When Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg exaggerated the function of the metaverse, his views were immediately widely questioned by public opinion, and there were various signs that the concept of "metaverse" was heading for collapse. An article forwarded by Baidu on September 22, 2021 pointed out: "The bubble of the metaverse will collapse. In the farce of the metaverse, who gets the harvest and who has the last laugh? You can refer to the currency circle, and you will have the last laugh forever. It is capital." On November 29 of the same year, the American "Chinese Life Network" published an article saying: "Many people say that the metaverse will inevitably collapse, so the metaverse cannot be the future, it can only be regarded as playing games and upgrading. It's just to harvest a wave of money by these."? Some people in China have translated the metaverse into "metaverse", following Zuckerberg's delusional concept to describe a world that spans physical and virtual space, which makes people dizzy: Is metaverse really "another universe beyond the real universe"? !
1. Foreign Interpretation of the Metaverse and Misinterpretation of the "Metaverse"
As early as 2006, online media and scholars from more than 10 countries began to study the metaverse, but no one regarded the virtual space in science fiction as another world in which humans can live and work. Zuckerberg used the term metaverse to refer to the "completely real world" where "we can work, play and make friends forever" and "we step out of a world into a larger, more inclusive world." This false statement aroused suspicion or resistance from researchers from all over the world. In order to stay true to the original meaning, foreign researchers did not translate this concept, and directly used the original metaverse to perfunctory or refute Zuckerberg's statement.
In July 2021, German Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation reporter Greg Schmalzried was in "What is the metaverse?" The article does not translate the metaverse into German, he writes: "The metaverse is a virtual reality where people interact in three-dimensional space... Currently, the metaverse is first and foremost an idea, not an actual object."? This article was reprinted by major German media. Germans do not believe that the human body can enter the Internet. French researchers also use the original English word metaverse, which they think is a metaphorical virtual network. "Some authors speak of a network of interactive and immersive virtual worlds where users can use avatars to interact, work, shop, and engage in various activities... Silicon Valley visionaries believe that this An immersive, networked, three-dimensional world will eventually replace the two-dimensional Internet that currently exists, and they are already investing financial and human resources in this project.” All French researchers agreed that the metaverse as an immersive three-dimensional network, people What is seen and experienced is the virtual scene, not the physical world.
English-speaking countries naturally do not need to translate the term metaverse, and most researchers regard it as the 3D Internet. American venture capitalist Matthew Ball in "What is the metaverse, where to find it, and who will build it?" in January 2020. "? Chen Yi pointed out: "Metaverse is often described as a digital 'embedded' Internet, based on a virtual world, becoming virtual reality. Virtual reality is a way of experiencing the world or space." London "Financial Times" editor, American Lu Bernard Ruskin, executive director of LuskinInternational.com, emphasized: "The term Metaverse can be defined as a metaphor of the real world that brings perception into reality, such as attending virtual music with friends. Yes, fencing with Olympic athletes' holograms, etc. In fact, there are no definite examples to provide evidence for Zuckerberg's description of the metaverse." The British "Knowledge" magazine published an article "Cybersecurity in the Age of the Metaverse" on January 27 this year. , summed up the meaning of metaverse as: "metaverse is the pinnacle of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). In addition to haptic feedback, it also provides a fully immersive experience of the three-dimensional world. Users communicate with each other through digital avatars, which can be seen in virtual It runs with physical space, and conducts transactions in the virtual economy.” Obviously, users entering virtual reality are just “digital avatars”, not people’s bodies, and the hypothesis of “embodiment” in communication studies is a far-fetched exaggeration.
