16 Jun 2023 | Mike Boland
AWE Talks: Metaverse Building Blocks Are Already Here
AWE USA 2023

Welcome back to AWE Talks, our series that revisits the most engaging content from AWE’s catalog of conference sessions. Now that AWE USA 2023 has concluded, we have a fresh batch of sessions to dive into. 

And what better way to enter into this new season of AWE Talks than Conference Chair Ori Inbar's welcome address? We did that last week, and now continue the narrative with part 2 of his session, interviewing the legendary Neal Stephenson. 

See the summarized takeaways below, along with the full session video. Stay tuned for more video highlights each week and check out the full library on awe.live and AWE’s YouTube Channel.

Speakers
Ori Inbar: Co-Founder & CEO, AWE
Neal Stephenson: Co-Founder, Lamina1 | Author, Snow Crash

– Does the man who coined the term metaverse think it will be a utopia or dystopia?
– It's too early to tell, says Stephenson, but we are close to the birth of the metaverse.
– That's because some of the key prerequisites and building blocks are here today.
– For example, game engines are now prevalent, accessible, and low-cost.
– There are also highly-accessible upstream 3D asset creation tools like Blender.
– There's also validated user demand, to the tune of 600 million MMO players.
– And like we examined last week, we have XR hardware that didn't exist 5 years ago.
– But still, challenges exist in building connected 3D experiences... in both VR and AR.
– Focusing on the latter, there are many challenges Stephenson learned at Magic Leap.
– Unlike VR's control of every pixel, AR has challenges like scene understanding.
– With SLAM, it's difficult to design predictable outcomes in an unpredictable world.
– As for other metaverse components, Web3 and XR won't be "either/or" but both. 
– XR will represent the 3D interface while web3 governs asset value and content. 
– Meanwhile, AI will play a key role in everything from NPCs to 3D asset creation. 
– So the metaverse will really be a convergence and confluence of many technologies. 
– Lamina1 will be one piece of that ecosystem with a flexible framework for creation.

For more color check out the full video below, coded to start in the Stephenson interview segment.



  Want more XR insights and multimedia? ARtillery Intelligence offers an indexed and searchable library of XR intelligence known as ARtillery Pro. See more here.  

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