Zuckerberg Comes for the Metaverse

[Lucia Nightfire]

1 hour ago, Mr Amore said:

With the names of Peter Molyneux

I'm sure Larry Bundy Jr. will be absolutely pleased to "review" it. 😆

[animats]

8 hours ago, Lucia Nightfire said:

You go to the same meetings as I. You know there is no hope. None. Absolutely none.

You're probably not wrong.

There's a faint glimmer of hope. The new VP of Engineering, Wulf Linden, does not seem to have bought into the Linden Lab company mindset that nothing can be done. For years, the technical management had convinced top management that the existing code base was unfixable. So LL made Sansar rather than improving Second Life. That, for those who came in late, was a resounding flop. User counts in low 2 digits.

Wulf is pushing to improve Second Life viewer performance substantially. Enough people inside and outside of LL have worked on the viewer code that we know it can be modified. We'll see how that goes.

 

[Sindy Lovelace]

Read a curious article in the Guardian today about how the rollout of Zuck's metaverse has done nothing to deal with the general misogynistic ass-hattery that goes on in virtual spaces.

Female avatars can apparently be groped/touched in his virtual world (not surprising since FB started as a way to rate college girls' looks) and FB is like "I don't know how to fix that?" BS.

How about a setting that's on by default that basically says "no one can touch my avatar without my permission"? You know, like that basic concept of f-ing consent? The geniuses at FB can't figure that one out? What a Zuck-f&ck.

[Candide LeMay]

9 hours ago, animats said:

The new VP of Engineering, Wulf Linden

You mean Mojo Linden?

[Scylla Rhiadra]

1 hour ago, Giselle Kiyori said:

Read a curious article in the Guardian today about how the rollout of Zuck's metaverse has done nothing to deal with the general misogynistic ass-hattery that goes on in virtual spaces.

Female avatars can apparently be groped/touched in his virtual world (not surprising since FB started as a way to rate college girls' looks) and FB is like "I don't know how to fix that?" BS.

How about a setting that's on by default that basically says "no one can touch my avatar without my permission"? You know, like that basic concept of f-ing consent? The geniuses at FB can't figure that one out? What a Zuck-f&ck.

You make an excellent point, Giselle.

Unfortunately, a software fix that prevents "touching" isn't going to fix the problem any more than not permitting your avatars legs and genitals does. The first recorded "virtual rape" -- by Julian Dibbell in 1993 -- occurred in an entirely text-based MUD.

Ending virtual sexual harassment is going to necessitate ending it in RL. And virtual worlds and the metaverse have a role to play in doing that, fortunately.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

1 hour ago, Giselle Kiyori said:

Read a curious article in the Guardian today about how the rollout of Zuck's metaverse has done nothing to deal with the general misogynistic ass-hattery that goes on in virtual spaces.

Female avatars can apparently be groped/touched in his virtual world (not surprising since FB started as a way to rate college girls' looks) and FB is like "I don't know how to fix that?" BS.

How about a setting that's on by default that basically says "no one can touch my avatar without my permission"? You know, like that basic concept of f-ing consent? The geniuses at FB can't figure that one out? What a Zuck-f&ck.

You make an excellent point, Giselle.

Unfortunately, a software fix that prevents "touching" isn't going to fix the problem any more than not permitting your avatars legs and genitals does. The first recorded "virtual r*pe" -- by Julian Dibbell in 1993 -- occurred in an entirely text-based MUD.

Ending virtual s*xual harassment is going to necessitate ending it in RL. And virtual worlds and the metaverse have a role to play in bringing that about, I think.

[animats]

1 hour ago, Candide LeMay said:

You mean Mojo Linden?

Oops, correct.

[animats]

2 hours ago, Giselle Kiyori said:

Read a curious article in the Guardian today about how the rollout of Zuck's metaverse has done nothing to deal with the general misogynistic ass-hattery that goes on in virtual spaces.

