During May's Metaverse Roadmap, one of the breakout sessions involved coming up with metaverse-related newspaper headlines for next year, five years from now, and ten years hence. At the time, my notes were archived in a scramble of new NWN stories, but I wanted to bring them up now for fun and posterity's sake. Though some of my own headlines predictions were half tongue-in-cheek, I do believe one or two may end up coming to pass. Actually, I'd personally say ten of the following headlines have more than a 50% chance of manifesting.
These were developed in a small group brainstorm featuring a couple lions of the digerati, Randy Farmer and Ethan Zuckerman, and up-and-comers like Helen Cheng, Greg Howes, and, well, me. Also present was a technologist named White and a futurist named Moncrief, two perfectly brilliant gentlemen whose first names, I'm embarrassed to say, were lost to the aether.
Anyway, our headlines from the future after the break. Discuss among yourselves!
Headlines from 2008
Finance and Business
Anshe Chung makes 1 million US (Farmer)
Leading nations demand taxation on metaverse transactions (Moncrief)
More visitors to virtual San Francisco than real San Francisco (Howe)
Current Events
Al Qaeda cell discovered in Second Life; NSA creates Metaverse Counter-Terrorist Strike Force (Au)
Politics
Joe Trippi opens Clinton for President '08 metaverse headquarters in Second Life (Au)
Technology
HP releases personal 3D printers with software packaged to export objects from leading online worlds (Chang)
Culture
AOL users discover SL; Cool people leave (Zuckerman)
* * *
Headlines from 2011
Finance and Business
IBM Businessverse announce immigration restrictions designed to protect existing workers (Zuckerman)
Organized crime destroys 10% of virtual wealth from exploitation of protocol; well-known avatar arrested (Farmer)
5% of GDP of developing nations based on metaverse economy (Au)
Current Events
Black Sunday hyperinflation bug crashes metaverse economy-- three days of economic transactions voided (Zuckerman)
Politics
Unicef and UNHCR announce crackdown on virtual sweatshops (Zuckerman)
ITU demands influence over metaverse naming system on behalf of developing nations (Zuckerman)
Technology
Blizzard releases World of Warcraft OS; Joi Ito named CEO (Cheng)
Internet Engineering Task force proposes standards for metaverse architecture (White)
Culture
50% of charitable contributions raised in metaverses (Moncrief)
* * *
Headlines from 2016
Finance and Business
Metaverse GDP exceeeds US GDP (Moncrief)
50% of US patents based on metaverse collaborative projects; first application of international IP rights regime (Moncrief)
Politics
Capital punishment is abolished in the US due to metaverse boycott of US economy (Moncrief)
Metaverse citizens secede en masse from nation states (Moncrief)
Culture
Leading metaverse-based religious group reaches 100 million (Moncrief)
"Amnesty International Pleads Release of SL Residents Behind China's Great Digital Wall"
Posted by: bryan campen (cyrus huffhines) | Friday, July 14, 2006 at 01:33 PM
Not a single headline on SL addiction?
Posted by: bllius | Friday, July 14, 2006 at 05:25 PM