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I'm hoping the "tech bros" will overreach and all become bankrupt paupers because of this. And the people who keep bankrolling them can easily make it happen because they have no wealth outside of that of their companies. Then maybe they would be willing and able to back beneficial ideas again.

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It might happen, if the Metaverse withers on the vine and assistive AI goes open-source.

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Looking forward to the announcement, Karl!

Questions:

1) Would your digital heaven be psychologically therapeutic? Passages like this make me wonder:

"you would have exagerrated but manageable versions of the people and situations of your life. They exist to amplify your confidence and ability to act in the real world. This Metaverse might be a fantasy world, but the fantasy is a tool for empowerment."

2) Any lessons learned and applied from Second Life?

3) Would this involve extended reality (XR) at all?

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I'm realizing I should have spent more time on what such an assistive version of cyberspace would be like. I think that deserves a whole plunge of its own into, eg., Brenda Laurel's Computers As Theatre and other models than the naive 'virtual spaces' one we're usually fed.

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I thonk Second Life has taught us a lot, one primary lesson being that this "other reality" paradigm just isn't attractive to most people.

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Agreed on Second Life. Compare with the enormous boom in social gaming.

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Good reference.

This is where I was hoping virtual worlds would go, back in the 90s with MUDs.

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