’t been solved but he’s hoping throwing money at it will fix it. Unfortunately, he doesn’t own a GPU manufacturing company, just a tech one. This is a buy the picks and shovels moment. AMD, NVDA, maybe even INTC (ew) at some point.
Life 3.0.
Who needs a human body (‘cept for huggers, that is)?
…its the brain that matters.
Og
https://www.thestreet.com/technology/mark-zuckerberg-quietly-buries-the-metaverse
And a software engineer still won’t be able to afford housing in the human cesspool of Vancouver.
Can someone please build a virtual government that actually cares about the losers it represents?
I don’t know, I still enjoy walking my non-meta Samoyed v2.0 down my non-virtual hiking trails.
Unlike humans, dogs still communicate with their eyes and not their emojis.
#26 Sail Away on 03.04.23 at 12:22 pm
it is human interest that protects the wild areas.
—
Agree. Had this discussion with a friend recently. He disagreed pointing out that awareness and destruction keep going up. Marginal destruction rates are probably higher than ever. Regardless, IMO, more exposure to natural environs is a good thing. Diffuse would be better.
Disagree that back country things are less crowded. But, might be that some areas (instagram target rich environs) have exploded. Overall, use seems up while rate of increase varies.
Reading Richard Powers’ “The Overstory”. Fantastic read. The rich description of the ecological interweaving in Pac NW rainforest bleeds well into the mildly psychedelic aura of Sometimes a Great Notion’s description of life in a Pac NW tree cutting family.
Today I learned the word “pleach”. Scrabble foes beware.
The Matrix meets the Borg.
Anyway this is another instance where God, or Darwin (depending on how you look at it), wins the long game once again. In 20 years those parts of the “metaverse” that are helpful to the human experiment will survive, and those that are not helpful, along with the participants, will not. But fear not, we won’t really notice, as they will exit the gene pool quite quietly, alone in their rooms. If feel quite sad for them, wasting away in desperate isolation and loneliness, distracted by soundtracks and 4K computer animation. But you can’t help people who won’t help themselves. It is like teaching pigs to sing; all it does is waste a lot of time and irritate the pigs.
You can ignore reality as long as you want, but reality won’t ignore you.
So how does one invest in the Metaverse?
I found this ETF, looks interesting:
https://www.fidelity.ca/en/products/etfs/fmtv/
Any other ideas?
Yogism # 58: “I keep seeing only what is in front of my eyes”.
#22 Doug Rowat
You know, I don’t for a second doubt what you say will indeed happen.
When Goldman and Morgan Stanley agree on something, you can pretty much bet on it.
When I read that MIT article about Jordan Belamire getting groped by BigBro442 in an online multiplayer game way back in October 2016, I had visions of the latter making a come back appearance in your NZ Outback run.
Oh no, poor Doug.
“BigBro442’s disembodied helmet faced me dead-on. His floating hand approached my body, and he started to … ‘Stop!’ I cried … ”
“There I was, being virtually groped in a snowy fortress with my brother-in-law and husband watching.”
I’m sitting there reading this and either Jordan has one heck of a fantasy mind or son of a gun – leave her alone! Honestly, give it a rest there creepy BigBro442.
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I agree, I think this Metaverse is in its infancy and in time it will become ubiquitous, like the towels.
#21 Sail Away
a.k.a.,
BigBro443
More useless societal change brought by legions of code monkey geeks.
And I thought Facebook was a time leech….
Another excuse for the obese not to get off the couch.
I’ll pass.
…my parents were horrified. In their eyes, an unnecessary and impersonal hellscape had been created.
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Your folks were definitely ahead of their time. I read “The Machine Stops” in high school in 1968. I thought then that it was quite far-fetched. Now, I’m not so sure.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Machine_Stops
And all of this metaverse usage will create more and more demand for software and hardware development, as well as the need to expand telecommunication and computing networks.
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And absolutely terawatts of energy to run it all. It certainly won’t come from wind and sunshine. It will be Canadian fossil fuel energy followed in a few decades by Canadian uranium and nuclear energy know-how. The future looks bright for the lucky folks who’ll be around to participate in our economic boom once the chicken-littles have fluttered their way out of Ottawa.
I work on the hardware technologies that support MR/VR, and calling it Metaverse is about as out-of-touch (no offense intended) as referring to the internet as Facebook.
The technology is advancing rapidly and it’s an open market. There is already a free web API (OpenXR) that lets you experience VR just by visiting a website, with a headset of course.
Metaverse is just a silly attempt to brand the underlying tech (MR/VR) and it isn’t even doing a very good job of it.
This thing is going to snowball into a gold rush and everyone is going to do their own thing.
Re # 19 Flop
I think this is simply the best comment in the steerage section from the last 10 years…so good!