Facebook Horizon has far more "safety" than Second Life. That was a new user who hadn't found the panic button yet.  Here's the Facebook Horizon "safety" video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uf_9J_EdzZw

They have more than enough "safety" features.

Now, Roblox really does try to prevent everything "bad". But their target market is age 13. Roblox is working on an AI that can bring down the ban hammer within 100ms after someone says a bad word. They already have a huge number of outsourced "moderators".

Second Life has a tiny "governance" team, and most of what they deal with involves land encroachment and such, plus occasional blatant griefing. Second Life runs on property rights. Be a jerk in a club, and the club owner can ban you. But Linden Lab won't. They call that a "resident to resident dispute". This works reasonably well in practice.

“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” - Benjamin Franklin. If you want total safety, the price is a fascist system with an army of minimum-wage goons with ban hammers.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

31 minutes ago, animats said:

“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” - Benjamin Franklin. If you want total safety, the price is a fascist system with an army of minimum-wage goons with ban hammers.

No, I don't want a system with a million restrictions in place to ensure that nothing untoward ever happens.

But it is NOT good enough to shrug off the crappy sh*t that happens, and tell us that accepting it is "the price of freedom."

What I want is for men to stop sexually harassing women.

How's that for unreasonable?

[Arielle Popstar]

42 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

No, I don't want a system with a million restrictions in place to ensure that nothing untoward ever happens.

But it is NOT good enough to shrug off the crappy sh*t that happens, and tell us that accepting it is "the price of freedom."

What I want is for men to stop sexually harassing women.

How's that for unreasonable?

Depends who you ask:

 

[Scylla Rhiadra]

4 minutes ago, Arielle Popstar said:

Depends who you ask:

 

Um. Sorry, not taking your point.

So this is an argument that sexual harassment is "ok," Arielle?

[Conifer Dada]

This new metaverse idea is intriguing. It seems you have a thing called an avatar that can interact with other avatars in a simulated environment. 😄

 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/technology-59674930

 

 

 

Edited December 20, 2021 by Conifer Dada

[Kimmi Zehetbauer]

PCMag has a story about tech fails of 2021 and Meta is mentioned.  Here's a quote from the story:

But trying to rebrand themselves as a “metaverse company” through a deeply awkward, fake-looking Second Life imitation wasn’t helpful. The jury’s still out on whether people want to hold work meetings in a purely digital space, but the technology to make it look anything like what Zuckerberg and crew are advertising sure isn’t there yet.

The article: https://www.pcmag.com/news/the-biggest-tech-fails-of-2021

[Mr Amore]

 

Allegedly AR glasses like these are the future.

The tech will reach new heights when Apple release their product in 2022. From 9to5Mac

Quote

In a note to investors seen by 9to5Mac, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo details a bit more of the company’s long-rumored AR headset project, which is said to launch in 2022.

According to Kuo, Apple’s AR headset will have a processor “with the same computing power level as the Mac” and its chip design will be the most significant difference between the Apple AR headset and its competitors.

For Kuo, Apple’s goal is to replace the iPhone with AR in 10 years and the AR headset is the first step to achieve this project.

As of now, the Apple analyst doubles down his bet that this headset will launch in 4Q22 equipped with two processors. “The higher-end processor will have similar computing power as the M1 for Mac, whereas the lower-end processor will be in charge of sensor-related computing.”

About its screen, Ming-Chi Kuo predicts that it will be equipped with two Sony 4K micro OLED displays, which he says indicates that it could also support VR.

 

I'm not convinced I'd ever replace my smartphone with AR glasses... we'll see.

[Conifer Dada]

Here's another BBC article about the growing popularity of virtual worlds. It doesn't even mention Second Life!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-59558921

The article says Zepeto is most popular with teenagers. I would guess that in this case that means 13-14 age group rather than 18-19!

 

Edited December 23, 2021 by Conifer Dada

[Qie Niangao]

 

Quote

This isn’t the first time there have been embassies in the metaverse: Sweden and Estonia opened virtual embassies in Second Life — a Decentraland precursor — at the turn of the millennium without shaking up the world order.

