this post was submitted on 15 Nov 2024
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. A showerthought should offer a unique perspective on an ordinary part of life.

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

The current TechBro fetish, just like the Metaverse was, and the NFTs, and the Crypto.

When the bubble burst, which will be the next TechBro fetish?

[–] [email protected] 21 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Quantum computing. It would have already been but it still has a very nerdy, no real-world application vibe.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) (3 children)

Well the real world application is breaking nearly all existing encryption.

Criminals and spies are going to have a field day once it becomes practical.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 24 minutes ago

I could swear we've been preparing for that day for a decade now

[–] [email protected] 5 points 14 hours ago

The new asymmetric quantum safe algos are coming though.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago)

With classic cryptography being broken that also opens the need for quantum cryptography and commnications. China is a bit farther ahead of us on this launching their first satellite encorporating these concepts in 2020:

"The nation’s Micius satellite successfully established an ultrasecure link between two ground stations separated by more than 1,000 kilometers" source

China is launching a second newer generation satellite next year. source

[–] [email protected] 10 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

Only, NFTs and Crypto are relatively accessible; anyone can get in on the game. The Metaverse is a monopoly.

The bubbles are still going, BTW. Bitcoin prices are currently higher than they have ever been, thanks to America re-electing the Fascist Orangutan.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

The Metaverse is the invention of Neal Stephenson in his book Snow Crash. He incidentally also invented the word cyber space IIRC.

It's cool, I want it. Not the crap that fuckberg tries to push on people like used bubblegum but the real thing.

A shame VR makes me vomit...

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 hours ago

VR sickness is not a permanent thing. You can train it away. You can also just do stuff that doesn't cause it in the first place. But I recommend training it away, cuz some of the best VR content is the stuff that would cause VR sickness to people that still get it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Well, yes. Of course you're right that "metaverse" predates Facebook. They've successfully co-opted it by now, though; Meta is what the average person thinks of when you say "metaverse." Stephenson's was also fictional, unless you're really generous and use "metaverse" as a synonym for "the internet."

[–] [email protected] 2 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

It wasn't a fictional internet, but a 3D VR world.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

In the books, yes. It didn't exist IRL, and a poorly as it was done, FB's metaverse was (is?) a real product.

Facebook/Meta has never had an original idea; I'm not trying to give them credit for anything. There were other VR "worlds" before FB's (Sony's, for example, which was also a failure).

I just found out that Steve Jackson Games actually owns the trademark to the name "Metaverse." I'll bet that drove Zuck nuts.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 55 minutes ago

So you mean we have to make a FOSS one now :-) ?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Metaverse is just a VR implementation, like Second Life or VRChat. My point is: In a broader sense it's not a monopoly; only if you are hellbent on wanting a feature only that implementation offers, you have no choice.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 hours ago

Yah, you're right. Like I said, when you say "Metaverse" most people (on the street) are going to think of Meta's. I doubt most people in even developed countries even remember Sony's failed VR world.

Is there another networked VR world that is anywhere near as big as Meta's today? With nearly as many users (even with as much of a ghost town as it purportedly is)?

I think you were talking about a hypothetical metaverse, whereas I was thinking about the only one that I know that has any traction - tenuous though it may be - at all, which is Meta's.