Is our “Reality” just an evolution from a previous “metaverse”. What really is reality?
https://youtu.be/sHaGQg0avLg
Oh boy!
My Antipodean buddies are gonna love this one.
I would probably rather go for a virtual run in New Zealand, rather than Australia.
Just think of a guy on a treadmill jumping around like a freak because he think every animal he passes is try to kill him.
Who you going to focus on, the hot lady in front of you telling you to step it up for the last 2 kilometres, or The Tasmanian Devil sneaking up behind ready to bite your backside?
Also, there’s no room in New Zealand for an Outback, that’s strictly an Australian term.
New Zealand is a cleaner, greener version of Australia with spacial anorexia…
M48BC
#26 Sail Away on 03.04.23 at 12:22 pm
It is apparent these days that far fewer people access remote areas than even 20 years ago. When hunting, we rarely see any pressure except with road hunters. A few hours’ hike in? Nobody. And very few people under 30 even hunt at all.
5 years ago, we did a backcountry family trek in Yellowstone at peak season, prudently staying up late to book as soon as reservations opened… then when we got there, the campgrounds more than a day’s hike were almost, or even completely, empty. Some rangers came by on horses and they said barely anybody leaves cell/wifi service area anymore. Front country and the paved roads were packed.
I love the scarcity of people. But… it is human interest that protects the wild areas, so may become an issue.
*******
The tech-led rush to transcend the natural world is intensifying.
No need to save actual endangered species and environments (or humans) if the experience of interacting with them is forever preserved in VR world.
Check out this influential transhumanist loon. He’s even started his own transhumanist cult, Terasem.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martine_Rothblatt
We’re not even close to having the connectivity speeds required for a proper VR experience. You would need at least an unobstructed 1 Gb/s network speed in AND out (that means nobody can watch 4K TV while you jump in your VR field of daisies) and you would need a latency speed of 10ms. Your network is only as fast as the weakest/slowest link between you and the source. Simple team video chats to this day still sputter and stall if you put too much pressure on them.
I’ll be dead before this becomes a real thing. Probably a good thing. Now get outside and don’t come back until the sun goes down.
#13 Dolce Vita on 03.04.23 at 11:25 am
I like your Internet history Doug, but you forgot to mention that early on the big users of the Internet were in the sex trade.
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Creepy invention that no doubt Gen Z will love, since the socially-bereft urchins are already hiding in their rooms all day.
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/02/25/china/china-remote-kissing-device-intl-hnk/index.html
But the real monetization happens when they take this concept the next logical step and combine robotics, VR, and a nice fast fibre connection…world’s oldest profession, metaversed.
I plan to cash in.
Doug, and I am being serious here,
what was the VR equip you used at the gym?
Quick search and it seems
Oculus Quest 2
is what is need for the Metaverse Decentraland?
Amazon.it sells them.
€500 – 128 GB
€550 – 256 GB
“Meta Quest 2 – All-In-One VR Headset”
and
“Oculus Quest 2 — Advanced All-In-One Virtual Reality Headset” but no price. Unavailable.
Could not believe the user satisfaction ratings for both, 5 stars 80-85%, add another 8-10% at 4 stars. Pretty high. 3300, 8800 votes for the 2 units.
————–
Would be fun to try I think. Will probably do it after some more research.
Hey, retired Paleo here always looking for new experiences, real or virtual, well, save creepy BigBro442.
#60 It’s coming…
Geez. I read that article.
I thought BigBro442 was creepy, I stand corrected.
I think you have it.
Reminds me of that movie where an encounter, haptic?, suit was also used with a VR headset – Ready Player One.
On investing, I think I’d wait (for me) when it becomes like Doug said, ubiquitous as towels.
#60 It’s coming…
PS:
I have fibre in my building, right to my suite.
Spectacular read, thanks Doug!
I think the metaverse could work well for university to help reduce costs for travel, lodging, food, etc.
But it is really the Betaverse at this point. Hackers will have fun or militaries. Apparently it is ok to blow up other countries infrastructure if one has the means.
I’ll play, when I can go to Holodeck 4.
I see trees of green
Red roses too
I see them bloom
For me and you
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world
I see skies of blue
And clouds of white
The bright blessed day
The dark sacred night
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world
The colors of the rainbow
So pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces
Of people going by
I see friends shaking hands
Saying how do you do
They’re really saying
I love you
I fly all over the world in the cockpit of my favourite aircraft in VR…nothing quite like it…I would never go back to a pancake screen after experiencing that…and the view is in real time (MS flight sim).
A couple of other examples are home showings where buyers can walk through a home or car buyers can view a new car as if they were in the showroom.
Youtube already has a whole section called Youtube VR which is all VR video content. If your heart can take it, you can jump out of a plane at 30k feet and skydive in your livingroom.
