The metaverse may not be the opportunity that Marc Andreessen has pitched it as.
From The Times, December 1:
The much vaunted metaverse is a virtual world of immersive experiences and transhuman avatars but, as the European Union has discovered, it can be a real life disaster.
After spending €387,000 (£332,500) on creating a virtual world to promote the EU’s “global gateway” development projects, officials hoped to introduce young people to the website with a special “gala” night of “music and fun” . “Are you ready to party?” asked the invitation to the event on Tuesday night. Only a handful of people, appearing as avatars, turned up.
“I’m here at the ‘gala’,” tweeted Vince Chadwick, a journalist for Devex, a website providing news for the development and NGO sector. “After initial bemused chats with the roughly five other humans who showed up, I am alone.” Officials from the EU’s External Action Service now face a grilling from national diplomats next week at a Brussels meeting on their “communication strategy”.
The EU’s “global gateway” is a major enterprise which aims to raise more than €300 billion by 2027 in infrastructure investment for the developing world in an attempt to counter China’s influence in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.“Beijing must be wetting themselves with laughter,” one diplomat said. “It would be funny if it was not a serious project, and if we had not paid for it all.”....
....MUCH MORE
Kids, don't go into the satire business, you'll never be able to match the real world.
And adults, listen up! From 2018:
"French government officials advocate for a €500m investment in blockchain technology"
The country might be better served adding to the €1.5 billion that President Macron has pledged for research in Artificial Intelligence.
But I might be biased.
