Spatial News™ #023

This week we're all about "M" fatigue and its consequences, blockchain, brain-computer interface, digital twins, virtual land, AR, 3D streaming, Perceptual Control Theory, and more!

Apr 27

Welcome to Spatial News™! I’ll keep it short and abounding in pith. "Repetitio est mater studiorum" ("Repetition is the mother of learning") -Latin proverb. (This is one of Teemu’s favorite quotes.)

Last week, Kyle Doran, Founder at Net VR, had shared Spatial News™ #022 on LI. (Thanks again, Kyle!) He wrote that he loved talking about hype cycles. I was like “Me, too! If you want to read Prof. Bob’s thoughts about them check out Spatial News™ #007.” Then, I pulled Prof. Bob into the discussion. A bit later the Professor revealed,

“I’m suffering from 'M' fatigue.”

“The ‘M’ word - which, to me, is just another name for shared virtual environments (after all, that's all we've seen here for months and months) - has just introduced so many new levels of hype to something that isn't new. Not to mention the potential scamming opportunities - it's becoming unstainable [sic] in the medium to far term. And, to add insult to injury, the self-proclaimed experts who are positioning themselves as the people to go to, or listen to, are turning out to have pitiful levels of knowledge and experience and are fuelling a global digital fiasco. As I've said before ... monetisation before community ... what a future to look forward to.”

(The only thing I see wrong with this is a spelling era.)

I then confessed,

“I, too, suffer from 'M' fatigue.”

Yes, it’s so. I was even hesitant to write about the ‘M’ topic in the last newsletter. Still, I had pushed through it and instead over did it with NFT pieces.

I promised Prof Bob that I wouldn’t once mention the ‘M’ word this entire newsletter as a challenge to myself and to bring some relief to all of the newly afflicted sufferers.

Here we go.

When the virtual city of Cybertown went dark, its citizens rebuilt it

This is the kind of thing that happens when a strong community converges and is built around your product.

“Coming back to your hometown can be an alienating experience, especially when all you find is a dead link to a long-deserted website.
For nearly a decade, that was the experience of Cytonians — members of an early virtual world called Cybertown, which operated between 1995 and 2012. But since 2019, a group of former citizens has dedicated itself to resurrecting their old home. Cybertown Revival, or CTR, successfully launched a pre-alpha version of a new Cybertown earlier this year. It’s the result of hundreds of former residents rallying to rebuild the digital city, drawing on everything from former users’ blog posts to the contents of their hard drives.”

(Thanks for sharing, Rafael.)

So now what do we talk about?

I got it!

Web3 Resources

If you didn’t get enough of the Web3 smorgasbord in SN #020 the folks at Superfolks have provided +350 resources for you to dive into.

Also, The Blockchain Forum has a trove of e-books, reports, research papers, etc. on Blockchain, crypto, NFTs, and so on for you to download. Here is one of their images describing ‘that which will not be named’ and how it interacts with the physical, digital and human worlds. Thanks to Dr. Alberto Melon Fernandez for sharing.

Oh no… I just realized that if Web3 is seen as synonymous with the ‘M’ word by some or seen as just a marketing ploy, then I may have inadvertently set off ‘M’ fatigue symptoms like eye-rolling, in-mouth vomiting, and curse word mumbling.

My apologies! Still, I think you’re going to want to read the next couple of articles. I believe you can power through.

A law professor explains how blockchains and NFTs don’t protect virtual property

“[T]he legal status of virtual “owners” is significantly more complicated. In fact, the current ownership of […digital] assets is not governed by property law at all, but rather by contract law. As a legal scholar who studies property law, tech policy and legal ownership, I believe that what many companies are calling “ownership” […] is not the same as ownership in the physical world, and consumers are at risk of being swindled.”

(Thanks for sharing, Prof. Bob.)

Land value tax in online games and virtual worlds: A how-to guide

Now, this is fascinating. Here’s a “high-level how-to guide for game designers and game economists working in large multiplayer online games and/or virtual worlds”.

(Rafael Brown shared this article, too. He is an LI power poster that shares some very interesting articles about the gaming and XR industries and is very vocal about his views on Web3 and “shmetaverse”.)

Okay, we’ve gotten this far. How about some merging emerging tech news?

Merging Emerging Tech News:

Blackrock Neurotech acquires MindX to commercialize full-stack brain-computer interface product

Blackrock…? Like BlackRock, “the world's largest asset manager, with US$10 trillion (!!) in assets under management”, “the world's largest shadow bank“ BlackRock?

No, no, not that one.

“Blackrock Neurotech ("Blackrock" or "the Company"), a leading implantable brain-computer interface ("BCI") technology backed by world-renowned investors Peter Thiel and Christian Angermeyer, announced today the acquisition of spatial computing software firm MindX, integrating the Company's innovative augmented reality ("AR") and artificial intelligence ("AI") technology with Blackrock's BCI hardware.

Wait… its nickname is “the Company”? Isn’t the C.I.A called “the Company”? Is there some kind of nickname infringement going on or something?

I can’t say the ‘M’ word, and my apophenia is kicking in hard. It’s probably nothing.

Let’s go to the next piece.

Get ready for your evil twin

Louis Rosenberg warns. According to him, “evil twins” are

“accurate virtual replicas of the look, sound, and mannerisms of you (or people you know and trust) that are used against you for fraudulent purposes. This form of identity theft will happen […] as it’s a straightforward amalgamation of current technologies developed for deep-fakes, voice emulation, digital-twinning, and AI driven avatars.”

Uhh… let’s forget about merging emerging tech news for now.

How about this? For those that were interested in SN issue #021 on Perceptual Control Theory here’s a video

Explanation of Perceptual Control Theory

by Dr. Rick Marken. (Thanks for sharing, Dr. Warren Mansell.) Get that learning going!

Spatial News™ from Europe:

Elevate the museum visitor experience with AR

YORD created a unique exhibition for Tatra trucks that incorporates the latest AR tech to show history and archives of content that do not fit into the museum itself.

Learn more about the benefits (such as acquiring new visitors and raising museum revenue by 50%) and the market vision of AR and VR for museums and exhibitions in YORD’s blog.

Sense of Space partners with Zappar

to bring streaming of complex 3D data, such as volumetric video, into accessible webAR experiences powered by their ZapWorks platform. Read more about the partnership and possibilities.

Congrats, Sense of Space and Zappar!

Ahh, some good news.

Read more about Sense of Space in XR Nation’s Citizen’s Spotlight (now, Spatial Spotlight).

We made it through together, Spatialists! Thanks for exploring the sometimes nauseating, oftimes murky world of future tech with us. You are spatial!

Joh of Spatial8, enemy of the state of play

Join the 700+ Spatialists exploring XR, Blockchain, and other emerging tech, their applications, their potential, and their possible consequences

P.S. Don’t forget to take our Future Technologies Usage Survey 2022 for a chance to get some random NFTs!