Japan uses onomatopoeia for the metaverse, spelled in katakana "メタバース" and pronounced "Metabos". Japanese articles on the metaverse sometimes use English original words, but they are rare in newspapers and web pages, and the use of English original words is a special case. For example, on November 24, 2021, Japan Photo Network published the editor-in-chief of the website Yoshida "What is the metaverse? The article "Introduction to Its Characteristics and Cases" explains the principle of the metaverse as follows: "メタバース uses three technologies to present the scene, and 3DCG (three-dimensional computer graphics) produces stereoscopic images that are closer to reality. VR (Virtual-Reality) uses 360-degree digital The image builds a virtual space, and you can watch it with goggles, as if you are there." In the article "The Business Model and Effects of メタバース" published on the Internet in 2011, Professor Kinoshita Yuan and Morimoto Sho, professors of the Department of Management and Management of Japan College of Education, The meaning of "メタバース" is explained as: "simulating a scene close to reality, allowing people to experience the feeling that seems to be real through a virtual avatar with space." Russian researchers spell the metaverse with the Kirill alphabet, marked with метаверс, paraphrase For the "3D network scene". In 2006, the Russian "Computer Online" tabloid published the article "Computers are standing on the threshold of virtual reality", the author Ivan Teyshen wrote: "Recently attended the Metaverse Roadmap Summit in Palo Alto (May 5, 2006) Held in Palo Alto, Santa Clara County, California, USA from 1st to 6th, 40 experts from all walks of life gathered together, all of whom are closely related to the study of 'integrated 3D network scenarios'." Russian researcher Sometimes the English word metaverse is also used directly, and some also use the word "метавселенная" to express the meaning of "virtual world".
The translations and interpretations of metaverse by the Internet powers above show that metaverse refers to a three-dimensional virtual space that has no connection with the universe, so no researchers in any country have translated it into "metaverse". In my country, metaverse is translated into "metaverse", which confuses celestial science fiction with cyber science fiction, which deviates from the original meaning and is purely self-talk. Between 1992 and 2021, more than 400 science fiction novels and science fiction films were released around the world, with nearly 60 depicting humans traveling through the universe, known as "spaceship pie". From the end of the 20th century, Western science fiction writers began to create fantasy works about the Internet, describing people wearing digital devices to enter 3D space, called "net fantasy", such as Neil Stephenson's "Avalanche". This kind of sci-fi concept uses digital technology, brain-computer interface or robots, people enter the three-dimensional network as virtual avatars, but not into the universe, called cyberpunk works. From July to October 2021, Zuckerberg took over the word metaverse in several speeches, believing that the cyberpunk hypothesis could become a reality, and announced that he would create a physical network. On October 28, 2021, in Sausalito, California, he announced that Facebook was changing its name to Meta. On November 5, American technology reporter Brooke Gladstone interviewed Harvard historian Jill Lepore, a contributing writer for The New Yorker, and sci-fi writer Analeigh Neiwitz, among others, to discuss "Science Fiction in the Metaverse". Origins published the following talk: "Mark Zuckerberg caused quite a stir when he announced the company's new name and vision in October. The new name was Meta, the new vision was the metaverse, and many were quick to nail it down. Origin of the word: Neil Stephenson’s 1992 cyberpunk classic, Avalanche. But the novel struggles to paint an optimistic future—inflation, collapsing governments, and a frenzied media mogul who exploits the metaverse Destroy people's minds." "More and more online entertainment, more and more dystopian stories, confirm that some people already have a prejudice that the world has collapsed and there is nothing we can do but find a very dark, nihilistic tunnel. "Why are tech tycoons so fond of science fiction, overly blunt about the risks of 'building the world' as tech millionaires try to reshape politics and deepen what already oppresses us. The metaverse concept is disturbing, it leads entertainers to shy away from In reality, throw yourself into the arms of tech giants and make them a fortune.” From this point of view, Zuckerberg’s fantasy metaverse online game not only does not involve cosmic issues
The first Chinese company to call the three-dimensional virtual cyberspace the "metaverse" is the "Metaverse" published by Tencent on March 13, 2021, "This Chinese company has reaped the dividends of the "metaverse": How much potential of voice social networking has not yet been tapped? ", the first definition of the concept of "metaverse" was "What is the Metaverse Economy" published on The Paper on May 15 of that year. The article defines the "metaverse" as: "Metaverse, Metaverse, a virtual world that is parallel to the real world and is always online." This definition has both a correct side and a self-denial tendency: since the Metaverse is "online" "Virtual world" does not refer to the universe, why does the word "metaverse" appear in the explanation? The concept of self-speculative translation is detached from the original meaning of the metaverse and is riddled with misinterpretation and logical confusion. According to the explanations of many original English dictionaries, meta has no meaning of meta, and refers to beyond and beyond; verse is not a suffix of universe (universe), verse is a single word, which has meanings such as poetry, version and version. The translation of metaverse into "metaverse" is groundless, and the term Metaverse has not yet been included in any English dictionary. In translation practice, regardless of literal translation, translation, compilation or abbreviation, we must adhere to the principle of "equivalent translation method" and "intelligence and elegance", and loyalty to the original meaning is the primary criterion. The original intention of Metaverse is 3D network or 3D virtual space, and creating a "metaverse" is undoubtedly an assumption of one's own way. Similar random fabrications are common in new media research. This practice, which goes against scientific and academic precision, disturbs people's thinking and is extremely harmful to popularizing knowledge.
