14 votes

John Carmack Facebook Connect 2021 Keynote

5 comments

  1. Adys
    Link
    This is an absolutely incredible talk and I can’t believe it’s a keynote to such a corporate event. Carmack is completely unscripted and talks at length about VR, internal processes, infighting,...

    This is an absolutely incredible talk and I can’t believe it’s a keynote to such a corporate event.

    Carmack is completely unscripted and talks at length about VR, internal processes, infighting, the metaverse, his own opinions on it, technical limitations, challenges…

    It’s … wow. It’s a really good keynote but more to the point I can’t believe he has so much power and leeway at the company to be able to be so open and candid about internal stuff. Again, in a keynote to an extremely important event to the company, not some random twitter thread.

    Absolute must watch.

    5 votes
  2. skybrian
    Link
    If you don’t want to watch a video, Ars Technical has an article about it.

    If you don’t want to watch a video, Ars Technical has an article about it.

    4 votes
  3. [3]
    mtset
    Link
    I'm sorry but are we just accepting "the metaverse" as a real term now? It's from a Stevenson novel making fun of companies like Facebook.

    I'm sorry but are we just accepting "the metaverse" as a real term now? It's from a Stevenson novel making fun of companies like Facebook.

    3 votes
    1. TemulentTeatotaler
      Link Parent
      Probably? A shared virtual reality is a thing that has existed in Second Life and others ways and it makes sense to use something to describe that. Google Corpus says its use peaked in 2010 so...

      are we just accepting "the metaverse" as a real term now?

      Probably? A shared virtual reality is a thing that has existed in Second Life and others ways and it makes sense to use something to describe that.

      Google Corpus says its use peaked in 2010 so maybe something else is getting used.

      I've always been a little confused on how to take Snow Crash, since a lot of it is really interesting/prescient, but a lot of it is goofy stuff like the main character being called "Hiro Protagonist" or high stakes pizza delivery. It's definitely Tarantino-esque and hyperbolic, but underneath that it has some serious topics and projections... and if Neal Stephenson's CLANG was any indicator he'd love to be the #1 metaverse samurai.

      6 votes
    2. Greg
      (edited )
      Link Parent
      Avatar (or at least the usage of it for a digital representation of oneself) stuck, and that's from the same book! Beyond that, I really do think metaverse is a good term for an immersive VR...

      Avatar (or at least the usage of it for a digital representation of oneself) stuck, and that's from the same book!

      Beyond that, I really do think metaverse is a good term for an immersive VR version of the internet, even if I do cringe when I hear it because 98% of usage right now is vapid marketing talk. They're not building a VR internet, they're building VR AOL, but I still hold out a lot of hope for someone managing the former.

      3 votes