The Metaverse

Meta, the newly-named parent company of Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp and Oculus, has unveiled its plans for the next stage of the internet.

By now, many of us have heard of “Meta”, Facebook’s latest attempt to rebrand itself as it focuses on creating the metaverse “a social, 3D virtual space where people from around the world can connect,” (Hypebeast). Since the announcement there has been mixed responses. There’s been online mockery of the name change as it means “dead” in Hebrew, skepticism towards this effort as some simply wave it off as nothing significant, and interest on the part of some.

So, how should we look at this? I’m personally of the persuasion that we should take what they say they want to do with the technology seriously until proven otherwise. In their article on this, Hypebeast details how it will “let you share immersive experiences with other people even when you can’t be together — and do things together you couldn’t do in the physical world,” (Hypebeast).

‘The defining quality of the metaverse will be a feeling of presence,’ he explained. ‘In the metaverse, you’ll be able to do almost anything you can imagine — get together with friends and family, work, learn, play, shop, create — as well as completely new experiences that don’t really fit how we think about computers or phones today… In this future, you will be able to teleport instantly as a hologram to be at the office without a commute, at a concert with friends, or in your parents’ living room to catch up.’ (Hypebeast)

Interestingly, I discovered that after the announcement the World Economic Forum (WEF) also came out with an article to address this topic in which they brought up “extended reality” (XR), “the combination of augmented, virtual and mixed reality” and that this will play an important role in the metaverse (World Economic Forum).

Their article was what caused me to pay closer attention to this as I’ve written several articles concerning the WEF last year in regards to The Great Reset which seemed to have largely been spearheaded (or at the very least openly talked about) by the Founder and Executive Chairman of the WEF, Klaus Schwab. Specifically, my mind went to the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) which I’ve showed from my article on the subject that Klaus Schwab’s ideas on it are transhumanistic in nature.

I wasn’t the only one that made this link as LeoHohmann also referenced Schwab’s ideas surrounding new and emergent technologies, “’This is a stepping stone straight into the transhumanist meme, where people can live in an artificial world where they can interact just as easily as they can in the real world’…It’s a blurring of the lines between your physical and your online identity,” (LeoHohmann).

Klaus Schwab anticipated this when he described in his 2017 book, The Fourth Industrial Revolution, a new digital economy that would fuel what he calls a fourth industrial revolution and a global reset. Schwab said “The Fourth Industrial Revolution will lead to a fusing of our physical, digital and biological identities,’ which in his book he clarifies is heading toward implantable microchips that can read your thoughts. These advances in technology, Schwab writes, are “even challenging ideas about what it means to be human.’ (Leohohmann)

Some are already sounding the alarm bell on this initiative. Louis Rosenberg – a computer scientist and developer of the first functional AR system at the Air Force Research Laboratory – is one of these individuals who is warning that “the metaverse could change the fabric of reality as we know it,” (Futurism).

His main concern is how providers of this technology could essentially use it to control the reality we experience offering an example scenario in which “third parties could introduce ‘paid filter layers’ that allow certain users to see specific tags over real-life people. These tags might float above every person’s head, for instance, and provide bits of information about them,” (Futurism). 

Even worse, he’s concerned that reality could “disappear” as we become beholden to whatever “false reality” those who produce the technology want us to see and experience.

He’s also concerned that the metaverse would ‘make reality disappear’ by creating a system in which people can’t simply step away from their devices to have real-world interactions. The idea is that the metaverse could grow to a point at which it impacts essentially every facet of our lives and it’d be near impossible for most to just walk away. That means we’d all be constantly exposed to whatever false reality third-parties might want to show us, since there’d be an AR overlay over everything. (Futurism)

Echoing this idea Patrick Wood – “an expert on technocracy and transhumanism” – states, “The problem comes in when you won’t be able to distinguish between your reality and their reality,” (LeoHohmann). Wood described the metaverse as a “gateway into transhumanism” and that eventually along this path glasses, goggles, or other AR technology won’t be needed as implantable devices such as brain implants will be how we tap into the metaverse. And this is where things take an eerie turn as he further elaborates on the goals of transhumanists.

