Tech companies try to squeeze us all into their so-called “walled gardens”, isolating us from other companies and making us increasingly dependent on their ecosystems. Google, Apple and, above all, Meta (that is, Facebook), are giving the first steps in the new way of doing it and this is called the metaverse.
That the metaverses have been around for a long time, at least in a primitive way, but the goal is for it to be synonymous with an immersive mix of augmented and virtual reality.
There are those who see it as the next logical step in technological evolution, who believe that we are going to become amoebas connected to the Matrix and who think that it does not contribute anything.
Among these last there is Ken Kuratagi, nicknamed “the father of the PlayStation” and who was recently asked about the subject.
The opinion of Ken Kutaragi, inventor of the PlayStation, on the metaverse
The Japanese inventor and entrepreneur, who is now 71 years old, created Play, the games division of Sony and now works on robotics and artificial intelligence, was recently interviewed by Bloomberg. And, of course, they asked him about the metaverse.
Your opinion is negative and considers that it does not contribute anything. In fact, she said exactly this:
“Being in the real world is very important, but the metaverse is about becoming almost real in the virtual world, and I don’t see the point of doing that. Do you prefer to be a refined avatar instead of your real self? That is not essentially different from anonymous message boards […] VR headsets cut you off from the real world, and I can’t agree with that. They are just annoying.”
Kutaragi’s goal, much more amazing than the metaverse
Admittedly, Zuckerbeg’s bizarre metaverse ad, used as a distraction for his Facebook scandals and spun the word from the tech realm to the social realm, was pretty dystopian. And anticlimactic.
But nevertheless, Kutaragi’s words have nothing to do with an engineer who has become outdatedbut with someone who has a much more amazing goal.
The “mission of his life”, as the inventor himself defines it and that he is trying to make a reality through the new company in which he works, ascentIts the seamlessly blend the real world with cyberspace. And, above all, without depending gadgets no helmets. That is, something similar to the holograms of starwars or to the only decent scene of Prometheus.
That is If it were to do so, nothing would be needed to experience cyberspace directly with our senses.combined with the real world.
The truth is that it is a very ambitious and science fiction goal, which still has time. Meanwhile, even Sony’s PlayStation division, like most tech companies, is working on virtual reality headsets and devices for its metaverses. However, Kuratagi is not a big fan, not even of what he is doing in his old company.
We’ll see how it all turns out. What is clear is that the idea of this visionary is much more attractive to put on a fishbowl and continue arguing about nonsense in a new virtual Facebook. Seen from the outside, it looks even more ridiculous than doing business as usual.
