Nothing can stop Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse sermon, he's not "absent" from MWC, and certainly not by Southwest (SXSW).
After 30 years, South by Southwest has grown from a niche music festival in Austin, Texas, to a ghetto for cutting-edge geeks, where technology, the Internet, art, music, and movies collide every March. The convention lasted for ten days, and the carnival contracted the whole of Austin.
Past events 丨Photo by David Brendan Hall, image source official website
Obama "called for the use of technology to improve the efficiency of government services"; Westworld actually built a Sweet Water (Sweetwater Town) here to host tourists, elon Musk was also a surprise that year, sharing the stage with Jonathan Nolan; Twitter, FourSquare, Snapchat have all become famous here.
Next year SXSW time丨Photo by Dusana Risovic, image source official website
After experiencing a suspension under the epidemic and an "online" session, today's SXSW officially returned to normal, and Zuckerberg was the guest of the biggest coffee in the technology sector.
Early in the morning, I trotted all the way to the main venue where Zuckerberg would "take the stage" in the preview, the Austin Convention Center. Not surprisingly, there is still more than an hour before the opening, and there is already a long line of "Z" shapes outside the venue, which can be described as the most lively in a few days.
By the time I swiped my card to enter, the first half of the venue was already packed. Half an hour later, the ticket inspectors stopped entering, and the audience at the end of the line could only watch the main venue through the screen in the small screening hall next to it. (You'll know later how outrageous that is.) ）
The host made a joke about Zuckerberg's fame and didn't need him to introduce him at all. Only at this time, many viewers, including me, still have a glimmer of expectation, hoping that many media outlets will reveal that Zuckerberg will use the remote connection as the official smoke bomb, and maybe he will parachute into the scene at the last second.
With a roar from the audience, Zuckerberg appeared on the big screen. Disappointment leads to disappointment, and most people choose to stay. Probably because hot words such as "metaverse" and "NFT" have frequently cut into various discussions in the past few days, which is obviously slightly tiresome. Curiosity and anticipation clearly have another kind of "I want to see what else you can say?" " means.
Enter Metaverse in the SXSW app, the session can not brush to the end 丨 SXSW app screenshot
So Zuckerberg on the big screen seriously explained the metacosm, although it was really too unsound.
At the heart of the metaverse is the breaking down of physical space limitations
Is Roblox a metaverse? No. Is Fortnite a metaverse? Nor is it. What about Meta? Kind of that.
The scene was full丨 The author shot live
That's not what I said, it's what Zuckerberg said. He believes that the first two platforms have games at their core and exist in isolation. Meta, on the other hand, takes social networking as the core and plans to form an interoperable network with other platforms, and users can easily jump between platforms. "Meta is not about creating a metaverse, it's about building the technology and infrastructure that can be implemented as the foundation of the next generation of the Internet."
Amy Webb, a resident guest at SXSW and a professor at NYU's Lab for the Future, also said in a speech the day before that the real core value of Metaverse in the future is precisely the infrastructure it builds.
Amy Webb's opinion on Metavalse丨SXSW
Asked by the host how to socialize in the metaverse, Zuckerberg began advertising for his Horizon platform, saying that users are already creating various interesting scenes based on social networking, talk shows, artist exhibitions, and remote collaboration. It's better than looking directly at Zuckerberg from a 2D Zoom, and those who've experienced it know, "That's it." ”
He gave an example of how people born in poor hills in Africa can use technology like XR to get into a quality university in the United States and realize their dreams of becoming doctors. (From today's technology, it's a dream.) But these examples all express what Zuckerberg calls an advantage of the metaverse, breaking down the limitations imposed by physical space.
More and more creators are based on "physically free" platforms, with many more avenues of self-expression. They create, trade, monetize between games and platforms, and that relies on Web3 and decentralized technology.
The questions and answers with the host gradually made people tired. Until Zuckerberg said that one of Instagram's recent moves was to introduce NFTs into the community, the venue burst into excited applause, which was at least a comfort for the "avant-garde artists" who are not uncommon in the south-southwest.
Site map 丨SXSW
One block away from Zuckerberg's exchange is a makeshift gallery set up by Doodles, an NFT project. Viewers can scan the code to buy NFTs directly, and they can also print NFTs on nails.
You never know what NFT is used for! 丨Twitter @Angel
Must the metaverse be more inclusive and diverse than reality?
Avatar can't be "photorealistic" yet, but at least it can implement multiple possible interactions first. Zuckerberg says our Avatars change as the scene changes (from socializing to shopping to to working), not limited to a single appearance in real life.
Zuckerberg wants to promote a more "fair" society (he puts it this way), and Meta has invited different groups to sit together to discuss how to embrace diversity and express themselves more comfortably. Meta is introducing wheelchairs, hearing aids and other barrier-free designs, so that personal characteristics are displayed in the metaverse, but also let everyone abandon "What is the difference between this and QQ show?" " questions.
Today, it is obvious that everyone's promotion and discussion of the metaverse is "multi-dimensional". There was a lively discussion about the recently fired documentary The Tinder Swindler, the story of a fraudster masquerading as a rich second generation on a dating app. The legacy of social media such as Facebook is once again in front of Zuckerberg. But this time, Meta, actively and passively, has added a discussion of the ethics of technology to the rules of a new system of "virtual society."
In the one-hour exchange, many people are still willing to hold up their mobile phones to take pictures of the "virtual" Zuckerberg as their first meeting with each other. Many technical questions can only be answered slowly in the process of "still working on it". For example, can Avatar achieve "photo level", and how can real-time rendering technology make interactions with each other more realistic? When will AR glasses be more affordable in terms of price? Since vr rendering is still limited by hardware, can cloud rendering be fully implemented and get rid of hardware dependence?
People who hadn't eaten Zuckerberg's speech ran straight to the interaction area after leaving. Hands-on experience will give them the most direct judgment.
A tech company showcased a full-body tracking product called HARITORAX for $270. It works with Oculus, remember the bust in Horizon Worlds? If worn, HARITORAX can track nine dimensions of body parts such as waist and legs. Think about it, "two-dimensional" in VRChat "fighting dance", you know it can be used to do it.
The trial girl was repeatedly tripped 丨 The author shot live
On the other side, people who have "scratched their heads" are experiencing PROTO's holographic projection products. You stand in front of the sensor, three-dimensional projection onto the opposite screen, and you can switch to a variety of application scenarios, concerts, fitness, dance, etc. Under the atmosphere of the time, there was indeed some immersion.
PROTO product display 丨 Author live shooting
After experiencing both products, I hope that, as Zuckerberg says, he will soon be able to appear through holographic projection or other more "realistic" ways, rather than equating Zoom remote meetings with "I bring you a speech in the virtual world." ”
The audience of the small screening hall also did not regret the author's live shooting
Author: Wu Yue
Editor: Shen Zhihan
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