I can walk down a beach I’m interested in travelling to in advance as if I were there.
This tech is just getting started.
#23
_____
What would possess someone to raise the same complaints day after day completely off topic in the comments section of a financial blog? Sad.
Shawn had it right. I’m out of here. Complain away.
#48 Balmuto on 03.04.23 at 2:06 pm
So how does one invest in the Metaverse?
I found this ETF, looks interesting:
https://www.fidelity.ca/en/products/etfs/fmtv/
Any other ideas?
—-
Beware ‘first mover’ branding. All this is is a technology ETF at 4-5x the cost.
—Doug
interesting post!! thank you
Start buying virtual shacks in the virtual GTA in the metaverse, while prices are still low!
Consult your broker for a quote. CHMC insurance applies.
And rates will be always zero in the Metaverse with the virtual central bank covering your back!
I was never much for the game world like Donkey Kong or Super Mario Bros, too busy trying to pay off the mortgage I guess, as the kids were finishing up High School and thinking about their future, when the internet was introduced from the Old IBM 386 are my first great computer memories.
In today’s world of investments, I do know that Victor Vest was a flop for myself, been there, done that, the news is too old to do anything with. I am sure it worked for some, just was not for me, by the way I got my first year subscription for free at the time, just for attending a Victor Vest Seminar, never did purchase it afterwards.
Al Gore, a United States Vice President, used the nickname Information Highway for Information Technologies and Bill Clinton took the saying and as they say, the rest is history how the term Information Highway got so widely used for computers and today it is still referred to as the information Highway all over the world.
The old IBM 386 Computer was a 32-bit microprocessor that was introduced somewhere around 1985/86, they certainly were the CPU of many workstations and high-end personal computers at the time. Having one of them, sure put us on the map. The cost was outrageous, what I remember they started price wise, somewhere around $2000 and you could pay many thousands more, depending on if you wanted a compact PC or not.
Quote of the day: I figured out 100,000 ways that will not work, Let’s go invent tomorrow rather than try and figure out what went wrong today, that’s how fast our Internet world is today.
TV series: “Mayday”
Some may recall one of THE worst airline disasters in history was in the Canary Islands in the late 1970’s, whereby (2) 747’s collided on the runaway.
The cause was quite a mystery….until investigators determined the fault lay with a senior pilot who had taken leave for a few months to train other pilots on flight simulators.
In essence…he had lost “REAL- LIFE” fine- tuning experience and his skill -set had deteriorated and thus compromised.
Hence….an early warning re: perils of immersion in cyberspace and metaverse.
Good interview with David Einhorn on CNBC last week.
He pointed out something I have been harping on for years.
Financial repression over the past few decades had the effect of not just forcing people into higher risk, high priced investments it also took away a steady stream of income from those investing in fixed income. And it reduced tax revenues.
Now that rates are somewhat reasonable again a lot of low risk savers/investors are suddenly being flooded with cash, courtesy of the government.
Where they used to get <1% on their $1M or $2M savings they are now making an extra $50,000 to $100,000 annually.
Nice boost for the tax people too.
It's actually a form of fiscal policy that is also keeping inflation from falling as quickly as some hoped. (And it might have been a factor in keeping inflation contained over past decades.)
It's one reason why the economy has not fallen off a cliff as quickly as many of us thought it might.
I'm certainly enjoying the 6 figure boost to my income this year. As soon as the car industry gets its act together I'll be shopping for a nice shiny new vehicle.
I'll be paying cash, it's burning a hole in my pocket.
VHS, Internet, Metaverse.
Just the natural evolution of the Porn industry.
For all you Space and Starlink geeks out there.
Excellent video footage and explanation of the newest version of Starlink being deployed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMpS9p2wts8&t=777s
The entire 20 minutes is very informative but the Starlink footage Starting at the 8 minute mark to 12 minute mark is well worth watching.
The Russians and Chinese must be crapping themselves at how quickly and efficiently this is all expanding.
Space….the new “high ground” in any war…….
#65 Don
How about this song
White Rabbit
Jefferson Airplane – Grace Slick
One pill makes you larger, and one pill makes you small
And the ones that mother gives you, don’t do anything at all
Go ask Alice, when she’s ten feet tall
And if you go chasing rabbits, and you know you’re going to fall
Tell ’em a hookah-smoking caterpillar has given you the call
And call Alice, when she was just small
When the men on the chessboard get up and tell you where to go
And you’ve just had some kind of mushroom, and your mind is moving low
Go ask Alice, I think she’ll know
When logic and proportion have fallen sloppy dead
And the white knight is talking backwards
And the red queen’s off with her head
Remember what the dormouse said
Feed your head, feed your head
I for one look forward to a stroll down Abbey Road chatting it up with friendly locals, taking in the smells and sounds of the place, and perhaps even having a drink at the pub, all from the safety of my own home. I don’t expect to pay more than a few bucks for the trip either, or have to deal with the hassles of airlines and such. I’d be willing to bet that seniors would be the biggest users, sure beats bingo.
