In a recent interview, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX Elon Musk admitted to don’t believe in the Metaverse. For Musk, the idea of having one screen constantly in front of the eyes it is not a vision of our future. Rather, it thinks about the chips in the brain that it is developing with Neuralink can really take us, one day, to a completely virtual world.
Elon Musk doesn’t believe in the Metaverse
In a new interview with the conservative satirical site The Babylon Bee, Elon Musk shared what he thinks of the Metaverse. And his vision isn’t as enthusiastic as that of other American CEOs, like Mark Zuckerberg who even changed the name of his Facebook company to Meta.
“I’m one of those people who it belittled the internet in ’95 like some nonsense that will never become important? ” Musk began dubiously. But then the irony in his voice was clear when he said, “Sure, you can put a TV on your nose. But I’m not sure this does to you enter the Metaverse“. According to the billionaire, the inconvenience of having a viewer always on the eyes risks completely ruining the virtual experience. So much so that it would be impossible for him to “tie a damn screen to his face all day and never want to leave” the Metaverse.
For Musk, a chip implanted in the brain is more convenient
For Tesla’s CEO, “it becomes uncomfortable to have this thing stuck to your head all the time. I think we are still a long way from disappearing into the Metaverse ”. Musk isn’t alone in raising the weight of VR headsets. Even the manager of Meta Nick Clegg recently reported that this could be a problem for the Metaverse. “If I’m looking up to drink my coffee and this headset is too heavy to drink my coffee without moving ”there is a risk that the illusion of the virtual world will be canceled.
For Musk, “in the long run a sophisticated Neuralink will truly insert you fully into a virtual world“. But it must be said that technology does not move with huge leaps that arrive in thin air, but with years of failed experiments and incomplete technologies. So it may be that the future of the Metaverse is a surgically implanted chip, but in the meantime the software infrastructure is developing on various types of headsets.
Elon Musk admits he may be wrong about the Metaverse
Musk however did not completely condemn the Metaverse. And the same goes for the Web3, built with the blockchain, which for him is “more marketing than reality”. But the SpaceX CEO specifies that “I don’t understand that. But I don’t understand it yet, let’s put it like this “.
Elon Musk compared his perspective to a video he recently shared on Twitter, in which David Letterman makes fun of the internet with Bill Gates. Letterman was a comedian and therefore was exaggerating the criticism of the web to make people smile. But it is true that many people in the 1990s did not fully understand the potential of this network which now allows billions of people to communicate, work and more.
So Musk himself says his skepticism it could be misplaced. Headsets are still far from mainstream. But Apple’s planned launch of a headset this year could accelerate development, as could the launch of VR software by companies with billions of users like Meta. Everything will depend not only on technological developments in the coming years but also on how we users will adopt these innovations.
Predicting technology is complex, but not impossible. Predict how we humans will use it instead it is quite another thing. What do you think about it? Do you agree with Zuckerberg or with Musk?