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Monday, May 01, 2023

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seph

It took weeks (days? hours?) after Facebook rebranded to Meta for the tech industry to blow up with a thousand different definitions of 'metaverse'.

Most insidious were conflations with Web3 that many were desperately trying to make trend at the time.

More innocuous was this blog that holds Snow Crash's definition of metaverse as authoritative.

In-between was actual real huge competition for Horizon like Second Life and Roblox that have variably been called virtual worlds, 3D social networks, games, MMOs even in the past but now that the word 'metaverse' is fashionable again they're called 'metaverse'.

Didn't this blog's tagline change from "Wagner James Au reports on virtual worlds, VR & Internet culture" to one with several uses of the word 'metaverse' in the past year or so? And the most recent book is about the 'metaverse' as opposed to 'games' in the one before? This blog and its author shifted to heavily dropping 'metaverse' wherever possible like the industry did at large.

When a word starts being more vague than specific, its not that useful anymore. When it spends some time being more associated with grifts like NFTs instead of what one cares about it's definitely not useful anymore.

Buzz words come and ago. It's totally normal for big players to steer away from words they helped bring to the limelight once its meaning becomes too saturated and conflicted to actually define anything clearly anymore. I don't hear 'internet of things' a lot anymore, but I wouldn't accuse Samsung of backing out of giving half their appliances apps and internet connectivity. 'The Cloud' isn't used as much as it was years ago, but it doesn't mean tons of the internet isn't hosted by AWS.

Buzz words come and go. I know this blog has a special attachment to 'metaverse' since it probably first used it when Facebook was an infant, but I wouldn't read too much into Meta steering away from the word. It's not like you'll find 'Web 2.0' or 'social media' mentioned much from them either. They say 'our products' or call the product by name. It's more definitive than a word like 'metaverse' and what it's become.

Don't be surprised if in a year OpenAI isn't saying 'artificial intelligence' a whole lot.

Tutuapp

Hey there! I'm definitely interested in the item you have for sale. If it's still available, would you be willing to ship it to New York free of cost? I'd be happy to make you an offer once I see the pictures you mentioned. Let me know if that works for you. Thanks!

Kodi

I think it's awesome that you're starting a t-shirt company with designs that reflect your love for tacos, cheesecake, and buttercream cake! Your company name, TCBC Apparel, is unique and memorable, and it's great that it has a personal meaning to you. Wishing you all the best as you launch your new business!

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