Technologies

The Man Who Named the Metaverse Is Optimistic Despite Meta’s Troubles

Sci-fi author Neal Stephenson says the metaverse’s foundations are maturing. It’s been tough, but Apple’s expected AR headset could help.

It’s OK to be confused about the metaverse. Pessimists can point to Meta’s difficulties over the last year convincing us we’ll all inhabit this immersive 3D realm. Optimists can point to a mixed reality headset Apple is expected to reveal in just a few days, blessing a technology that’s taken years to develop.

Put Neal Stephenson, whose 1992 dystopian sci-fi novel Snow Crash introduced the term metaverse, in the optimist camp.

«Just in the last couple of years, it feels like a bunch of things have snapped into place — the prerequisites that we need to have on hand in order to really start building a metaverse,» Stephenson said Wednesday in a talk at Augmented Reality Expo.

Stephenson’s vested interest just isn’t from his novel. He’s worked at several startups since the 1990s, including augmented reality headset maker Magic Leap, but his current effort, Lamina1, is working on metaverse plumbing it hopes will lead to an open foundation easy for developers to build upon and for people to visit.

It’ll be a tough sell. The 2021 metaverse buzz has diminished greatly. Facebook renamed itself Meta, but investors have slammed its ambition to capitalize on the metaverse. And Web3 movement, which aimed to build «decentralized» metaverse tools that would reward those creating salable goods in the metaverse, has suffered persistent problems. That includes scams, security vulnerabilities and «rug pulls» in which project organizers hype a cryptocurrency then cash out, leaving investors with valueless assets.

Creative Strategies analyst Olivier Blanchard is a skeptic and the mainstream adoption of computer-generated virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) that blends computer imagery with the real world, and the umbrella term encompassing both, mixed reality (XR).

«Once the AI gold rush cools off and Apple has finally given it some sense of direction, it is going to need to decide what it wants to be when it grows up if it has any hope of ever attracting mainstream consumers,» Blanchard said. «Metaverse and XR companies are going to have to clearly communicate to users how their solutions will actually make their lives better rather than just more expensive and complicated.»

But maybe the metaverse, or at least as tough a sell soon.

Apple’s expected headset, years in the works and likely to emerge at the company’s WWDC developer conference, could help convince developers to build mixed reality apps. Apple successfully wooed mobile developers to write millions of apps for iPhones and iPads. And Meta’s VR headset business is working on a Quest 3 XR headset whose video pass-through mode will give it AR abilities.

The metaverse has a long way to go before matching today’s web or the mainstream environment in Snow Crash.

Snow Crash is a rollicking novel that uses humor and adventure to take the edge off its dystopian vision. The metaverse plays a central role in the book, but Stephenson places the blame for the dystopia on human society more broadly. With the metaverse, Stephenson wanted to present a technology realm that accommodated a broad span of human activity.

«Our initial exposure to the metaverse is a kind of very vast market, a lowest common denominator to include … the worst of television,» Stephenson said. «But later on, as we get farther into the book, we see that people have used it to make beautiful works of art. There are some people … who lavished a lot of time and attention on making homes in the metaverse that are exquisite works of art, both visually and in this sonic environment.»

That metaverse was all about VR, but Stephenson takes a broader definition today, «a three dimensional virtual shared environment,» which includes AR, too. Although Snow Crash is famous for its metaverse, there are «gargoyle» characters in the real world, too, uber-techies hidden behind AR goggles who are constantly tapped into data feeds.

Stephenson said he was impressed with progress with VR, AR, and XR, in particular with game engine tools like Unity and Unreal Engine that are widely used for 3D graphics and gaming. But so far, there’s not enough reason to hang out in the metaverse.

Ori Inbar, a leader of extended reality technology, stands on stage at the AWE 2023 next to a nearly life-size, virtual version of himself shown on a screen in a box. — Ori Inbar, a leader of augmented, mixed, and extended reality technology, speaks at the AWE 2023 next to a virtual version of himself.

Stephen Shankland/CNET

«If we’re going to have a metaverse that’s being used all the time by millions or billions of people, then there have to be experiences in the metaverse that are worth having,» Stephenson said. Lamina1’s goal is to improve the metaverse tooling so developers and other creators can build those experiences. That includes the blockchain and NFT technology that’s lost much of its luster as cryptocurrencies lost much of their value since peaking in 2021.

At the Augmented World Expo, AR fans are abundant, including show organizer and AugmentedReality.org Chief Executive Ori Inbar, who shared the stage with a virtual, nearly life-size version of himself appearing in a telepresence box built by ARHT Media. Inbar spent much of his 20 minutes on stage at the show defending the technology, arguing that it’s thriving despite the tech world’s attention moving to AI.

«We won’t rest until everyone uses XR, everywhere, all the time.»

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Saturday, Dec. 27

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Dec. 27.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? It’s pretty long for a Mini Crossword, and some of the clues are tricky. The answer to 10-Across is not an expression I use, for sure. Read on. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Fashionable
Answer: HIP

4A clue: Product sold on «The Office»
Answer: PAPER

6A clue: One writing a performance review
Answer: MANAGER

8A clue: With 5-Down, redundant synonym of «outcome»
Answer: END

9A clue: Quiet ___ mouse
Answer: ASA

10A clue: Gives constant compliments, in slang
Answer: GASESUP

12A clue: Ski mountain bump
Answer: MOGUL

13A clue: Uneasy feeling
Answer: ANGST

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Personally involved
Answer: HANDSON

2D clue: Hoppy beer, for short
Answer: IPA

3D clue: Mythical horse whose name is an anagram of 10-Across
Answer: PEGASUS

4D clue: Last word in the palindromic sentence «A man, a plan, a canal …»
Answer: PANAMA

5D clue: See 8-Across
Answer: RESULT

6D clue: Ryan of «When Harry Met Sally …»
Answer: MEG

7D clue: Genre for Playboi Carti and Cardi B
Answer: RAP

11D clue: Something in an Easter basket
Answer: EGG

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Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Dec. 27, #460

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Dec. 27, No. 460.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition is a real challenge. That purple category wants you to hunt out something related in four different words, and it’s a toughie. If you’re struggling with today’s puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Something you save.

Green group hint: An Olympic sport.

Blue group hint: Toronto pitchers.

Purple group hint: Think about the alphabet and look for something hidden.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Memento.

Green group: Types of wrestling.

Blue group: Blue Jays to win Cy Young Award.

Purple group: Ends in a homophone for a letter of the alphabet.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is memento. The four answers are collectible, keepsake, memorabilia and souvenir.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is types of wrestling. The four answers are arm, freestyle, Greco-Roman and sumo.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is Blue Jays to win Cy Young Award. The four answers are Clemens, Halladay, Hentgen and Ray.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is ends in a homophone for a letter of the alphabet. The four answers are batter’s eye (I), blue jay (J), golf tee (T) and pool cue (Q).

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.

Technologies

Today’s Wordle Hints, Answer and Help for Dec. 27, #1,652

Here are hints and the answer for today’s Wordle for Dec. 27, No. 1,652.

Looking for the most recent Wordle answer? Click here for today’s Wordle hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Wordle puzzle came together pretty quickly for me this time. If you need a new starter word, check out our list of which letters show up the most in English words. If you need hints and the answer, read on.