 

[Prokofy Neva]

On 12/17/2021 at 6:22 PM, Lucia Nightfire said:

Do you honestly believe this is magically going to happen when for years, almost a decade now, management and developers have focused on milquetoast, limited usage/audience features that no one asked for nor wanted, but they, them selves as well as completely ignored the backlog of requests already filed as well as remain completely inept about industry standards and what features make other MMOs so popular?

You go to the same meetings as I. You know there is no hope. None. Absolutely none.

The ONLY way things will change is with a COMPLETE regime change.

 

But why should they keep up?

Keep up to do those things you indicate?

They aren't important for the world they made, which works well enough.

 

[Prokofy Neva]

On 12/27/2021 at 6:04 AM, Qie Niangao said:

 

 

That beautiful Estonian Embassy, built by Scopes Cleaver who abruptly left SL when it switched to mesh (he was an amazing prim builder), was taken down years ago and the E-stonians are long gone. What's hilarious is that SL is described as a "precursor to Decentraland," which is nothing compared to SL, and should be described as a poor sequel to SL.

 

[Qie Niangao]

Scope Cleaver's builds were indeed amazing, including his own house that I remember being somewhere on the east coast of Jeogeot. I wonder how many still stand somewhere today. 

[animats]

39 minutes ago, Prokofy Neva said:

That beautiful Estonian Embassy, built by Scopes Cleaver who abruptly left SL when it switched to mesh (he was an amazing prim builder), was taken down years ago and the E-stonians are long gone. What's hilarious is that SL is described as a "precursor to Decentraland," which is nothing compared to SL, and should be described as a poor sequel to SL.

 

There was a Polish Embassy in New Babbage, and it was taken down recently. I don't know if it was official.

[Nick0678]

45 minutes ago, animats said:

There was a Polish Embassy in New Babbage, and it was taken down recently. I don't know if it was official.

Nope wasn't official, just user content.

[Prokofy Neva]

3 hours ago, Qie Niangao said:

Scope Cleaver's builds were indeed amazing, including his own house that I remember being somewhere on the east coast of Jeogeot. I wonder how many still stand somewhere today. 

In fact, every single one of Scope's builds -- bar none -- have been removed from the world. Even those that he built for other people, apparently at his request. I investigated this extensively. There are still blog pictures you can find but nothing in world. It really is a terrible shame.

He might explain it differently, and I don't know if he explained it at all. But the fact is, his abrupt departure coincided with the advent of mesh, and he was one of its many victims. It didn't have to be that way.

[Coffee Pancake]

4 hours ago, Prokofy Neva said:

But why should they keep up?

Keep up to do those things you indicate?

They aren't important for the world they made, which works well enough.

 

Because they have no other choice. 

If they want this platform to survive and grow, it must adapt.

Capitalism 101.

[Prokofy Neva]

14 hours ago, Coffee Pancake said:

Because they have no other choice. 

If they want this platform to survive and grow, it must adapt.

Capitalism 101.

I wouldn't declare this as "capitalism" when it is more like "oligarchy" of the post-communist type, and all of these big platforms are in the process of being regulated by the EU and the US Congress and other parliamentary bodies. And that's a good thing.

A lot of worlds have failed, including those made by the big guys (Google's Lively is Deadly). And it's like music -- maybe there are the big record companies making the top 40 and the bubblegum music, but there will be those niche jazz clubs. 

[Coffee Pancake]

2 hours ago, Prokofy Neva said:

A lot of worlds have failed, including those made by the big guys (Google's Lively is Deadly). And it's like music -- maybe there are the big record companies making the top 40 and the bubblegum music, but there will be those niche jazz clubs. 

and what happens when no one is left to enjoy it .. SL is littered with failed attempts to carve out one niche or another.

SL need to be a living world first, not a mausoleum. Jazz doesn't work when played alone.