‘They now believe they can download someone’s life experience, whether it’s their soul or brain, wherever they can get enough data, load it into the metaverse where they can generate a person in the metaverse that will act independently of anybody outside the metaverse as if it were that person,’ Wood explained. Wood said tech pioneer and futurist Ray Kurzweil ‘may well be able to achieve his dream of resurrecting his father, by taking all that information, creating an avatar for his father. His father can now act and interact and respond with people, inside the metaverse. He will never get out. But inside the metaverse he can be ‘alive’.’ (Leohohmann)

What he says here brings my mind to the image of the beast spoken about in Revelation 13:14-15, “And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived. He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed.”

This type of technology, in my view, could easily be used by the antichrist for total control and deception of the human population during the tribulation. With all this being said though, we also need to keep in mind that the metaverse currently doesn’t exist, nor do we know how far they’ll actually get with achieving their goals for this technology. Due to that, it’s difficult to pinpoint how or when this may impact us let alone what the prophetic significance of this may exactly be.

The purpose of this article wasn’t to be over-sensational, but to bring to our attention what is being said and worked towards regarding the metaverse. At such an early stage, the most we can do now is speculate. For all we know, this could go nowhere and even if it does materialize, it may be vastly different than what they’re currently envisioning it to be. However, I do believe this is worth keeping our eyes on as I doubt this will be the last we’ll be hearing of the metaverse.

Here Are Mark Zuckerberg’s Ambitious Plans for Building Out the Metaverse

Hypebeast: CEO Mark Zuckerberg said during his keynote presentation at Facebook’s Connect conference on Thursday that the company now considers itself to be “metaverse-first” and detailed its ambitious plans for building out the metaverse — a social, 3D virtual space where people from around the world can connect.

“As we move beyond what’s possible today, beyond the constraints of screens, beyond the limits of distance and physics, and towards a future where everyone can be present with each other, create new opportunities and experience new things,” he explained. “It is a future that is beyond any one company and that will be made by all of us.”

So what exactly is Facebook’s roadmap for creating the metaverse and what are the company’s next steps? Facebook said in its third-quarter earnings report that it expects to spend about $10 billion USD investing in its metaverse expansion and is committed to increasing investments over the next several years. Read More

What is the metaverse? And why should we care?

World Economic Forum: If you’re interested in technology, you’ve probably heard the buzzword of the moment – “metaverse.” The hype around this term may have reached its zenith Thursday, when Facebook announced that it was renaming its portfolio of companies ‘Meta’ to align its businesses with its ambition to build the metaverse.

The metaverse doesn’t exist – at least not yet. As of today, there isn’t anything that could legitimately be identified as a metaverse. A useful parallel for understanding its maturity – with a hat-tip to technology analyst Benedict Evans for the reference – may be the story of when telecoms entrepreneur Craig McCaw first heard about the internet.

Reputedly, it was Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs who described the implications that a globally distributed network of interconnected computers could have on communications, commerce and information. When Jobs had finished, McCaw’s reaction was: “Let’s buy it!”

Just as you can’t invest in the internet, so, too, can you not identify the metaverse as a unique product, technology or service. A better question might be: what could become the metaverse? Read More

Source

1. Enter the bizarre world of Mark Zuckerburg’s ‘Metaverse’: ‘blurring the lines’ of reality with NWO transhumanism (October 31st, 2021) – LeoHohmann
2. Here Are Mark Zuckerberg’s Ambitious Plans for Building Out the Metaverse (October 29th, 2021) – Hypebeast
3. What is the metaverse? And why should we care? (October 29th, 2021) – World Economic Forum
4. AR PIONEER WARNS THAT METAVERSE COULD MAKE “REALITY DISAPPEAR” – Futurism