Tag Archives: metaverse

Climate Solutions, News, Observation, Politics, Tech

‘Declaration for the Future of the Internet’ Launched to Promote Open Web for All

The United States, the European Union, and dozens of other countries on Thursday launched a global Declaration for the Future of the Internet vowing online protection of human rights, respect for net neutrality, and no government-imposed shutdowns that was applauded by progressive advocates for a more open and democratic web.

“If acted upon,” the declaration “would ensure that people everywhere can connect, communicate, organize, and create new and amazing things that will benefit the entire world—not entrench the power of unaccountable billionaires and oligarchs.”

“Today, for the first time, like-minded countries from all over the world are setting out a shared vision for the future of the internet, to make sure that the values we hold true offline are also protected online, to make the internet a safe place and trusted space for everyone, and to ensure that the internet serves our individual freedom,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement.

“Because the future of the internet,” she said, “is also the future of democracy, of humankind.”

The unveiling of the three-page document came months after President Joe Biden’s Summit for Democracy at which his administration was reportedly mulling the launch of an Alliance for the Future of the internet. It also comes amid swelling scrutiny over the power of big tech corporations and continued attacks to online access imposed by authoritarian regimes.

The nonbinding declaration references a rise in “the spread of disinformation and cybercrimes,” user privacy concerns as vast troves of personal data is collected online, and platforms that “have enabled an increase in the spread of illegal or harmful content.”

It further promotes the internet operating “as a single, decentralized network of networks—with global reach and governed through the multistakeholder approach, whereby governments and relevant authorities partner with academics, civil society, the private sector, technical community and others.”

Signed by over 55 nations—including all the E.U. member states, the U.K, and Ukraine—the document states in part:

We affirm our commitment to promote and sustain an internet that: is open, free, global, interoperable, reliable, and secure and to ensure that the internet reinforces democratic principles and human rights and fundamental freedoms; offers opportunities for collaborative research and commerce; is developed, governed, and deployed in an inclusive way so that unserved and underserved communities, particularly those coming online for the first time, can navigate it safely and with personal data privacy and protections in place; and is governed by multistakeholder processes. In short, an internet that can deliver on the promise of connecting humankind and helping societies and democracies to thrive.

The declaration won plaudits from U.S.-based digital rights group Free Press, whose co-CEO Craig Aaron said it “points to a vision of the internet that puts people first” and that, “if acted upon… would ensure that people everywhere can connect, communicate, organize, and create new and amazing things that will benefit the entire world—not entrench the power of unaccountable billionaires and oligarchs.”

“We’re encouraged by the declaration’s strong statements of support for net neutrality, affordable and inclusive internet access, and data-privacy protections, and its decisive stance against the spread of hate and disinformation,” he added.

Aaron called on the U.S. to “take the necessary steps to live up to these ideals—protecting the free flow of information online, safeguarding our privacy, ending unlawful surveillance, and making broadband affordable and available to everyone.”

The Center for Democracy & Technology also welcomed the declaration, describing it in a Twitter thread as “an important commitment by nations around the world to uphold human rights online and off, advance democratic ideals, and promote an open Internet.”

While it “hit on the right priorities” including protection of personal data privacy and a commitment to a multistakeholder internet governance process, the group called on each signatory to “review their own laws and policies against admirable standards articulated in the Declaration.”

“For the Declaration to have any persuasive power,” said the group, “the U.S. and other nations need to get their own houses in order.”

Jennifer Brody, U.S. advocacy manager at Access Now, also greeted the document with a tepid welcome.

“Of course we support calls in the declaration, like refraining from shutting down the internet and reinvigorating an inclusive approach to internet governance, but we have seen so many global principles and statements come and go without meaningful progress,” she said. “The burden is on the Biden administration and allies to do more than talk the talk.”

Originally published on Common Dreams and republished under a Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

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web3

The Real Meaning of Web3 is not yet understood

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Is there a cookie (pie) big enough for us all?

Burning down a straw man before it’s built is a charade and a sham that predictably looks for dreams to kill, just take a peek at various articles predicting the end of web3 before it starts.

