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On the 15th of October, our book “Real Fake – Playing with Reality in the Age of AI, Deepfakes and the Metaverse” has been released. It is our take on synthetic media, deepfakes, fake news, conspiracy theories, memes, internet culture, Generation Z and Alpha, crypto, narrative economics, virtual humans, CGI influencers, vTubers, NFTs, DAOs, VR, Web3, the Creator Economy and the Metaverse. Real Fake is about how humans continuously manipulate reality and how new digital technology tools enable us to go one step further in this ancient game.
Celebs Have Gone Crypto
“Celebrities have taken to pushing cryptocurrency and non-fungible tokens at a speed once reserved for viral dance trends. The artists among them insist our real world will soon resemble the fictional sort they’ve spent careers envisioning. […] Typically, when you see celebrities start to adopt and use something new … you reach the tipping point where it’s going to spill over to the masses.”
According to the Atlantic, celebrities and NFTs are a match made in hell. Really? How awkward can it be? Just rewatch the interview between Jimmy Fellon and Paris Hilton about their Bored Apes… And the whole idea of celebrities and NFTs is ringing bells anywhere. Read Max mapped out the whole Celebrity NFT space and the intertwined relations these people are having. So what’s going on?
How The World Went From Post-Politics To Hyper-Politics
“In the years before the 2008 crash, technocrats ensured political debate was relegated to the sidelines. Today, politics is everywhere – but it hasn’t returned in the way many might have hoped.”
Our Decentralized Selves: Creating In A Post-Identity Future
“There’s a new universe evolving, further multiplying the spaces with which we engage and relationships in which we partake. Through generative NFT PFPs, pseudonymous profiles, decentralized communities, and trustless contracts—collectively emerging as a landscape popularly referred to as Web3—there is a seismic shift in the way we present and connect that adds even more to reconcile.”
DAOs Aren’t A Fad — They’re A Platform
“The leaderless investing collectives known as decentralized autonomous organizations are generating a lot of eyerolls. Thanks to high flexibility and low regulation, they’ll also soon generate a lot of profits.”
The Internet Is Just Investment Banking Now
“NFTs represent a first step in the securitization of digital assets. They turn digital data into speculative financial instruments. That shift has enormous implications because computers are in everything, and that makes anything a digital asset—your bank records, your Fitbit data, rings of your smart doorbell, a sentiment analysis of your work email, you name it. First the internet made it easy for people to conduct their lives online. Then it made it possible to monetize the attention generated by that online life. Now the digital exhaust of all that life online is poised to become an asset class for speculative investment, like stocks and commodities and mortgages. [..] The internet has always financialized our lives. Web3 just makes that explicit.”
It’s Not Your Fault You’re A Jerk On Twitter
“The design of the internet lets you harass and harm people without ever once interacting with them directly. Even if you’re trying to defend them.”
Big Tech Needs to Stop Trying To Make Their Metaverse Happen
“The race is on to cash in on the metaverse hype. […] What is most striking about the buzz around the Metaverse is that everyone claims to be building it, but no one knows what it really will be or what it should look like—and whether people will ever want to use it. [..] It is pure hype, without a product—except for some hypothetical building blocks. […] The open Metaverse is the Promised Land, where tech monopolies would be brought to heel, everyone would be in charge of their data and digital assets, and users would be involved in setting the course of the network as a whole. It is a tentative, hypothetical project, but one thing about it is clear: Big Tech should not be in control. A Metaverse built by them would be no Metaverse at all.”
Religion In The Metaverse
“Ranging from spiritual meditations in fantasy worlds to traditional Christian worship services with virtual sacraments in hyperrealistic, churchlike environments, their devotees say the experience offers a version of fellowship that’s just as genuine as what can be found at a brick-and-mortar temple.”
Message From Kanye West
MUST WATCH: After Yang
The successor of the movie Her?
MUST WATCH: Robo Dog Teaser
Who doesn’t want one?
MUST WATCH: Futurist Gerd Leonhard On The Metaverse
I was a little bit disappointed by Leonhard’s view on the Metaverse. His takeway: Big Tech is investing billions of dollars in the Metaverse, so it will be 500 times worse than social media. I think this is way too easy to think about the metaverse.
MUST WATCH: NFT Loot Boxes Are A Thing Because Everything Is Bad
Contact
Real Fake is a weekly newsletter in which SogetiLabs’s Research Institute VINT examines the future where synthetic reality becomes part or our objective reality. We investigate the impact of new technology on people, organisations and our society. If you have any questions or comments, do not hesitate to contact us. You can reach us at vint@sogeti.com.
