Happy Tuesday,

To the 11 new subscribers since last time, welcome! :)

Last week was the first week I missed posting a newsletter in over 6 months and I realized how much this newsletter has become a part of my weekly rhythm.

Though not a perfect excuse, I was at the AWE 2021 conference soaking in everything related to VR, the Metaverse, and more. It was amazing to meet up with other XR enthusiasts, developers, and the companies that make this all work. I even got to try out the Varjo Aero headset —super high fidelity consumer headset — and it was amazing.

The Metaverse is already here

The Metaverse, Web3, DAOs, and NFTs are essentially the buzzwords of the year. A lot of very smart people are pontificating about the future of the technology industry and the future of the world really. It's reaching such epic proportions that Facebook, one of the most prominent tech companies in our current era of technology is rebranding to Meta to lay some claim to the next era of technology.

// you have to watch this hilarious parody

But these technologies and trends aren't on the horizon, they exist now, they're just niche and growing.

The future is already here – it’s just not very evenly distributed

William Gibson

I've been obsessed with the Metaverse since I read Snow Crash many years ago. I've been so convinced that spatial is going to be a big deal that I'm taking a VR bootcamp right now to learn how to build for VR.

A week or two back though I had an absolutely mind-blowing Metaverse experience. An old colleague heard I was into VR and invited me to hang out with him in his world in Neos. I hadn't heard of Neos but I downloaded it an jacked in.

As I connected to his world I found myself in a room about the size of a standard bedroom looking into the glowing eyes of a robot wizard.

Next to him floated a boxy robot avatar with the name Zellor floating over it's head. I looked at my hands and lack of virtual body. They told me I was just a floating headset image. Zellor said he could fix it. He handed me a coffee and when I "drank" the coffee it instantly transformed me into a female human-fox, a furry.

I've played female characters in games a thousand times, but I've never actually embodied a woman in a game before. It was a strange, gender-bending moment for me.

Then Edy said, "let's head in" and I realized there was a door beside him. We were only in the foyer of his world. We went through the door into what can only be described as an acid trip of a space nightclub.

Edy's world is a platform suspended in a beautiful outer space setting, on the far end is an enormous mirror framed with pulsing lights timed to the electronic music coming from enormous speakers, also with lights in sync to the music. I looked around in amazement at different avatars dancing and chatting in small groups. I turned back to Edy and noticed his eyes were also timed to the music, changing color with the beat.

As I looked all around in wonder, Zellor handed me a beer. I didn't really think about it just tossed my head back and tipped the bottle to my lips. After a few seconds the world got a little fuzzy and my sense of balance was effected. The beer actually effected the visual output on my headset, mimicking the effects of a beer.

Feeling virtually tipsy I walked over to the massive mirror and looked at my avatar. Staring back at me was a cute, fox-human hybrid. I couldn't help but laugh out loud and then do a double take as my virtual breasts bounced as I laughed.

Zellor was talking to Edy's friends about a cineplex world he'd found that we should check out.

Soon we were all strolling through a fully functional, massive movie theatre. Someone had lovingly created a virtual cineplex — from the carpet choice to the exact dimensions of an IMAX theatre.

You could sit in the middle row of an IMAX theatre and watch a movie with your friends from all over the world as whatever avatar you wanted.

The Metaverse that Mark Zuckerberg is pitching already exists, it's just full of furry avatars and robot wizards.

Much of Web3 exists like this. Tucked into discord servers and niche DAOs. Go look for it and you'll find amazing people and amazing experiences.

2 crazy things ✌

📜 the internet is buying the constitution

In a project that makes DAOs, NFT, Ethereum, and all of Web3 make sense ConstitutionDAO has been spun up to buy the Constitution.

There are 13 surviving, original copies of the US constitution. Two of them are privately owned, and one of those two is going up for auction. The internet is rallying to buy that copy and put it in a museum so that such an important historical document can be enjoyed by everyone, not just rich people.

They also have a nice video tutorial of getting Ethereum, Metamask, etc to contribute. In my first ever transaction of the sort I contributed to the project. Now that I have it all set up maybe I'll buy some NFT art on Opensea now!
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Check out: ConstitutionDAO​

🚀 Bezos says Earth will become a tourist destination

Jeff Bezos spoke recently of the distant future, where a trillion people live in the solar system in space stations with artificial gravity and visit earth like we currently go to Yellowstone National Park.
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As crazy as that sounds, on a long enough time frame if we don't blow ourselves up, it's plausible.

​Real Clear Politics: Bezos, Earth will be preserved like a national park​

Are you doing anything futuristic?

If the future isn't evenly distributed, what piece of the future are you participating in that you think will get bigger in time?

Let me know. Just hit reply, I read and respond to everyone!
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Have an awesome week and see you next Tuesday!

Daniel
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The future is already here – it’s just not very evenly distributed
​William Gibson
( cliché, I know, I know )

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