25 Nov 2022
Benjamin Goldman | Marching Toward the Metaverse
Welcome to exchange where we discuss what's next for intentional experience design with expert change agents. This season focuses on demystifying the Metaverse and explaining how the foundations of this emerging reality will change how we all come together. In this podcast summary, we’re visiting with change agent, Benjamin Bertram Goldman, Executive Producer at Ethic.
Does the Metaverse exist?
There's a singular, uppercase “M” Metaverse, which doesn't exist yet. It helps to think of the Metaverse as a place, a new place that's coming into existence. Just like we capitalize the names of countries, towns or cities, it carries a similar logic.
Is the uppercase “M” Metaverse inevitable?
We are inevitably marching toward the Metaverse. That said, the Metaverse is not inevitable. There are many things that could derail the Metaverse. Certain powers have an interest in not seeing the Metaverse take shape because it's an extremely disruptive idea. It will inevitably shake up the world in a lot of ways. Whether it's government or corporate, there are powerful centralized players that don't want to see the Metaverse come to fruition. They feel threatened by the decentralized component of the Metaverse. However, it is something we're marching toward. Given enough time, it will come into existence.
How will the Metaverse affect culture?
The Metaverse, in its final form, will be culturally shocking. In many ways, video games are a good starting point if you want to trace the lineage of the Metaverse. If you look at the history of video games, you'll notice that it was a very culturally intense experience for the world. it created a lot of backlash and people weren't prepared for what it unleashed. Whether political or institutional backlash, eventually,games overcame it. With the Metaverse, we'll see [the same thing] at a completely different order of magnitude. The Metaverse will challenge notions such as identity, freedom of expression and ownership/IP.
Will the immersive nature of the Metaverse trigger pushback?
The immersive nature of the Metaverse is its greatest strength and it's greatest danger. Components of the Metaverse exist already and have existed for decades. Perhaps the single most important component of the Metaverse that already exists is the concept of virtual worlds. The Metaverse is a network of virtual worlds. Virtual worlds are extremely powerful as a result of their immersive nature. In the minds of players [think video games], there is no distinction between what happens in a virtual world versus what happens in the real world. Sure, there’s a matter of degree, but people form relationships with other players, deep connections with their avatars and their property.
That is what makes these virtual worlds so enriching, but it also allows the dangers of things like pure escapism or player-to-player abuse or harassment - so much more pronounced than they are on a normal social platform. We are not yet prepared for the day when people are stepping into these virtual worlds and they're not just staying for a few hours in the evening, they're actually inhabiting an entirely parallel life, an identity. That would create an enormous amount of culture shock. It'll spawn generations of philosophical debates about what we're doing to ourselves.
What are motivators for adopting the Metaverse?
From a personal use standpoint, one of the major motivators will be the ability to create another identity. It's one of the most natural things in the world for people to have multiple identities. In some ways, it represents the ultimate in freedom. We inherit so much environmentally, genetically and culturally that we can't control. If we believe in this idea of freedom in its ultimate form, then, in some sense, we should have the freedom to create our own identity as well. In the real world, it might be hard to invent an identity and have it recognized in the real world. In the Metaverse, there's no reason why we should have to have our identities mapped one-to-one in the virtual world.
If you take it beyond the individual, the Metaverse represents the first and perhaps only opportunity in our lifetime to experiment with creating entirely new social models, government models or economic models. How many of our models are relics of earlier thinking of less enlightened times? Enacting change is extremely slow and grueling in the real world, In the Metaverse, we have an opportunity to start over and bring our best ideas to bear in an entirely new virtual world. This idea of starting over is one of the single greatest arguments for creating the Metaverse.
How do we create a more equitable environment?
The powerful thing about the Metaverse, the same reason it's powerful from a socializing perspective, it makes it more natural. We don't have to ask: how do you make the Metaverse more equitable. We have to ask how do we make society more equitable. The Metaverse is just a society in virtual form. The Metaverse moves technology beyond Web 2. it makes it more human.
What would make the metaverse inevitable?
A movement of people.
The best part of the Metaverse is or will be?
Creating identities and finding communities.
What's missing in digital communication right now?
Humanity.
What would it take for people to want to work, even partially, in a Metaverse setting?
Opportunity.
What's a positive change that could come to the world from the adoption of the mature Metaverse?
A global society.
What should people be worried about with the onset of the Metaverse?
Mass surveillance.
Listen to the podcast.
Guest Bio – Benjamin Goldman
Producer, filmmaker, and media entrepreneur featured in the NY Times, CNN, WIRED, MSNBC, HBO, TechCrunch, BBC, FUJI TV, and Metavision, Benjamin Goldman is leading the creation of a virtual production studio at the sustainable investing firm, Ethic, in addition to serving as a Metaverse advisor to multiple companies.
About Allseated
Backed by more than a decade of innovation, Allseated sets the standard in 3D virtual reality solutions and digital experiences for the events industry. Allseated powers virtual and hybrid events for some of the world's leading corporations. In 2022, the company launched Meetaverse, a platform that makes it easy to build corporate metaverses. Allseated.com.
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