2. Deep questioning of Zuckerberg's madness
Not only are some researchers in my country fantasizing about the metaverse and are convinced of its incarnation, but some players in other countries are also imagining it and making all kinds of contradictory ravings. Matthias Hauser of France went so far as to say: "We can get married in a virtual world, where children play and learn, and parents work in virtual worlds and help children with homework." After a while , he had to say bluntly: "The term metaverse covers more of a concept than a technology, more of a social desire than a real breakthrough innovation. We live in the bubble of a virtual society." Some Japanese studies The reader's understanding of the metaverse also has two sides, not only praising the magic of the metaverse, but also pointing out its falsehood. Xia Yegang and Sasaki Junsang wrote in the article "The Reasons for Facebook to Cheat Even When Criticized" that users enter the virtual network and want to have everything they want. "After all, these things are digital incarnations, and it is easy for others to copy." Some people imagine that the metaverse is a physical world, but on the other hand, they have to admit that it is a virtual network.
More traditional media and new media researchers abroad have not only directly refuted but also deeply questioned Zuckerberg's creation of an alternative, parallel and permanent second world. The so-called deep questioning refers to exposing Zuckerberg's so-called physical network to deceive users, infringe on users' privacy, and harm social morality. What's even more ridiculous is that Zuckerberg ignored common sense on the Internet and fabricated lies to fool users.
On March 8, 2022, the British "Financial Times" published the article "Why Players Are Skeptical of Zuckerberg's Metaverse" by Tom Faber, a British freelance writer, said: "At present, the 'metaverse' is not good for investors. It's a lure. What we've seen so far is not encouraging. Meta launches Horizon Worlds Fans snap up virtual land and take users' money with ease. Both games are rudimentary, empty, and extremely boring compared to decent online games." French journalist Jean-Yves Arric noted: " The EU is currently discussing a directive on Horizon Worlds, and the US Congress has introduced new legal provisions to regulate it." ? The metaverse brings some excitement to humanity, but it has the potential to dramatically deepen existing problems with social media and the internet, such as data privacy and cyberbullying, says David Reid, professor of artificial intelligence at Liverpool Hope University in the UK. "The metaverse has a huge impact - it has amazing strengths and terrifying dangers, immersive instinctual experiences can be incredibly emotional, and cyberbullying can become even more dangerous and very extreme," Reid said in a statement. Another prominent critic of the metaverse, early Facebook investor Roger McNamy, told the Web Summit in Lisbon that the metaverse project was hastily launched by Facebook to divert internal whistleblower Francis Haugen from whistleblowing Negative press from sexual testimony.
Francis Haugen, a former Facebook product manager who left Facebook in May 2021, testified before the U.S. Senate that Facebook has consistently chosen profit over safety, and that many of its projects harm children and teenage girls, leading to the suicide of a 17-year-old. Use cryptocurrencies to evade taxes and sanctions. It is keen to cover the world and ethnic conflict with fake news, causing "more division, more harm, more lies, more threats and more violence". "People live in an information environment of anger, hatred and polarization that erodes the trust of our citizens, our trust in each other, and our ability to care for each other." Ranks ads and other content, combs through user preferences, and recommends nudity, spam, hate speech, and decoy headlines to users. "Facebook is tearing families apart and being the recommended tool for 64% of extremist groups", "Fake news and even death threats are being used as training data to build the next generation of LLM (discourse styles), we are seeing rising suicide and depression rates among teens rise". Francis Haugen's testimony is supported by a large number of researchers in the United States, and people from all walks of life in the United States generally believe that a large number of games, social media and fake news on Facebook have caused serious social and psychological harm.
