Second Life vs Meta (again)

[Ceka Cianci]

3 minutes ago, Fluffy Sharkfin said:

Nothing I've seen of Meta really impresses me so far, especially not when you consider the amount of money that's gone into development (seriously what have they been doing with all that cash, are the coders all sitting around with solid gold keyboards, does each of the designers have a diamond encrusted mouse?).

But I must say I do feel a certain sympathy for the guys tasked with creating the avatars.  Everyone assumes that they were asked to create realistic human avatars (and if that's the case they deserve all the scorn directed at them), however if "the Zuck" just showed up one day and said "make an avatar that looks like me!"...

I think they pretty much nailed it... the lifeless eyes, the pallid complexion, even the weird hair and gormless expression.

For me , it all comes down to there being no way in hell of me ever trusting  that guy? I don't care how good the avatars look..That guy is way too emotionless, like on a scary level..

 

 

[Love Zhaoying]

1 minute ago, Ceka Cianci said:

For me , it all comes down to there being no way in hell of me ever trusting  that guy? I don't care how good the avatars look..That guy is way too emotionless, like on a scary level..

 

 

I might trust him if he shaved his head, and wore a black turtleneck and jeans.

[Ceka Cianci]

4 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

I might trust him if he shaved his head, and wore a black turtleneck and jeans.

There isn't a costume he could find that would make me trust him.. That ship sailed long ago.. hehehehe

[Fluffy Sharkfin]

2 minutes ago, Ceka Cianci said:

For me , it all comes down to there being no way in hell of me ever trusting  that guy? I don't care how good the avatars look..That guy is way too emotionless, like on a scary level..

 

 

I don't have any particular love for the guy either but I get the feeling that the media (and the internet as a whole) have pushed that narrative into the public consciousness over the last few years.

In response to the recent widespread mockery of Meta because of a screenshot he tweeted he posted a couple of updated screenshots from Meta (the lighting/rendering for which seem to be more on par with SL than previous images) on his instagram.

 

Since I was there I figured I'd take a look at some of his other posts and in some of them he looks positively emotive.  Perhaps he's just spent more time practicing in the mirror lately or they upgraded the emotion subroutines in his firmware or something but at times it almost seems like he's one of us!

[Love Zhaoying]

3 minutes ago, Fluffy Sharkfin said:

Since I was there I figured I'd take a look at some of his other posts and in some of them he looks positively emotive.  Perhaps he's just spent more time practicing in the mirror lately or they upgraded the emotion subroutines in his firmware or something but at times it almost seems like he's one of us!

The perspective makes those columns look like they are about to fall!

[Fluffy Sharkfin]

8 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

The perspective makes those columns look like they are about to fall!

Yeah but, weird FOV choices & questionable structural integrity aside, the quality of the graphics aren't all that bad. 😄

Edited August 25, 2022 by Fluffy Sharkfin

[diamond Marchant]

4 hours ago, Rat Luv said:

But look Sid - you can go shopping with a headset! I think this video will win you round!

So was the idea in the video that you physically go to Walmart in a car, put on a headset, go in the store, but you are really in a simulation, do your shoppy thing, go back to your car, drive home.

Huh? Why not just do all that in your jammies on the couch, have it delivered, and not even have a car* (or at least have one that does not need an oil change).

*I am into the Westworld season 3 view of cars.

Edited August 25, 2022 by diamond Marchant

[EliseAnne85]

5 hours ago, Sid Nagy said:

Mataverse is still more a buzz word than anything else.
And the hotness of that buzzword is cooling down rapidly.

What is there to comment about, we don't even know a concrete concept.
So far it is nothing more than a bag with hot air.
 

The metaverse has been here already with Second Life nearly 20 years.  {Some} are trying to create a new metaverse but it would be more along the lines of Web 3 and or even Web 4 (whatever that is) and cryptocurrency.  And, yes, Zuckerberg has "talked" about issuing a crypto.  As far as a soul, Buterin of Ethereum fame (the crypto) was quoted as saying that "the Metaverse (meaning a decentralized one) will happen, it's just that no one knows what they want it to be yet".  Buterin means a new decentralized metaverse.  However, like I said the metaverse is here and has been for a long time.  

metaverse

[ met-uh-vurs ]SHOW IPA

 

 

 

---

noun Digital Technology.

(in science fiction) a shared, realistic, and immersive computer simulation of the real world or other possible worlds, in which people participate as digital avatars.

a theoretical or emergent networked online space with digitally persistent environments that people inhabit, as avatars, for synchronous interactions and experiences, accessing the shared virtual space through virtual reality, augmented reality, game consoles, mobile devices, or conventional computers.

