Image Source: Pixabay

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Meta’s chief product officer, Chris Cox, said that the metaverse would one day become as “important as the smartphone”.

What does he mean by metaverse? Does he mean virtual worlds? That seems like a non-starter. Does he mean mixed reality environments? That seems more likely. Even the folks at Meta should know that you need to define what you mean by “metaverse” when you’re talking about it.

If Mr. Cox believes that the stuff Meta has to show for the billions of dollars it has invested is the future, I will politely say that – at best – Meta has created a solution for a problem that does not exist. At worst, they are barking up the wrong virtual tree. Have you ever been in a situation where you said to yourself, “You know what would really help me right now? If everyone was a cartoon character in a cartoon universe, the laws of physics did not apply, there were no reliable facial expressions or physical cues, and the audio was marginal. Yep, that would solve everything!”

We need platforms that help us combine batch data with streaming data, ones that empower us to create value by building experiences that can be displayed across the observable metaverse (from AR to MR to XR to VR). Once there’s a good way to create and surface these types of data-driven experiences, the rest will take care of itself. Until then, it’s not a paradigm shift – it’s just a parlor trick.

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