The glitz of VR and AR also obscures the more mundane ways in which our existing interconnected digital world could be improved right now. It would be trivial for tech companies to invent, say, an open digital avatar standard, a file type that includes features you could input into a character creator, such as eye color, hairstyle, or clothing options, and allow it to carry that information everywhere. , to be interpreted by a game engine however it wants. There’s no need to build a more comfortable VR headset for that.

But that’s not so fun to imagine.

What is the metaverse like right now?

The paradox of defining the metaverse is that for it to be the future, you have to define the present. We already have MMOs that are essentially complete virtual worlds, digital concerts,…