‘Time to get fit.’

On October 24, Brad Gerstner, CEO of hedge fund Altimeter Capital, shared an open letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg titled "Time to Get Fit." The letter stated that over $100 billion in investments over 10 years in an uncertain future known as the metaverse was too large and reckless, even for Silicon Valley. Gerstner went on to say that Meta has invested more in capital expenditures than Apple, Tesla, Twitter, Snap, and Uber combined, and that it now needs to seriously consider how to regain the trust of the market and its shareholders.

In addition to Meta, companies like Microsoft, Nvidia, Unity, Roblox, and Snap have made aggressive, ambitious, and open investments. This is because the realization of the metaverse is premised on the existence of a single unified world. Its implementation is not only challenging due to the technical limitations of a single company, but also because related technology companies have to cooperate in ways that are not simply profitable or that they do not want.

In other words, there is no incentive to provide a portal that allows players of Battlegrounds to move directly to World of Warcraft. The perfect digital world created by one person, depicted in the movie Ready Player One, which is often referenced when talking about the metaverse, exists only in movies.

For this reason, each company has begun to call its own games or platforms the metaverse. Eventually, even Coca-Cola began using the advertising copy "A flavor born in the metaverse" in conjunction with Fortnite. After this unimaginably uninteresting and uninspiring flavor description, the word metaverse has gradually begun to lose its power.

Neil Trevett, president of the non-profit technology standards group Khronos, which announced a collaborative organization called the "Metaverse Standards Forum," said that the forum was named as such to establish a clear concept of the metaverse. He says that it is more meaningful to establish technical standards one by one rather than getting caught up in the word itself, giving companies the option of investing in the future.

The metaverse has become an expression that symbolizes investment in a speculative future, rather than a term that expresses a specific technology. Now, related technology companies need to redefine their goals from the perspective of various industry investors who are trying to connect the real world and the digital world with technology, rather than the completion of the whole based on their expectations. So, what kind of deliberation is needed for companies that call themselves pioneers in the realization of the metaverse vision to create a more clearly defined process that can convince investors from now on?

Ironically, we find two clues to this in an interview with a novelist who first created the metaverse concept and in the trend of cloth masks as a fashion item in Western society during the pandemic.

First, refer to the novelist’s writing style.

Neal Stephenson, currently a founder of a blockchain technology company, first coined the concept of the metaverse in his 1992 science fiction novel "Snow Crash." Last week, in an interview with Venturebeat, Stephenson said he could be here because he, as a novelist, focused on his first responsibility, which was to help his audience stop disbelieving in this new world and immerse themselves in the story.

He says he included realistic details by applying his technical knowledge to real-world dynamics, creating a logical and consistent world within the novel that allows readers to experience it.

As Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has said, the essence of connection through the metaverse is the human presence confirmed within another world. However, Meta's VR platform Horizon Worlds and Microsoft's virtual meeting platform Mesh have so far only revealed the possibility of their implementation, and they are not considered attractive enough as alternatives to existing experiences.

Generally, a novel is composed of everything that the author projects onto it, along with the personas and events associated with it. Furthermore, all of these elements aim to evoke real-world experiences to implement concrete experiences, making them very effective in providing entertainment to readers and leading to immersion in that world.

The reason we laugh when we watch a comedy corner that portrays a dating situation is because we actively use our own experiences related to dating. For metaverse-related technology companies, what is needed is not a world where technology has been fully implemented, but rather a focus on continuously expanding the points where people can empathize and feel amusement based on their real-world experiences and immerse themselves.

The reason why Neal Stephenson, a science fiction novelist 30 years ago, was able to work as Chief Futurist at augmented reality technology company Magic Leap and is now one of the founders of a blockchain technology company could be because of his unique selling point as a novelist, which differentiated him from the existing giants with massive financial resources.

Second, consider social norms innovation before technological innovation.

In the early days of the pandemic, mask-wearing by Asians in the United States was experienced as a symbol of a virus that was harming others. At that time, the difference in mask culture between East and West tended to lead to hate crimes against Asians, but the subsequent trend of cloth masks as a fashion item, led by celebrities, changed public perception of masks and made them a natural part of everyday life.

The technology industry tends to rely on futurism. Developing products that are currently selling is good, but selling the future is more likely to attract investors by raising expectations of more achievements. However, a perspective that alleviates the uncertainty of technology adopters is needed when new technologies come out. At this time, strong comfort is most effective, so the aspects of new technology experiences must come from inherent behaviors within existing society.

Google Glass in 2011 and Rayban series, a collaboration between Meta and Rayban in 2022, do not let wearers know that they are becoming part of a metaverse they are experiencing without knowing it. People respond to intent, and they feel discomfort and fear when they become aware of the fact that they are being exposed to a situation they are not aware of. Therefore, the announcement of legal bills prohibiting Google Glass wearers from entering cafes and driving, and WSJ's chilling review of Rayban series are natural reactions to reality. In other words, new technological investments and attempts to implement a virtual world connected to the real world require a more delicate and subtle market approach that takes into account existing social norms.

Remember that the reason why shared scooter services have been met with anger from city dwellers around the world is because they ignored the existing system within society that has been organized around existing modes of transportation. It is necessary to consider a strategy of gradually changing things, starting with small parts, rather than disrupting the order all at once.

About the author: CEO Byeongchae Son helps companies solve problems and strengthen internal capabilities through human-centered analysis of human phenomena using the investigative reporting method of field observation. ryan@reasonofcreativity.com

*This article is the original version of the content published in the Electronic Times on November 8, 2022.

References

Time to Get Fit — an Open Letter from Altimeter to Mark Zuckerberg

What Is the Metaverse, Exactly?

Coke’s new ‘Pixel’ flavor appeared in Fortnite

Why Neal Stephenson is trying to make the open metaverse into a reality

Meta Employee Says Horizon Worlds Is "Sad" And "Empty"

Screenplay, Novel, and Poem: The Value of Borrowing From Literary to Frame Our Thinking⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

The Social Influence Model of Technology Adoption