This really is a great blog. Thank you all.
#57 Flop… on 03.04.23 at 2:51 pm
“…Also, there’s no room in New Zealand for an Outback, that’s strictly an Australian term.
New Zealand is a cleaner, greener version of Australia with spacial anorexia…”
I seem to remember the term for countryside in NZ is “bush”. Similarly in Oz and Canada.
The Australian outback has very little of anything at all, certainly not many bushes.
On today’s topic, if you were often car sick as a kid, get seasick, or find it nauseating to read in a moving vehicle, the chances are that VR will make you feel terrible.
There are several conditions which give people vertigo and they may not enjoy VR.
#72 Alois on 03.04.23 at 4:17 pm
Xxxxxx
Have you seen student’s handwriting lately?
#10 Ponzius Pilatus on 03.04.23 at 11:09 am
“I’ll stick with beer.
And my Philosophy books.”
Good idea, but hey Ponzie,
If you get bored with Plato, and Kant, you might want to try reading “The Master Game”
Also, smoking anything is not that good for you, but maybe gummies might not be so bad.
Just remember to brush your teeth right after “moderate comsumption”
Sounds like “Second Life” to me but I’m am old guy.
This is the future….thank you Doug well written and researched. The skies here are filled with wild fire smoke 6 weeks of the year in summer. In some places -40 degrees in winter. Climate change is coming for you all no matter how “rich” you are. People will flock to the metaverse to escape. I have never used social media, not even tried it for one day but, the masses have and will do so more and more no matter how pathetic it is. I don’t invest my money not even 1 penny. Spend it all as fast as I can and will work until I die. I have paid off my student loans and mortgage. I have 6 years university in environmental studies. Been reading you since mid 2000’s love your work Garth but, I question every time why no blogging about real sustainable environmental investing. Convince me of that and you can have ALL my money.
It’s time to get honest with ourselves.
CRYPTO currencies such as SAND and MANA are the currencies of the Metaverse.
The digital economy is going to take over in everyway of our lives.
Bitcoin and Ethereum will play a huge part in it.
They aren’t going away. Usage and adoption is growing worldwide exponentially every year.
#33 DLT INC on 03.04.23 at 1:02 pm
Lest we forget all those who we depend on to deliver this metaverse to us. Spend a few moments to reflect on the thousands of miners risking their lives every day to go far into the tunnels they dig into the mountains of the Congo chasing the mineral veins so that the world can have the cobalt containing cell phones and computers we need for the metaverse to work. And they do this for $2 a day, if they are lucky.
===================================
COMMENT:
I’m following the trail of tears re: EV’s
Apparently 500,000 lbs. of raw material …on average…. is required to process and produce the materials to create an EV battery.
A full tank of gas weighs about 100 pounds…an EV battery weighs approx. 1,000 lbs.
You experts can do the Math re: economics, engineering , and environmental impact etc. etc.
Or..
…. just walk away….
#75 crowdedelevatorfartz on 03.04.23 at 4:56 pm
For all you Space and Starlink geeks out there.
Excellent video footage and explanation of the newest version of Starlink being deployed.
—————
I eagerly await the cell capability, which will instantly make all sat phones, Garmin messenger, Spot devices, etc. obsolete. TMobile has teamed with SpaceX for this with expectation of 2024 rollout.
#83 Sean. Moan all you want about climate alarmism and your planned escape into the metaverse but there is absolutely zero EMPIRICAL scientific evidence to support man made activity affecting world climate. Zero. EMPIRICAL. Scientific. Evidence.
#113 IHCTD9 on 03.01.23 at 9:29 pm
#99 Flop… on 03.01.23 at 8:09 pm
It’s also a lot quieter than my 7.5L 460 engine, so to make me feel comfortable I make motorboat noises as I putter along…
—————
I had no idea you were a fellow big block V8 freedom fighter Flop. If you ever get down to Southern Ontario, stop in for a beer. We can talk about stump pulling torque and hit the gas station. Just keep in mind we’re all GM fans down here.
/////////////////////////////
Yeah, I left you hanging for a few days Trackie, but I never forgot about ya.
Growing up in Australia, the two main choices were Holden (GM) or Ford, the Asian market hadn’t exploded yet, but our family car was a Mazda Station-wagon
The playground arguments would actually get heated, over nothing, of course, and I remember what the local acronym for Ford was.
Found On Rubbish Dump.
