Not another metaverse post

Universe or metaverse?

TLDR: Balance in the metaverse requires investing in the universe

If you have spent any time at all on the internet in the last few months and you haven’t seen the words metaverse, web3, DAO, or blockchain, I would love to know what suburb of the internet you live in.

At least in tech, web3 is becoming an all-consuming and endless rabbit hole.

Truly fascinating, and you should read up on it if you haven’t.

But this is not another metaverse post.

Fast forward 10 years. The money won and the tech nerds got their way—the metaverse is now an experience as formative as childhood and as far-reaching as your memories. After all, kids have essentially lived a digital life these past two years anyway.

So we’re here. It happened. The metaverse is everything. Now what?

My bet is on equal and opposite reactions.

That is, Newton’s third law: for every action there is an equal an opposite reaction.

We will consolidate everything into VR or IRL.

Metaverse vs. Universe.

Two distinct worlds, attempting to live in harmony.

While Silicon Valley works on making the fake world as compelling as the real world, we also need to be working on making the real world as compelling as the digital one.

Moving beyond the ‘how should we spend our tax dollars’ debate, what would it take to make our real world better, more captivating, and easier to access?

For clarity’s sake, let’s ‘rule of three’ this: basic, social, and experiential needs…

Basic Needs: food, water, shelter, health, education

Water sustains life, and while there’s some scientific criticism of his ideas, I’d encourage you to check out Masaru Emoto’s claims that human consciousness has an effect on water’s molecular structure. My point is simply that something so fundamental to our lives can be thought of as both well understood and yet still be nascent.

What would it look like to dial-in our understanding of not only water, but everything that sustains us? Think completely personalized healthcare. Food for taste & experience, but also for longevity & healthspan. Gene editing & therapeutics for life-threatening diseases. Next generation housing and sleep technologies. The list goes on.

I’m talking about disrupting evolution by evolving far enough to oppose it.

If you’re not current on advancements in longevity & biotech—trust me on this one, it’s mind-blowing what we will be able to do in our lifetimes.

Social Needs: family, friends, community, mental health

Anyone here know someone dealing with anxiety or depression? Just imagine what happens when humans continue to disconnect further from reality by connecting to a virtual one instead.

COVID was just the aperitif.

When you’re young you build relationships in groups, on teams, at camps, in classes, and on campuses. These are our most formative experiences outside of our relationships with our parents. They teach us how to interact with each other, care for one another, communicate together, find inspiration, push ourselves, and work towards a shared sense of purpose.

What happens when other people are simply digital avatars to us? What happens to empathy, compassion, and love languages like touch?

The digitization of everything poses an existential threat to the human psyche…and we’re still in the very first innings.

Worse yet is the paradox of it all.

We build new things to make money and to create change in our world. To reach those heights you need scale and growth, and for growth you need addiction. Addiction is in opposition to our social & mental health.

If I had an answer for this one, I would build it myself, but alas, I do not.

Experiential Needs: adventure, adrenaline, awe

Ever hiked a mountain in a thunderstorm? Taken a helicopter over a waterfall? Have you seen any of the world’s greatest wonders in person? Put your toes in the sand as the waves wash over them? Taken on a physical challenge so demanding that your body barely held up?

I’m reminded of astronauts who are interviewed when they return to earth. They share the experience of looking down on our planet, with everything they know and love all existing within a singular view. They explain it as unexplainable.

Creating lifechanging experience for yourself should be easy, in fact it needs to be, because if not, you will switch on your headset. We need to radically disrupt industries that expand the human experience like travel, tourism, and mastery over real world skills & hobbies. The list is long.

And as for the metaverse, are you sure we’re not already living in one?

See you Monday.