Metahype

THE LAST PICTURE

Metahype

Is it still real life when a $69 million piece of art can’t hang on the wall? Perhaps it’s the beginning of something else— something called the “metaverse.” At least, that’s what the people at Google and Meta—the company formerly called Facebook—would have everyone believe. Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg rammed the word into the vernacular last year when he described his vision for the metaverse at the Connect 2021 conference. According to him, it’s where the future of business, entertainment and humanity at large will reside. Microsoft apparently got the memo, as evidenced by their $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard— no doubt the first of many billion-dollar metaverse-conscious power plays. But what exactly is the metaverse? That question isn’t easy to answer. It doesn’t exist yet. It could be interconnected immersive virtual worlds inhabited by digital avatars bidding on digital art (like Decentraland, pictured above). Or, it could be the latest in a string of overhyped trends like Peloton, Google Glass, socialism, space tourism, hoverboards, hybrid work, Clubhouse and Cathie Wood. Yeah, Cathie Wood.

Whatever the metaverse is—or isn’t—it’s a subject ripe for the next issue of Luckbox, which we’re calling The Issue with Hype.