How Ugly Will Life in the Metaverse Become?

HUMANITY’S SWAN SONG? –

Oct. 7, 2022 – I choose a world with a four-story comedy club under a starry sky. When I enter, a man in a gray hoodie comes up to me. “Hello,” I say. He stares at me in reply, so I float away. Another avatar approaches me. He has a beard and a man bun, and wears a collared shirt unbuttoned to reveal a generous portion of his digital chest. “Kash Hill,” he says, reading the white card hanging above my head. “Can you speak French?”

“I do not speak French,” I say. He shrugs and floats away.

A baseball-capped avatar takes the stage and picks up the mic. “Want to hear a story about my school?” he asks in a youthful voice that suggests a tale of sixth-grade woes. “I do not want to hear this,” says someone who sounds as though he’s standing to my left, though I’m alone in my office.

Horizon is “Meta’s universe in the metaverse,” said Vishal Shah, the executive in charge of “the spatial co-present version of the internet” that the company formerly known as Facebook has staked its future on. Meta has an impressive track record, fundamentally changing the way its nearly three billion users socialize, share information and waste time.