Recently there’s been a series of dust-ups and take-down attempts gunning for web3, crypto and anything decentralized or connected to buzz words like, DAOs, Defi, etc.

As logically sound as these diatribes may appear, in every case there’s a fatal flaw that’s oddly never mentioned: that at its essence web3 is a desire, an aspiration and, above all, a proposed remedy to what’s wrong with all that is, internet-wise in the present day.

Maybe it’s because the current wave of developers and venture capitalists that are at the forefront of, supposedly, building a new web, are basing the entire enterprise on a build-it-and-they-will-come mentality.

But will they come? In the end it is the crowds that make the concert. Even something as terrible and flawed as Facebook couldn’t be stopped because the crowds, both fake and, later, real-ish, did come.

Regardless of the theoretical merits of an idea or movement, if the masses do not cooperate in creating critical mass for the idea, there will be no coming out party, ever.

This is the true hope that lies beneath. The dream that dare not speak its name is not based on logic, or realistic viability, it is based on a desire that can’t be stopped, a need that does not just die out because of flawed models of centralized, decentralized or any other wannabe structure of interaction.

Web2 is dying before our eyes. Something will replace it. The rumblings from beneath in a Chinese music app named after the sound a clock makes and even from this very medium are that peer to peer power is what will drive web3 into whatever it will become.

Decentralized? The fight over defining web3 is lost in space

Peer to peer power does not rise from the barrel of a gun or even from the blockchain. It comes from the rejection of hierarchical structures that strangle creativity, and more importantly, that have no place for broadly distributed communication and prosperity to flourish.

The zero-sum mindset that Elon Musk calls wrong and that leads to “morally questionable” acts is not built to last and the top-down economics of 1 Zuckerberg per each billion users is dead and dying fast.

Can there be a Robin hood Parable 3.0: steal from nobody and give to everybody?

The infinite pie theory is the only one that fits and, according to Musk, it’s about the mindset, and adopting it all the way can take you all the way to the promised land.

The TikTok army of souls knows this and will only respond to a sustainable vision of renumeration that is, if not decentralized, at the very least widely distributed, peer-to-peer and devoid of outdated vertical top-heavy crap systems and platforms that do not work for the individual at a broad based level.

The Sun is always shining, even at night

If a “small section of southeastern Utah” can power the energy needs of the entire USA via solar, at a minimal cost compared to setting fossilized forests ablaze, then why can’t the wealth benefits of that energy be distributed across the population in a more equitable way than Malthus and the zero-sum mafia would have you believe is inevitable?

The answer to that question, beyond the benefits of asking it, is beyond the scope here, but in the case of web3 coming about it is not possible to say that it will rise as nothing more than web2 in sheep’s clothing, as Professor Scott would have you believe.

Because it will take a revolution to change and tear down the mistakes of web2 (and some other outdated baggage along the way) and that is already building in the need and desire of the population that “benefits”, or not, from the current system.

The technology that is abandoned will be the tech that is not able to exist in a world where building pyramids of crap for the Pharaohs of Facebook will just not cut it anymore. And, just as web3 already exists, not in structures built to corral and kill its spirit, but in the spirit and the need for a change and better way to make use of the network.

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Crypto, Cutting Edge, Tech

From metaverse to DAOs, a guide to 2021’s tech buzzwords

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  • From ‘metaverse’ to ‘NFT’ – here’s a wrap-up of the key buzzwords that shaped 2021 in the tech industry.
  • These subjects were the talk of the town in 2021, as the tech industry transitions into a new age.
  • A DAO tried to buy a rare copy of the U.S. Constitution, whilst NFTs took the art world by storm.

This year, tech CEOs drew inspiration from a 1990s sci-fi novel, Reddit investors’ lexicon seeped into the mainstream as “diamond hands” and “apes” shook Wall Street, and something called a DAO tried to buy a rare copy of the U.S. Constitution.

If you’re still drawing a blank as 2021 wraps up, here’s a short glossary:

Metaverse

The metaverse broadly refers to shared, immersive digital environments which people can move between and may access via virtual reality or augmented reality headsets or computer screens. read more

Some tech CEOs are betting it will be the successor to the mobile internet. The term was coined in the dystopian novel “Snow Crash” three decades ago. This year CEOs of tech companies from Microsoft to Match Group have discussed their roles in building the metaverse. In October, Facebook renamed itself Meta to reflect its new metaverse focus.

