Mastodawn

Snow Crash (by Neal Stephenson)

I picked up Snow Crash because of an excerpt we read during a Scenario Club Meetup at the Urgent Optimists, and honestly, that one excerpt was enough to make me want the whole thing. The book is set in a near-future America where the physical world and a virtual one called the Metaverse exist side by side, and people move between them almost without thinking. Reading it, I kept pausing not because the story was slow, but because it felt uncomfortably familiar. Like Stephenson had written a […]

https://jessa.blog/2026/03/22/snow-crash-by-neal-stephenson-2/

Snow Crash (by Neal Stephenson)

jessa

dazfuller

8h ago

I love that this article talks about how we traded the metaverse for the AISlopiverse (I’m totally stealing that). Rather than what actually happened of having tech giants continually try and force things on people who just don’t want it.

Take away the metaverse, AI, and all the other crap, and I’m sure most of us would be a whole lot happier

https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-metaverse-dying-horizon-worlds-ai-2026-3?op=1

#Metaverse #AISlop

Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse failed. What we're left with is worse.

Instead of hanging out with no legs in Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse, we're stuck in AI slop purgatory.

Business Insider

Metaverse 💞 beyond.pictures 8h ago

Somnium Space, the blockchain-based social VR platform, has received a major update adding improved player profiles, faster map loading and new dance animations. The platform features a central overworld called Base Reality with shops, parks and racetracks, plus a unique video calling feature that lets players facetime between VR and real-world webcams or phones. https://www.uploadvr.com/checking-in-on-somnium-space/ #Metaverse #VR #AR #Blockchain #SomniumSpace

Checking In On Somnium Space, The Blockchain-Based PC Social VR Platform

We took a fresh look at Somnium Space, the blockchain-based PC social VR platform that continues to receive impressive feature updates.

UploadVR

Gürhan Uzun 8h ago

😀😎
#Metaverse balonu patladı: Sanal arsalar yüzde 99 değer kaybetti
https://www.donanimhaber.com/metaverse-balonu-patladi-sanal-arsalar-yuzde-99-deger-kaybetti--203464

Metaverse balonu patladı: Sanal arsalar yüzde 99 değer kaybetti

Bir dönem milyon dolarlara alıcı bulan metaverse arsaları, 2021 yılındaki zirvesinden bu yana %99 oranında değer kaybederek teknoloji tarihinin en büyük çöküşlerinden birini yaşadı.

DonanımHaber

SquaredTech 11h ago

The curtain falls on Meta Horizon Worlds, marking a strategic pivot away from Metaverse dreams. Weak user adoption and snowballing losses are the culprits. The future now lies in AI innovation. #Meta #HorizonWorlds #Metaverse #AI #TechShift👀🔍💡🤖
https://www.squaredtech.co/meta-horizon-worlds-shutdown-metaverse-shift?fsp_sid=7216

Meta Horizon Worlds Shutdown Marks Strategic Retreat From Metaverse

Meta Horizon Worlds shutdown highlights a shift from VR ambitions to AI focus after weak user adoption and rising losses.

SquaredTech

Metaverse 💞 beyond.pictures 22h ago

Meta's Quest VR headset saw record usage in 2025, with over 100 apps generating more than 1M USD in gross revenue. Horizon Store developer revenue held steady compared to 2024 despite no new hardware launch, while in-app purchases grew by over 10%. https://www.roadtovr.com/meta-quest-record-users-2025-100-apps-1-million/ #Metaverse #VR #AR #Meta

Quest Reached Record Number of Users in 2025, Pushing 100 VR Apps Over $1M in Gross Revenue

Meta’s Director of Games Chris Pruett revealed that Quest usage hit an all-time high in 2025, which helped over 100 games to generate more than $1 million in gross revenue last year. Pruett announced in his ‘State of VR’ talk at Game Developers Conference (GDC) that not only has Quest usage grown year-over-year, but that …

Road to VR

Eduardo

23h ago

Metaverse is dead and I'm mad. It actually never lived, it was just an old idea resuscitated by Zuckerberg for survival reasons as a CEO, after Facebook failed to return the expected profits to stockholders. A huge diversion that demonstrates how big money has the power to steer society, including academia. But it wasn't victimless. It hurt the investments of many people, companies, and public money. It hurt students who did theses about it. It burned academic time, money, attention and reputation. We are not blameless. We saw it coming. There are hypes and then there are hypes. My bubble saw it coming from the start. But many are not in a position to have the same insights. I regret not trusting myself more to be more vocal about it. In a time of great technological development, it is the jurists' duty to be critical, not only spectators or hype surfers.

«It is not the jurist’s job to be the herald of what happens, but rather to be a builder of a balance of factors that truly serves the society in which he or she is inserted. By merely explaining what happens, the jurist is a “prophet of the present”. He betrays the true prophetic function or the construction of the future, which it is his duty to perform». (Oliveira Ascensão*)

a more extended quote in this 2023 blog entry:https://edsantos.eu/the-prophets-of-the-present/

#Metaverse

The Prophets of the Present

Having found out about Oliveira Ascensão's e-book (this blog post), I didn't resist reading the article on cyberspace (2001). In its conclusion, Oliveira Ascensão presents us the following reflection:

Ed's archive

Metaverse 💞 beyond.pictures 1d ago

There is a rallying cry that AI breathes new life into XR. But could the reverse be true? XR might support AI's biggest opportunity: physical AI, which unleashes AI on the physical world. While most AI investment has stayed online, XR could help it break into the real world. https://arinsider.co/2026/03/18/ai-xr-which-one-needs-the-other-more/ #Metaverse #VR #AR #AI #XR