In November 2021, Jez Corden, senior editor of Windows Central, pointed out that Google is dominant in information search and advertising, Amazon has become the hegemon of retail, and Facebook is facing a series of crises. A large number of young users quit Facebook, and the successive negative news has had a serious impact on it. By Facebook's own admission, the renaming of "Meta" was an attempt to downplay its bad reputation and get out of business trouble. "In simple terms, the metaverse is just a branding exercise. It allows Facebook to steer clear of criticism of its social platform and provides investors with a future focus," Corden wrote. "Virtual reality may be a possibility for gamers. It's funny, and if Facebook thinks people wear headphones, fill their home spaces with Zuckerberg's cameras, and talk to friends and family in lo-fi robotic suits, I think Facebook is kidding." Zuckerberg envisions Users are charged, sold, and bought and sold tokens (NFTs) profitably through Meta’s proprietary blockchain. But "their value only goes up when a bigger fool is willing to pay more for them". According to the latest report, Facebook lost 500,000 daily users in March, a 13% drop in teenage users since 2019, and a 45% drop expected over the next two years.
The Internet is composed of switches, servers, routers, computers and mobile phones. The symbols and images displayed on the terminals, and the fluorescence and positive ions released by the current, enable people to recognize words, scenes and images. It is not a three-dimensional space, and people cannot enter it. The pictures of the 3D network come from the three-dimensional sense caused by the parallax of the left and right eyes. With regard to these network common sense, Russian researchers smashed the lies of Zuckerberg and others, saying that the metaverse is electrified (заряженный), and people will be "electrocuted" when they enter the network. Using a proprietary virtual network (VPN) in the blockchain just adds a little extra immersion, it's impossible for people to stay on the plane of the monitor. "Can the metaverse be a reality? For marketers, it's already a reality. Here, we shouldn't even be thinking about personal data, but the lives of the millions who depend on it." January 19, 2022 On the day, the American streaming media "Blind" published an article titled "The metaverse is full of crap" and wrote: "Zuckerberg is either a liar or an idiot because he fundamentally misunderstands the meaning of Avalanche." This product launch and rebrand is clearly a PR stunt to distract from the fact that Facebook is branding so badly." "All they're going to do is a virtual reality online game." In response to this article Opinion, New York journalist Webb Wright wrote on The Drumming website: "Many rumors about the metaverse are either exaggerated or downright untrue. So, for most of us, it's a matter of comparing fact with fiction. It's a real challenge to differentiate." "Some of the nonsense in the frantic, semi-obsessed discussion around Web3 and the metaverse has made people lose their sense of gravity and drift unchecked."
3. The facts and figures of the collapse of the Metaverse lie
Zuckerberg's use of metavers to lie is not the same as 3D web virtual reality. 3D Web uses immersive versions of virtual reality and augmented reality to present three-dimensional images of videos and images that make users feel like they're talking to someone as if they're with that person. In any era of highly developed intellectual media, the Internet can only be a medium for expressing human life, and it cannot be a space for them to live. From 2021, some network companies will dismantle the basic functions of 3D networks, hype digital games and virtual transactions, put into commercial operations under the banner of metaverse, and vigorously promote the listing of metaverse stocks. But whether shopping or token trading, "it's just one line of code for the user, and the company can sell unlimited items they don't need to make, and those items are generated through the code"? Fou. Gio Malinotti, an associate professor at Indiana University School of Law, pointed out that virtual lands, goods and characters in the metaverse exist on servers with proprietary code, "These platforms allow you to access digital assets, but there is no way to turn them into reality. Property, the metaverse is nothing but a tool to deceive consumers." Many users have seen the scam of such online companies, as the Japanese media reported, "This is investment fraud using farce topics." France confirmed in an "Ifop Talan" survey that "75% of French people say they are concerned about the encroachment of the digital virtual world. These concerns are significantly higher among those aged 25-64 (71%-80%) than those aged 18 - 24-year-olds (49%). 67% of French people do not want their Facebook account to be associated with Meta data, as 74% of respondents do not trust the metaverse created and managed by companies”.