Web3

Web3 is used to describe a potential next phase of the internet: a decentralized internet run on the record-keeping technology blockchain.

This model, where users would have ownership stakes in platforms and applications, would differ from today’s internet, known as Web2, where a few major tech giants like Facebook and Alphabet’s Google control the platforms.

Social audio

Tech companies waxed lyrical this year about tools for live audio conversations, rushing to release features after the buzzy, once invite-only app Clubhouse saw an initial surge amid COVID-19 lockdowns. read more

NFT

Non-fungible tokens, which exploded in popularity this year, are a type of digital asset that exists on a blockchain, a record of transactions kept on networked computers. read more

In March, a work by American artist Beeple sold for nearly $70 million at Christie’s, the first ever sale by a major auction house of art that does not exist in physical form.

Decentralization 

Decentralizing, or the transfer of power and operations from central authorities like companies or governments to the hands of users, emerged as a key theme in the tech industry.

Such shifts could affect everything from how industries and markets are organized to functions like content moderation of platforms. Twitter, for example, is investing in a project to build a decentralized common standard for social networks, dubbed Bluesky. 

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DAO

A decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) is generally an internet community owned by its members and run on blockchain technology. DAOs use smart contracts, pieces of code that establish the group’s rules and automatically execute decisions.

In recent months, crowd-funded crypto-group ConstitutionDAO tried and failed to buy a rare copy of the U.S. Constitution in an auction held by Sotheby’s. 

Stonks

This deliberate misspelling of “stocks,” which originated with an internet meme, made headlines as online traders congregating in forums like Reddit’s WallStreetBets drove up stocks including GameStop and AMC. The lingo of these traders, calling themselves “apes” or praising the “diamond hands” who held positions during big market swings, became mainstream.

GameFi

GameFi is a broad term referring to the trend of gamers earning cryptocurrency through playing video games, where players can make money through mechanisms like getting financial tokens for winning battles in the popular game Axie Infinity.

Altcoin

The term covers all cryptocurrencies aside from Bitcoin, ranging from ethereum, which aims to be the backbone of a future financial system, to Dogecoin, a digital currency originally created as a joke and popularized by Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

FSD BETA

Tesla released a test version of its upgraded Full Self-Driving (FSD) software, a system of driving-assistance features – like automatically changing lanes and make turns – to the wider public this year.

The name of the much-scrutinized software has itself been contentious, with regulators and users saying it misrepresents its capabilities as it still requires driver attention.

Fabs

“Fabs,” short for a semiconductor fabrication plant, entered the mainstream lexicon this year as a shortage of chips from fabs were blamed for the global shortage of everything from cars to gadgets.

Net zero

A term, popularized this year thanks to the COP26 U.N. climate talks in Glasgow, for saying a country, company, or product does not contribute to global greenhouse gas emissions. That’s usually accomplished by cutting emissions, such as use of fossil fuels, and balancing any remaining emissions with efforts to soak up carbon, like planting trees. Critics say any emissions are unacceptable.

Originally published on World Economic Forum and republished under  Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License.

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AI, Cutting Edge, Esoteric, Gaming, Observation, Tech

What is the metaverse? 2 media and information experts explain

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Above: Photo / Pixabay

The metaverse is a network of always-on virtual environments in which many people can interact with one another and digital objects while operating virtual representations – or avatars – of themselves. Think of a combination of immersive virtual reality, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game and the web. 

The metaverse is a concept from science fiction that many people in the technology industry envision as the successor to today’s internet. It’s only a vision at this point, but technology companies like Facebook are aiming to make it the setting for many online activities, including work, play, studying and shopping.

Metaverse is a portmanteau of meta, meaning transcendent, and verse, from universe. Sci-fi novelist Neal Stephenson coined the term in his 1992 novel “Snow Crash” to describe the virtual world in which the protagonist, Hiro Protagonist, socializes, shops and vanquishes real-world enemies through his avatar. The concept predates “Snow Crash” and was popularized as “cyberspace” in William Gibson’s groundbreaking 1984 novel “Neuromancer.”

