“You are an explorer, and you represent our species, and the greatest good you can do is to bring back a new idea because our world is endangered by the absence of good ideas. Our world is in crisis because of the absence of consciousness.” ― Terence McKenna
In many ways, the future hews closely to the Exquisite Corpse method. We often move forward at random, adding innovation and advancement with only a hint of how we’ve arrived to go on.
Our individual contributions to progress are often hidden. Yet, we continue to create a unified world of wonders, a sometimes chimerical existence that can range from the comical to the divine.
I’m honored to contribute this letter to the future in support of the Open Earth Foundation. At SuperWorld, we’re always trying to build a better world in the metaverse and in the real world.
Harnessing digital technologies to promote planetary resilience is something we can’t leave to chance, and the Exquisite Workers initiative is a perfect blend of irony, artistry, and social impact that can make an enduring difference—whatever the future holds.
Looking back on the future sounds like a contradiction, but it is at the root of our consciousness. The most propulsive catalyst to creativity is our ability to consider the future and to reflect on every iteration of that future, good or bad. Tomorrow will always be dictated by how we imagine that tomorrow, today.
The burgeoning metaverse assumes its form, a diversity of thought, communication, and experience writ large. We each contribute to an overarching virtual shared space in a marriage of virtually enhanced physical reality and physically persistent virtual space.
The form of the metaverse takes a distinctly human form, though at its core beats the rhythm of a digital heart. The metaverse is not one virtual world but the convergence of all virtual worlds, of extended and augmented reality and the internet. It is the convergence of our collective consciousness.
The metaverse takes the baton of mobile internet and allows for autonomy through space, through different digital ecosystems, and through disparate social spheres. The metaverse is not a destination. It is the destination and is characterized by expressions ranging from “infinite persistence” to “ubiquitous synchronicity.” But today, here in the future, we call it “life.”
This is to say that the metaverse is not something we can “see” necessarily, but more of a distillation of who we are. Every industry, from entertainment and education to finance, health, and real estate, our world has been revolutionized and optimized to our interests and inclinations.
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have not only grown into a multi-trillion dollar industry, but they have also gone toward helping our society by enabling creators to utilize the blockchain to provide people with access to sources of income and to create assets that can benefit causes that we believe in.
NFTs have also entered the social impact space, leveraging their popularity to help raise awareness and funds for social, educational, and environmental causes around the world.
Believe it or not, even advertising has taken on a less predatory approach. Through our virtual worlds, we as individuals integrate our own branding and marketing to encompass the things we love, with the ability to bring these objects to life.
AR exists as an extension of its VR roots, wherein users have the ability to invent new products or enhance existing ones in the real world using AR filters and frameworks. To this end, we have given marketing back to the individual who may curate his/her/their retail goods or services to a targeted, built-in community.
Yes, there are still flickering neon signs that sputter toward extinction still up from the days of traditional marketing, ancient relics from Madison Avenue, but they remain up as kitsch or as building blocks for AR creators to manipulate to their own creative ends.
And while much of our intelligence is artificial, our collective knowledge and experience (and our access to it) has become all-encompassing and intimate in a very human way. And what is more human than the desire to play.
Gamification of virtual worlds allows users to create for themselves and for others. A range of unique content and creative architecture engenders worlds within worlds (within worlds!), with scenes and experiences curated for both individual and large audiences that span the globe.
These worlds possess art, artifacts, and shared experiences to be found along with a scavenger hunt of almost infinite scale and discovery, and yet a digital scarcity of unique assets propels the market, revolutionizes advertising, and runs in a wholly decentralized realm on the blockchain. Digital real estate outpaces the physical. The world is ours, and the only question remains, which world? The answer lies in the very definition of the metaverse: All of them.
“Interoperability” is the word of the epoch, as creators and communities may travel seamlessly from one world and one experience to the next—our avatar as a passport, our crypto wallet as a piggy bank. Virtual and augmented realities no longer block out the real world but enhance it with integrated social, emotional, and sensory experiences. Haptic feedback brings a visceral component to our gaming and entertainment. BANG!
Artificial Intelligence allows creators to generate games, applications—entire worlds—in nanoseconds. Our forms dictate our functions and vice versa in a collaborative effort between the mind and the machine.
Immersive media bridges the divide between the physical and the digital, allowing for immersive educational experiences and a nuanced social ecosystem gamified for maximum intimacy and connection.
There is no stigma for gaming, in the same way that there is no stigma for living. Just because we choose to gamify our lives has not meant that we’ve ushered in an era of “escapism.” On the contrary. We have not compromised our moral compass nor entered a sphere of frivolity but enhanced our emotional (and physical) investment in the world. The point is, just because something’s fun doesn’t make it frivolous.
Our creativity and our works are rewarded both financially and existentially through our actions and our participation in doing the things we love and experiencing the people and the environments we hold dearest.
We move seamlessly from one virtual world to another, even while both spaces are independently owned and operated, with collaborative creation and appreciation at the heart of our daily lives.
And remember, the metaverse is never what you think it is, but what everyone accepts it for, existing as it does in a perceived (and unified) space, including virtual and augmented realities, and developed through an underlying foundation by which we can experience our worlds. And finally, through the advent of blockchain and world-scale AR, we have successfully integrated the entire spectrum of commerce, culture, and community together to build a better world for ourselves, our loved ones, and our brothers and sisters making their way in the metaverse.
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