Anyway, I think most if not all of the car plants are closed now and Toyota, Mitsubishi, and the like rule the import roost.
According to the chart I just looked at GM took out the crown as biggest lemon in US automotive recalls the last 40 years, followed by Ford.
My daily driver is from the same year I graduated high school, I guess that should be a warning people that I’m no rush to grow up, and don’t miss technology I never had.
Plus driving a dinosaur helps me perfect how to be a defensive driver.
Every time I drive my vehicle, I drive it as if it’s trying to kill me…
M48BC
————————————-
Visualized: 40 Years of U.S. Automobile Recalls.
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/visualized-40-years-of-u-s-automobile-recalls/
Here’s how I see this all come together:
AI and Metaverse running simultaneously on Quantum computers.
And the whole thing being financed and monetized using Cryptos.
What could go wrong?
Hey Doug,
Interesting topic. This first link below will show how web3 thus far isn’t exactly “web3”:
https://moxie.org/2022/01/07/web3-first-impressions.html
Secondly, on a further deeper topic of ensuing sue of AI in all manner of “things” including metaverses, this paper, also published last year show the huge fallacies of AI functionalities:
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3531146.3533158
On the first one by Moxie Marlinspike, what we have come to associate with web3 is really web2.5
On the second one by Elizabeth Kumar, et all, the fundamental flaws of applied AI are massive in nature. They can lead us to completely unsavory outcomes. Before one dives into investing in such ventures, maybe perhaps shorting some high flying ones may net you more gains, if that is what we are aiming for.
Hope this catches you in time.
Metaverse/AI ???
Verryyyy creeeepppy
https://twitter.com/SolBrah/status/1630604612909793286?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1630604612909793286%7Ctwgr%5E97b98c2d2dd93e333d6edaf996fdeae6b00bc990%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.voterig.com%2F.uo2.html
#87 wow can’t believe I got a response. Nope not climate fearing at all – couldn’t care less – I graduated in 1999 – they brought out the guy to teach us (Dr Jim McTaggart Cowan) who figured out how rain drops form he was so old…enjoy your f@@ked up future. I have been ok with it for over 20 years…enjoying life now and well into future. Spending all my hard earned cash on good friends and good organic food and I am untouchable. Garth has been a good guide but never investing until somebody shows me it can be done without f@@king your grand kids….good luck with that…you will need so much money to protect them not even possible :)
First, Zuckerbird’s avitar eyes look like an acid head, then Ponz starts singing White Rabbit.
It’s getting pretty cosmic on this old Tory blog!
https://www.burnabynow.com/bc-news/analysis-why-are-bc-money-laundering-investigations-failing-to-produce-charges-6646186
The “Vancouver Model” for criminals…………
Billions have flowed through the Lower Brainland and Province while politicians and Prosecutors dithered….for decades…..
The public has zero confidence in the Courts, the Crown and the Political Leadership.
Not good.
#91 Alois on 03.04.23 at 8:49 pm
Metaverse/AI ???
Verryyyy creeeepppy
—-
Indeed. And who’s to say either is real?
—Doug
Re: #83 Sean Melvin on 03.04.23 at 5:53 pm+++++++++++
This post reminds me of Vovan and Lexus calling up peeps of influence and pretending to be Petro Poroshenko. It’s that wild. Holy doodle..do blog dogs think this a prank or for real??
-“…wild fire smoke 6 weeks of the year.. ( yep, too many peeps in the tinder dry forests on sparking ATV’s holding a joint in their hands… I favour rounding them up and throwing them all in the Hoosegow. )
-“In some places -40 degrees in winter”.. ( Sean must be referring to Russian Siberia, because I live in Calgary and we haven’t seen -40 in eons. It is Canada after all, isn’t it? ).
-“Climate change is coming for you all no matter how “rich” you are.”… ( omg! ‘coming for you’ sounds a little threatening. Biblical almost, in a Four Horses of the Apocalypse kinda way. Tighten up those sphincters muscles and start stuffin’ that cash in the mattress rich peeps, lol)
-“the masses”, “I question every time…”, and especially .”you can have ALL my money” which has overtones of a bribe. ( By any chance are you a member of a group that likes to go by their initials, i.e. ANTIFA?). I might have to sleep with the luger on the bedside table tonight…Jaysus.
93 Wrk.dover on 03.04.23 at 9:23 pm
First, Zuckerbird’s avitar eyes look like an acid head, then Ponz starts singing White Rabbit.
It’s getting pretty cosmic on this old Tory blog!
—————————
Haha.
And those swim goggles.
I’d use them to clean the cat’s litter box, to shield my eyes from the dust.
White Rabbit is just such a great song.