There are three key aspects of the metaverse: presence, interoperability and standardization. 

Presence is the feeling of actually being in a virtual space, with virtual others. Decades of research has shown that this sense of embodiment improves the quality of online interactions. This sense of presence is achieved through virtual reality technologies such as head-mounted displays.

Interoperability means being able to seamlessly travel between virtual spaces with the same virtual assets, such as avatars and digital items. ReadyPlayerMe allows people to create an avatar that they can use in hundreds of different virtual worlds, including in Zoom meetings through apps like Animaze. Meanwhile, blockchain technologies such as cryptocurrenciesand nonfungible tokens facilitate the transfer of digital goods across virtual borders.

Standardization is what enables interoperability of platforms and services across the metaverse. As with all mass-media technologies – from the printing press to texting – common technological standards are essential for widespread adoption. International organizations such as the Open Metaverse Interoperability Group define these standards. 

Why the metaverse matters

If the metaverse does become the successor to the internet, who builds it, and how, is extremely important to the future of the economy and society as a whole. Facebook is aiming to play a leading role in shaping the metaverse, in part by investing heavily in virtual reality. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained in an interview his view that the metaverse spans non-immersive platforms like today’s social media as well as immersive 3D media technologies such as virtual reality, and that it will be for work as well as play.Hollywood has embraced the metaverse in movies like ‘Ready Player One.’

The metaverse might one day resemble the flashy fictional Oasis of Ernest Cline’s “Ready Player One,” but until then you can turn to games like Fortnite and Roblox, virtual reality social media platforms like VRChat and AltspaceVR, and virtual work environments like Immersed for a taste of the immersive and connected metaverse experience. As these siloed spaces converge and become increasingly interoperable, watch for a truly singular metaverse to emerge.

Originally published on The Conversation by Rabindra Ratan & Yiming Lei and republished under a Creative Common License (CC BY-ND 4.0).

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Apps, Branding, Breaking News, Business, Hot-Lynx, Tech

Bloomberg: Facebook Changes Name to Meta in Embrace of Virtual Reality

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Facebook Inc. has rebranded itself, now, as Meta, most likely as a means to separate the corporate identity of the social network that has been tied to a myriad of ugly controversies. The name change is meant to highlight the company’s shift to virtual reality and the metaverse.

CEO Zuckerberg spoke at the Facebook’s Connect virtual conference and commented on the name change, “From now on, we’re going to be metaverse-first, not Facebook-first.”

The new name change does not affect the company’s share data or corporate structure, however the company will start trading under the new ticker, MVRS starting December 1.

Needless to say, Twitter comments and memes instantly rolled in after the rebrand announcement:

Read More at:

BLOOMBERG

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AI, Social Media, Tech

Algorithms define our lives, the Metaverse is already our home and Dark Patterns follow us everywhere

Photo: Adobe Stock

What is the metaverse?

I can’t link to a particular article explaining it because most of what’s out there is misleading. The truth is that nobody knows. The term comes from various science fiction sources, the most recent and least accurate is from “Ready Player One”.

The general idea of that book & film example is a future scenario where many, particularly the young, spend endless hours logged into a shared virtual reality game-like scenario where they can create a unique identity, via 3D avatars, and can interact in a realistic, yet magical, virtual reality environment.

There are many individuals and companies, such as Facebook that are advocating a link from the current online “world” to this type of “enhanced” 3D interactive “metaverse”. They even use the term and try to define its meaning based on their “vision” for the future of social media and the internet.

Zuckerberg monopolizing the Metaverse before it even exists?

The problem is, they are almost certainly wrong in this future prediction. The metaverse is already here, albeit in a very primitive form, where it will lead and what it will eventually turn into is completely open and up to all who inhabit it now and going forward.

The problem is, they are almost certainly wrong in this future prediction. The metaverse is already here, albeit in a very primitive form; where it will lead and what it will eventually become is completely open, and up to all who inhabit it now and going forward.