 

 

Edited August 25, 2022 by EliseAnne85

[Istelathis]

I think for the Walmart VR, it would be reliant upon autonomous driving.  Your car drives to the Walmart, gets an oil change, you go through that horrible and absolutely pointless simulation, select what items you want.  Your car is loaded up, drives itself back to your home and you to your car and pick up the groceries yourself.  Alternatively, perhaps they would have had an employee come get your car, drive it to get the oil change, then load it up and drive it back.  

Walmart where I live now provides a service to deliver groceries to your house, they are dropping doordash, uber, and other delivery services.  Walmart tried to get me to sign up for it, and I believe it is a monthly expense.  Yeah, no.. I would rather go there myself than spend $30USD (or whatever it was) a month - especially considering for me it is in walking distance.  Once autonomous driving becomes possible, I imagine we will see most brick and mortar buildings offering more services such as that, although it is so much more convenient to just use the old 2D web for purchasing items, VR would be good for augmenting items in stores while you are shopping being physically there, such as in the video I shared earlier, but as far as a routine shopping experience from home I believe it would be way too clunky.

As is now, most of the larger chains now offer pick up, where you drive to a designated spot and someone comes out to drop all of your groceries into your car.  No business that I am aware of has tried to do a virtual immersion for shopping, although I do remember doing surveys online and some of them were for 3d stores (on a 2d screen).  They thought people would want to travel down the aisles and browse for items, I imagine for stores it is beneficial to have items displayed on aisles as people are more likely to grab things they were not intentionally going to get.  Those surveys I did with 3d shopping were about three years ago, and it doesn't seem to have caught on.

I think it is easier to just stuff a bunch of unwanted spam on an ordering page though, suggestions and so on.  Having aisles of items on screen is far from convenient for most people,  clicking your way down them gets frustrating. I don't think we will see full 3d stores for regular use anytime soon.  

 

Edit:
The way we envision the future is often skewed like that, if you look at some scifi movies you will notice all sorts of amazing innovations, but they do not take into account a lot of factors, such as society changing. Often the people will behave exactly as you would expect from that time period the movie was made, not how they might behave some point in the future, and little consideration is taking to how culture may have evolved, and how the environment would have shaped individuals and society.   Some people who have visions such as that Walmart 3D world, are locked into a vision of people shopping, they are so used to it being part of the experience that it will never change, and it is what people will want.  

You see a lot of this in futurism as well, it is even easier to spot from futurists from the past.  

 

 

 

Meta is suffering from this same phenomena I believe.

Edited August 25, 2022 by Istelathis

[Rat Luv]

36 minutes ago, diamond Marchant said:

So was the idea in the video that you physically go to Walmart in a car, put on a headset, go in the store, but you are really in a simulation, do your shoppy thing, go back to your car, drive home.

Huh? Why not just do all that in your jammies on the couch, have it delivered, and not even have a car* (or at least have one that does not need an oil change).

I don't know!  It's all a bit bonkers. I know after watching that, nobody should be allowed to criticise how Freebie Galaxy looks again 🙂 

 

 

 

[Fluffy Sharkfin]

10 minutes ago, EliseAnne85 said:

The metaverse has been here already with Second Life nearly 20 years.  {Some} are trying to create a new metaverse but it would be more along the lines of Web 3 and or even Web 4 (whatever that is) and cryptocurrency.  And, yes, Zuckerberg has "talked" about issuing a crypto.  As far as a soul, Buterin of Ethereum fame (the crypto) was quoted as saying that "the Metaverse (meaning a decentralized one) while happen, it's just that no one knows what they want it to be yet".  Buterin means a new decentralized metaverse.  However, like I said the metaverse is here and has been for a long time.  

metaverse

[ met-uh-vurs ]SHOW IPA

 

 

 

---

noun Digital Technology.

(in science fiction) a shared, realistic, and immersive computer simulation of the real world or other possible worlds, in which people participate as digital avatars.

a theoretical or emergent networked online space with digitally persistent environments that people inhabit, as avatars, for synchronous interactions and experiences, accessing the shared virtual space through virtual reality, augmented reality, game consoles, mobile devices, or conventional computers.

 

 

Since the term "metaverse" was coined by Neal Stephenson in his novel Snow Crash (which was apparently one of the inspirations behind Second Life) I've always considered his description of it in the book to be the canonical definition.

I see Second Life as an early prototype of how a metaverse may look, but it's a little too insular and disconnected from reality to be a full fledged metaverse.

[Dyna Mole]

I've locked this thread because it is discussing a topic that is not directly related to Second Life.  I know we're still getting used to the new guidelines, so please refer to the Posting and Participation Guidelines at the top of this forum for a reminder of how to decide whether a post belongs here.