#92 Sean Melvin on 03.04.23 at 9:18 pm
#87 wow can’t believe I got a response. Nope not climate fearing at all – couldn’t care less –
==================================
COMMENT:
QUOTE:
Alberta wind farms nearly ground to halt amid extremely cold February weather
‘Wind is at 0.4% of capacity and produces 0.1% of total generation, while solar is at 33.2% of capacity and 3.61% of total generation.
At the same time, we are importing 811 MW or 7%,’ says Reliable AB Energy.
https://twitter.com/ReliableAB/status/1628823652220239877?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1628823652220239877%7Ctwgr%5Efebe8920e1eac6c44c8c1e67801f60485e46a608%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rebelnews.com%2Fwind_power_generation_grinded_to_a_halt_across_alberta_thursday_night
Great article, Doug. Just happened to read it right after watching the final episode of Season 2 of The Capture. It added an extra layer if creepiness to the blur between reality and digitization and yet is so fascinating.
#95 Doug Rowat on 03.04.23 at 9:40 pm
#91 Alois on 03.04.23 at 8:49 pm
Metaverse/AI ???
Verryyyy creeeepppy
—-
Indeed. And who’s to say either is real?
—Doug
=============================
Agreed…..and that’s the point…
People will have no clue what is “Real” vs”Metaverse”…
Prime for abuse and exploitation.
Well if we already are part of a Matrix/Simulation then what is the Metaverse?
Beats me but …….A dimension not only of sight and sound, but of mind. A journey into a wonderful land of imagination. NEXT STOP THE TWILIGHT ZONE
DELETED
What the hell has happened to a society that deems being alone watching a screen as social interaction progress? I want my analog world back.
@#101 Doug t
“A dimension not only of sight and sound, but of mind. A journey into a wonderful land of imagination. NEXT STOP THE TWILIGHT ZONE”
+++
Ya gotta love the old Rod Serling monologues
While he held a lit cigarette in his hand….
Chain smoking, hard drinking Rod.
Apparently Serling wrote, directed, and produced an incredible amount of stage, tv and movie material in a very short period of time.
He died at 51.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_Serling
Wow I can’t believe blog dogs commenting on me….been reading Garth since he started but only every commenting when I thought important. This metaverse will use huge energy only increasing what you finally all know what is coming re:climate change and the impacts #96 ANTIFA…nope don’t even really know what that is. I don’t do social media. I spent about 60,000 in post secondary school paid it off in 9 years at 10.5% interest and learned all about how to save us from our destructive behavior. Graduated in 1999…no jobs then for us environmental graduates and if you look there are still none – look it up. Not sure what you do for a living but, I have a corporation providing cleaning services. We only use tap water and a vikan.com cloth and mop and have been doing so since 2004…yes even during the pandemic…mindless souls haven’t a clue about environmental issues. I even worked as a janitor at the university from which I just graduated. Cleaning toilets to pay down my university debt. Garth would be proud and I am only responding to your nonsense hoping he will write about environmental investing. Wind farms are a joke and no matter how many will not change this mess made by mindless investors. If you are not part of the solution….you are part of the problem…
98 Alois – thank you for this chart. Interesting.
Unfortunately, many wont know what to make of it.
Well I tried decentraland. All I can say is it ain’t no Star Trek holodeck. That would be something worth learning how to use.
#87 Axehead on 03.04.23 at 7:57 pm
#83 Sean. Moan all you want about climate alarmism and your planned escape into the metaverse but there is absolutely zero EMPIRICAL scientific evidence to support man made activity affecting world climate. Zero. EMPIRICAL. Scientific. Evidence.
—
Haha. Insofar your statement is coherent: Incorrect.
There is one thing however that is going too far and that is the plan to have central bank digital currency that could only exist in cyberspace plus a social credit system. The existing state of affairs is dodgy enough. Perhaps it is time to turn the clock back a century and get back to basics and the real world.
A/R
I walk about 16k everyday in South Florida along the broad walk. Obesity and sloth are so out of control that sometimes I think what I see is not real.
Agreed. There is a hype cycle around AI that will last a few years, but once VR hardware and software improves over the next 5-10 years, then the metaverse will become the next big thing. AI will actually play a big role in the metaverse too.
I’m a computer scientist and study what is called computational movement analysis problems, some of which are directly applicable to metaverse renderings. I’ve been privy to a few VR demos by uni researchers, and it’s quite amazing what they’re cooking up. It will be transformative, and greatly impact business, education, and really society as a whole. But I think there will be a darker side too as I can see it becoming very addictive, and easy for abusive people to hurt others.
In the year 2525……The song seems very prophetic.
Hell, even CRA employees were drawing CERB.
https://theprovince.com/news/politics/cra-employees-took-cerb-benefits
The CRA expects to spend up to $1 Billion dollars investigating billions of dollars in overpayments.
