The Metaverse Does Not Exist

Last week I revisited an old essay, “The Metaverse Does Not Exist”, from the Fall 2022 issue of Religion & Liberty. It is available online at the Acton Institute’s website.

The essay is an exploration, in part, of the then underwhelming and half-baked experiments in virtual living. I think it has held up well despite huge leaps made in the capabilities of large language models since publication. There’s something about the bold visions of science fiction’s luminaries that still escapes the grasp of leading technologists:

The metaverse, as of yet, does not exist. It’s a fiction built upon science fiction. A dream with dreamers of the day dreaming it who, if anyone can, will make it possible. The meaning of the metaverse is thus the meaning of the desires for the metaverse. Where does one find the reality in illusion itself? In the alluring hopes and haunting fears of the science fiction from which it first arose. In mass-market Ace paperback doubles.

There is a fundamental disjunction, however, between the mood of our greatest science fiction writers and our dangerous dreamers of Silicon Valley on the “meaning” of alternate realities, even as the sense often overlaps.

Philip K. Dick, for example, knew more than our technological visionaries. He had the wisdom that came only from experience:

“And—and I say this as a professional fiction writer—the producers, scriptwriters, and directors who create these video/audio worlds do not know how much of their content is true. In other words, they are victims of their own product, along with us. Speaking for myself, I do not know how much of my writing is true, or which parts (if any) are true. This is a potentially lethal situation. We have fiction mimicking truth, and truth mimicking fiction. We have a dangerous overlap, a dangerous blur. And in all probability it is not deliberate. In fact, that is part of the problem. You cannot legislate an author into correctly labeling his product, like a can of pudding whose ingredients are listed on the label … you cannot compel him to declare what part is true and what isn’t if he himself does not know.”

Full essay available here. Enjoy!