Elon Musk once said “We are all already Cyborgs” referring to the way cell phones (and for Tesla owners the onboard computer in their cars) extend our senses in a nearly continuous manner. We really can’t live the digital life most of us currently lead without our technological enhancements via hand-held (for now) computing.

Since this progression from the primitive early internet and web to the current, still primitive, phase of work-from-home and zoom business and education the is a continuous extension of our “world” into an artificial computer-aided meta-universe that is slowly becoming more responsive to our unspoken needs and wants.

“our electric global networks now begin to simulate the condition of our central nervous system. But a con-scious computer would still be one that was an extension of our consciousness, as a telescope is an extension of our eyes, or as a ventriloquist’s dummy is an extension of the ventriloquist.

Marshall Mcluhan, from “Understanding Media, pg. 388

What are “Dark Patterns”

Another recently coined term, dark patterns, has come to mean the ways that software designers use user interfaces to influence behavior and elicit a desired outcome, such as clicking a “buy button”.

Another way to imagine it is the digital equivalent to the grocery store designs that put necessities and staples like milk & eggs as far away as possible from the entrance, to try and entice impulse buying, while filling the check-out aisles with candy and other low cost / high margin goodies.

“We drive into the future using only our rearview mirror”

Marshall Mcluhan

The disconnect in this analogy is that people intuitively believe that the digital dark patters are less powerful and have less impact since they operate in cyberspace, while in fact is that the ability to manipulate behavior is much, much more powerful in the digital realm.

The “Dead Internet Conspiracy Theory” is just reality bumping into the truth

A recent article in the Atlantic noted the existence of the theory, and concluded that, though it had a ring of truth, ultimately the fact that this theory, on an obscure web page was possible to find, meant that the internet is not dead, and therefore the theory is invalid.

Nothing could be further from the truth. The rise of Dark Patterns, even as the devices we use and the sites we surf to and exist inside of (like Facebook) are evolving, and the endless self-inflating systems and algorithms that surround us are literally killing the internet and destroying our digital lives.

Infanticide would be a more accurate term, perhaps, since we are all baby cyborgs of the pre-metaverse and have barely had a chance to live, while these powers expand endlessly into a death-machine for our extended consciousness.

Infanticide would be a more accurate term, perhaps, since we are all baby cyborgs of the pre-metaverse and have barely had a chance to live, while these powers expand endlessly into a death-machine for our extended consciousness.

The internet is currently on life-support, because the one thing that it is innately predisposed toward, the enhancement and amplification of human interconnected communication, is at odds with the corporate goals of the gatekeepers, mainly Amazon, Facebook and Google.

Free and open communication, coupled with ever evolving and improving upgrades to the software of our lives, is nearly extinct, before it has even begun, due to this infinite conflict of interest.

Algorithms define our lives, the Metaverse is already our home and Dark Patterns follow us everywhere

The above, a dramatically described and yet painfully obvious truth, is what has even the US government, in the form of the FTC and its chair, Lina Khan, looking at antitrust remedies for the economic devastation that has been caused by the dead internet paradox.

And it has inspired legions of blockchain and coding resistance fighters to start the long process of finding a way to launch WW3, and other independent ways to connect humans using computers that are in are pockets, in our living rooms, and perhaps soon, implanted in our bodies.

Another example is Pi, a new and upcoming cryptocurrency, based on a future where a billion people will be mining and sharing the proceeds equitably using cell phones, and since they will all be connected via the mining software, the realization of this goal would automatically create, for a billion people worldwide, an alternative network, one without gatekeepers to block people from freely interacting with each other.

Oddly, it is the dim realization that the internet is, in fact, already dead in its current form, that will lead to the changes that will ultimately bring about a digital communication revolution, one that will make WWW1 look like a mistake from a primitive and misguided time.

Oddly, it is the dim realization that the internet is, in fact, already dead in its current form, that will lead to the changes that will bring about a digital communication revolution, one that will make WWW1 look like a mistake from a primitive and misguided time.

Anything, and anyone, that can wake us up to what we lack, and what we are missing, in our digital worlds and our lives – in the pre-metaverse – is a hero of the future and must be praised as such. Starting now.

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