$74.9 Billion dollars paid out. $74.9 Billion that taxpayers are on the hook for.
Well done Liberal leadership….. welllll done.
Airline pilots, as we know, are already heavily trained via augmented-reality technologies, but augmented-reality training will soon apply to almost all industries.
—————————–
Some of this technology has been around for a few years. We were using these AR glasses in mining before I left over four years ago. No doubt this type of technology is widespread across most industry by now.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/hololens/hardware#
https://virtualnastvarnost.net/en/microsoft-hololens-could-make-mining-more-secure/
Seems to me that the meta whatever is just a optical spin on an updated browser. Although, chatting with the kids will fun in a virtual room but it will be still hard to get them together, my goodness virtual kids must be next.
Were things a bit hair raising at the Surrey Furry Convention Ponzie?
https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2023/03/04/surrey-guildford-heavy-police-presence-saturday/
RUMOR: Project Lazarus genocide coverup
http://www.voterig.com/.uo2.html
There is a rumor going around, supposedly started by a facebook engineer (working via the new name Meta) who claims a new AI is in the final stages and it’s sole purpose is to cover up genocide. This new AI tracks the style and frequency of posts from users, so when they vanish it can auto generate new posts that make the person indistiguishably look like they are still alive, including aging, education progression, the whole 9 yards.
People using social media will be fooled by the AI and will not notice the crowd is thinning out and they probably won’t figure it out until they themselves “die suddenly” or hear a knock at the door, and they probably won’t figure out what happened to everyone on Facebook even then.
Think about it – for what other reason would facebook want to fake and obscure the fact that account users have vanished? Sure, you could say it’s all economics and fake accounts might be possible to convert to cash, but if fake is all they want, they would not need to go through all the trouble of imitating real people, it would be easier to simply fake up new members from scratch. In fact, it would be a LOT easier to simply generate entirely fake people than to have to deal with millions of families saying “How is my deceased loved one still posting”? Unless that won’t be an issue because entire circles of association are to be wiped out, like the communists in Russia did it.
etc etc.
===============================
COMMENT:
IMHO..its a combination of AI is so far advanced MEETS our minds are becoming so programmed subliminally to accept it.
#41 Catalyst on 03.04.23 at 1:39 pm
You overestimate the ability for graphics compute to scale. Look at the size of todays graphics cards, 3x as powerful and 3x as big. A PC which can run Call of Duty well is 30lbs and massive. We won’t be wearing that on our face any time soon.
**************
Even if the graphics card was 100x bigger, that wouldn’t change the size of your monitor, would it? Why would that be different than goggles?
#87 Axehead on 03.04.23 at 7:57 pm
#83 Sean. Moan all you want about climate alarmism and your planned escape into the metaverse but there is absolutely zero EMPIRICAL scientific evidence to support man made activity affecting world climate. Zero. EMPIRICAL. Scientific. Evidence.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
How long has that axe been stuck in your head?
I see some good uses for the metaverse. Clothes shopping would be a great idea. You could scan your body and have the company determine the exact size you need an even show you how it will look on you.
At 51, I know the world is always going to change no matter what I think. I’m financially independent and it seems everywhere on the internet, it’s just people trying to sell me something to make a buck. Instagram, i joined to to follow people who have a similar hobby. More than 1/2 these people are trying to sell me something and increase their number of followers. Athletes and movie stars (or other famous people) sell their face to companies and try to sell me something. Metaverse will just be a continuation of this. Always trying to sell me something I probably don’t need or want to improve my life.
I see more mental health issues, as well as physical issues with people who get trapped in this new world chasing happiness, that they will probably never find.
#120 Chris on 03.05.23 at 10:36 am
I’m financially independent and it seems everywhere on the internet, it’s just people trying to sell me something to make a buck….
I see more mental health issues, as well as physical issues with people who get trapped in this new world chasing happiness, that they will probably never find.
^^^^^^^^^^^^
There is a Netflix documentary called “The Minimalists: Less Is Now” that addresses this topic.
Miss your car payment?
Ford Motor Co. working on technology that would allow vehicles to repossess themselves
https://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/?p=265896
Americans love shiny and new technology. Some of us worship it almost like a god.
But we should have learned by now that when the glamor of the gadget wears off, it can turn on you in an instant. Suddenly you realize, you are a slave.
Residents of a county near Denver, Colorado, found this out the hard way last summer when a “voluntary” Smart Thermostat program they were enrolled in to help conserve energy suddenly became not so voluntary. During the hottest days of the summer, they found themselves locked out of their own thermostats, which set themselves at a temperature preferred by the state and the utility company, not the occupants of the house.
Zero Hedge writes:
“The idea of self-driving cars repossessing themselves might sound dystopian, but it is not surprising that automakers are considering this technology to ensure payment. Repossession is a common practice, and as we’ve described recently, cracks are beginning to form in the subprime auto loan market.”
