At least, that’s my conclusion after reading two fascinating articles published in the last 24 hours about Horizon Worlds, the exclusive metaverse being developed by Facebook and the parent company of Instagram.

The latest dispatches from the metaverse, courtesy of The Verge’s Alex Heath and the New York Times‘ Kashmir Hill, succinctly summarizes the enormous risk-reward proposition facing Meta as it pumps billions of dollars into developing the still-nascent technology.

The pieces mostly fuel skepticism about the lack of consumer demand, functionality, and security features related to the metaverse, loosely defined as a habitable digital ecosystem…