There are more and more people boycotting the metaverse in the West and Japan. Because of the large increase in online investment fraud cases, cyber criminals use cryptocurrencies and encrypted assets to deliberately fabricate fictitious projects, and the online money often disappears. It is very difficult to detect such cases. According to the British "Financial Times" report, in 2021 Zuckerberg tried to issue the global cryptocurrency "Diem", causing panic among users and withdrawing from online investment and various metaverse websites. The U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee held a hearing on Facebook’s global cryptocurrency and resolutely stopped the implementation of the plan. Germany, France and other countries also announced their boycott of the project. "In February this year, the market value of Meta lost more than 220 billion US dollars, and the market value of Meta has still shrunk by more than 40%." On April 19, 2022, American financial market research expert Kevin George pointed out in the article "Meta stock index falls, token sales collapse": "When Meta was launched in a frothy NFT market, the market rejoiced, but since Demand has plummeted since then. Sales are down 67% over the past 30 days, which could be a sign of the 'tulip mania' bubble bursting."
The most absurd idea of Zuckerberg et al's departure from the capabilities of the 3D web is that people can escape the constraints of the physical world and live in the metaverse. This statement may be a slip of the tongue, or it may be a mystery to attract users, the problem is that they keep spreading this lie. In an interview with Wired until January 2022, Philip Rosedale, the developer of the American "Second Life" game, also declared that "the metaverse is a three-dimensional Internet with real people in it". The purpose of making up this kind of nonsense is to attract simple-minded people to participate in the game and buy digital assets. There is a clear boundary between the physical world and the virtual world. The virtual space is reflected on the tablet terminal, and there is no three-dimensional volume that can store material things. The terms "connecting the physical world and the virtual world" and "merging physical reality and virtual reality" are all vague and mysterious. Because the two can never be connected or integrated, the scenes and characters on the 3D Internet are digital avatars operated by Internet users and cannot be transferred to reality, nor can people and objects in reality enter the Internet. All kinds of absurd sermons about the metaverse that some people stumble upon as insight.
A large amount of content on some metaverse platforms in the United States promotes homicide, robbery, sexual harassment and rape, seriously poisoning teenagers under the age of 16. Because as early as 2020, more than half of children under the age of 16 in the United States played games on such platforms, and the average daily users reached 37.1 million in the fourth quarter, and young people over the age of 25 accounted for only 15%. On January 13, 2022, a community website in the United States called Defaul once published a post claiming: "The metaverse is a scam, we were driven into the Matrix, boycott the metaverse, and save the United States! Get out of the metaverse!" On February 26, the United States One father wrote to his two daughters: "As I was researching Mark Zuckerberg's new Metaverse, I realized, I don't want to be involved. I hate it, I don't want to have any contact with it. It appears that the metaverse will accelerate some of the negative trends that already exist in American society. The metaverse is a step backwards, not forwards. Bless you, daughters: live like your fathers. Avoid digital opium and live as much as possible in the real world In. Look at today's technological tools with vigilance and skepticism, and don't be tempted by them." ? 輶 77% of 1,000 U.S. online consumers surveyed by PR Newswire on February 11, 2022 oppose having Facebook consumption data.
In China, the "metaverse" hypothesis is called a highly hallucinogenic "spiritual opium", and games like "Glory of the King" are tantamount to drugs. At the same time, more than 30 Metaverse concept stocks were sluggish and were repeatedly sold off by investors. At the end of 2021, Song Nan, executive director of China Hongtai Fund, said that the bubble component of the Metaverse industry accounted for 85%, and the start-up companies hyping and financing with the help of the Metaverse concept accounted for at least 95%. Xiong Wen, CEO of iQiyi, Zhang Yi, CEO of iiMedia Research, and Ye Yurui, joint secretary-general of the Metaverse Industry Committee of China Mobile Communications Federation, all admitted that there is a big bubble in the Metaverse. What are the precursors to a collapse of the bubble? The answer is that the stocks of many Metaverse companies fell more than 5%. On February 23 this year, the Heart of the Universe website reported that some media felt that the metaverse was dying, and from January 6, the universe concept stocks started a falling mode, “After a short drop, the second wave fell by the same amount. It's very big, and it has dropped by 20% now. Combined with the recent slump of Meta and Roblox, it seems that "the metaverse is over" as some media said?" The "metaverse" is inevitable, and any disrespect for materialism is inevitable. Pseudo-science that deceives people and deceives people is bound to go bankrupt. "The foundation of the metaverse is anti-historical process." By April this year, there were hundreds of articles refuting and clarifying the fallacy of the "metaverse" on Baidu alone, far exceeding those in favor of it.
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