The patent, titled “Systems and Methods to Repossess a Vehicle,” explains how a future lineup of Ford vehicles would be capable of disabling “a functionality of one or more components of the vehicle.”
This patent application was first filed with the U.S. Patent Office in August 2021 and formally published less than two weeks ago on February 23.
According to the application, if a driver misses a car payment, the vehicle will disable air-conditioning, radio, GPS, and cruise control to irritate the driver.
If the owner misses more payments, the repossession cycle will worsen. The car would emit an “incessant and unpleasant sound.” Worse, the vehicle might lock out the driver on certain days until payments are made.
And still, if the lockout doesn’t work and payments are missed, the vehicle could drive to a safe, nearby location for a repo team to seize it and avoid confrontation with the owner.
=======================
COMMENT:
Technology is your friend….right ???
Nothing to see here…(suckers)
I’ve posted previously re: Car Makers will hold owners hostage with software upgrades.
So…self driving car….??? seems to imply the technologies end game is to repossess the vehicle…not impress Star Trek nerds re: Hi -Tech AI.
#120 Chris on 03.05.23 at 10:36 am
I see some good uses for the metaverse. Clothes shopping would be a great idea. You could scan your body and have the company determine the exact size you need an even show you how it will look on you.
—-
Biometric privacy laws are struggling to keep up with technology and its potential abuses. Don’t be too eager to have your body ‘scanned’.
—Doug
#110 under the radar on 03.05.23 at 5:20 am
A/R
I walk about 16k everyday in South Florida along the broad walk. Obesity and sloth are so out of control that sometimes I think what I see is not real.
———————
It is my friend, it is.
If the Metaverse is not gonna get us.
The Sugar will.
https://www.realtor.ca/real-estate/25313457/682-pender-place-port-coquitlam
Bidding war?
Will avatars have Woke Culture forced upon them in the Metaverse?
Will avatars be subject to cancellation by SJWs?
I hope not.
When I enter the Metaverse, I will make sure that my avatar is good looking.
Then, LOOK OUT!
Let the good times roll, baby.
Ok, let’s wade into renewables…
Sustainable and logical or fantasy hopium? Both. Here’s why:
First, the earth is solar powered. The earth has lots of wind. Oceans have currents and tides. There’s a lot of potential energy.
Second: Solar, wind and currents happen where they happen. Just like rivers for dams happen where they happen. Geography.
Third: Storage and buffering. The Megapacks do all of this. Grid-connected solar home battery packs, when properly managed, greatly increase grid efficiencies. Case in point: Texas.
Fourth: Specificity. Tesla just announces unlimited $30/month home vehicle charging in Texas, because, and I quote Elon, ‘Texas is windy’. Deserts are sunny. Irrigation canals in sunny areas benefit from covers; these covers, in India, are being created with solar panels.
Conclusion:
Renewables are feasible. Maybe not everywhere and not immediately, but definitely feasible. As long as there are no flash-booms.
“The key to investing is not assessing how much an industry is going to affect society, or how much it will grow, but rather determining the competitive advantage of any given company and, above all, the durability of that advantage.” – Warren Buffett
#124 Ponzius Pilatus on 03.05.23 at 11:33 am
#110 under the radar on 03.05.23 at 5:20 am
If the Metaverse is not gonna get us.
The Sugar will.
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One of the greatest misdeeds done to the (American) consumer was convincing people what dietary (and adipose to a degree) fat was dangerous.
Seeing the words “cholesterol free” on a bag of candy is a serious mind fck.
*that* not what.
You do know that “Dharma” is a Buddhist concept, right? And you do know that Buddha literally means “Awakened One,” right? Do you see the irony? :P
So Canadians have been complete losers and chumps for much longer than I had believed.
https://youtu.be/pvWc1lmmiBw
Then will we wake up and invade Ottawa? Our feeble military should be capable of that.
#51 Ustabe on 03.05.23 at 4:56 pm
The folks who manage our stuff puts up fairly current info posts on the client side of their website.
Their position, backed up by loads of links and etc. is that Nordstrom sacrificed the Canadian operations in order to save the US operations.
Nothing to do with Canada or Canadians, in fact apparently all the Canadian stores were profitable. Some not as much as others but just like the Target fiasco it is once again US mismanagement that is impacting Canada. Canadian jobs.
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Unless you can back that up, U, I’m calling bunk.
Every report, article, analysis, financial summary shows Nordstrom’s consistently unprofitable.
I’m attaching one such article, but could attach a dozen.
https://financialpost.com/news/retail-marketing/nordstrom-closing-canadian-stores
I think I am going to sell my bank stocks and buy US dollars.