Blockchain Life: Making Sense of the Metaverse, NFTs, Cryptocurrency, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and Web3, by Kary Oberbrunner and Lee Richter explains in detail the differences between the three major eras of the Web, with an emphasis on the direction the upcoming Web3 technologies are moving towards. It’s an interesting history lesson on the development of the Web and what we can expect in the future.
The official website for the book is at TheBlockchainLife.io.
Here are my top twelve takeaways from the book.
A simple definition of the different Webs
Web1: They Create. They Own.
Web2: We Create. They Own.
Web3: We Create. We Own.
What are NFTs?
What’s the difference between just copying the picture to your computer, and owning an NFT of a picture? It’s the difference between possessing a picture of a ticket to an event, and possessing an actual ticket to the event. The picture of the ticket has no value, while the actual ticket gets you into the event and can be resold.
NFT certificates
“The University of Georgia’s New Media Institute was among the first to offer degrees as NFTs, as well as the option of keeping a paper certificate. They cited the benefits for students able to share their verified qualifications digitally with future employers, as well as minimizing environmental impact.”
The problem with disseminating information in Web2
“Although platforms rationalize their motives as pure, the bottom line is that algorithms choose what content to show us. Forget objective truth. We each experience a manipulated version of truth that reinforces our predisposition to certain issues or stories.”
Some human functions that AI can now perform
Artificial intelligence (AI) can already perform many of the functions humans can perform. In some cases, AI can do it better than humans can. AI can:
- Recognize emotions in speech
- Spot cancer in tissue slides better than human epidemiologists
- Predict social unrest 5 days before it happens
- Absolutely nail Super Mario
- Write poems that get published
- Come up with recipes
- …and 55 others enumerated in the book
We are moving towards transhumanism
“For starters, there’s Neil Harbisson, the world’s first true cyborg, the man with an antenna sticking out of his head. He fits the definition ‘that [scientist] Manfred Clynes gave for “cyborg” in 1960.’ In order to explore and survive in new environments, we have to change ourselves instead of changing our environment.”
Cryonics is within reach
There are already companies that make cryonics accessible to everyone.
Web3 will support better learning
“The majority of people are visual learners—sixty-five percent of the planet. The rest are auditory and kinesthetic (movement) learners. Everyone uses all three modalities, but one is dominant. This concept is called the VAK learning style (visual, auditory, kinesthetic) and it indicates how we receive new information and experiences.”
New ways of protecting intellectual property will emerge
Blockchain has the potential of becoming a tool for protecting intellectual property. (the author shamelessly plugs his own company here as being the future of IP protection… go to EasyIP.today if interested in seeing what he offers)
Web3 is already here; we just don’t know it yet
“Some think the metaverse isn’t here—or Web3 for that matter. Really? Technological revolutions rarely come with an announcement or a global event. Historians like to point back and connect the dots, but it’s never black and white. Metaverses range from meetings on Zoom to concerts in Decentraland. We can enter metaverses as ourselves or our avatars. We engage via screens on our phones or virtual reality goggles on our heads. Options expand every day, and they won’t stop. The tipping point will be interoperability—the ability to unify economies, avatars, and systems across worlds.”
How will you show up in Web3?
You only have three choices: critic, consumer, or creator.
Critic: You criticize Web3
Consumer: You consume Web3
Creator: You create Web3
Immersive virtual reality offers a better, faster, and easier learning experience
“the science of VR is hard to debate: 4x faster to train then in the classroom 275% more confident to apply skills after training 3.75x more emotionally connected to content than in the classroom 4x more focused than e-learning peers” (the author again plugs his own business venture partner, RetreatVR.io)
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