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101 Things #085: We'll find that the hyped 'metaverse' didn't happen with avatars, but did with...

A dated future observation from Jim Carroll’s December 7, 2021 “101 Things We Know About Our Future” list.

We'll find that the hyped 'metaverse' didn't happen with avatars, but did with heads-up displays and similar technologies
101-thingsforesight-receipt2021
Publish Date2021-12-07
Updated Date2026-09-18
Made Date2021-12-07
Horizonnow
Outcomeopen
Confidencemedium

The trend that actually happens is the one that isn’t hyped!

— Jim Carroll

Original 2021 statement: We’ll find that the hyped ‘metaverse’ didn’t happen with avatars, but did with heads-up displays and similar technologies

What Jim has written about this

From “Daily Inspiration: “The trend that actually happens is the one that isn’t hyped!”” (January 2023)

Part of the art of figuring out the future is knowing this - you’ll often find the real trend by looking beyond the hype to what’s actually happening ! The hype? Virtual headset virtual reality , best epitomized by the bold but somewhat doomed bet by Mark Zuckerberg with his Meta initiative. The reality? The return of Google Glass ideas with smart heads-up display based on accelerated augmented reality technology and concepts.

Non-immersive, in that this isn’t a headset that you wear but the hardware you glance at that provides you detailed information about the space around you - the marriage of AR and HUD (augmented reality in heads-up displays).  In 2023, a greater number of organizations are going to discover this is the real VR / AR opportunity, not the crazy headset idea being pushed by Facebook, er, Meta. That will always be a fascinating but niche-oriented bit of hardware that will provide much amusement and fun but not a lot of business applications.

That’s why, when considering a trend, you might often find the reality not in the thing that is hyped, but in the things happening around it. It’s not VR that is real -it’s AR. I posted this as a comment to Mastodon - a fast-emerging alternative to the hate bucket that Twitter has become - and received this response from ‘Ralph058’ @jimcarroll This has a ring of truth to it. The “Self Driving Car” is not the trend. It is the ubiquitous growth of autonomous systems because of it. Autonomy Engineering is a field. I’ve interviewed for making construction equipment, mining equipment, pleasure boats, airplanes, commercial trucks, and of course automobiles “self driving”

From “Daily Inspiration: “You’ll never get to the future if you never attempt the future!”” (June 2023)

Part of the art of figuring out the future is knowing this - you’ll often find the real trend by looking beyond the hype to what’s actually happening ! The hype? Virtual headset virtual reality , best epitomized by the bold but somewhat doomed bet by Mark Zuckerberg with his Meta initiative. The reality? The return of Google Glass ideas with smart heads-up display based on accelerated augmented reality technology and concepts.

Non-immersive, in that this isn’t a headset that you wear but the hardware you glance at that provides you detailed information about the space around you - the marriage of AR and HUD (augmented reality in heads-up displays).  In 2023, a greater number of organizations are going to discover this is the real VR / AR opportunity, not the crazy headset idea being pushed by Facebook, er, Meta. That will always be a fascinating but niche-oriented bit of hardware that will provide much amusement and fun but not a lot of business applications.

That’s why, when considering a trend, you might often find the reality not in the thing that is hyped, but in the things happening around it. It’s not VR that is real -it’s AR. I posted this as a comment to Mastodon - a fast-emerging alternative to the hate bucket that Twitter has become - and received this response from ‘Ralph058’ @jimcarroll This has a ring of truth to it. The “Self Driving Car” is not the trend. It is the ubiquitous growth of autonomous systems because of it. Autonomy Engineering is a field. I’ve interviewed for making construction equipment, mining equipment, pleasure boats, airplanes, commercial trucks, and of course automobiles “self driving”


Read the full pieces on jimcarroll.com:

Daily Inspiration: “The trend that actually happens is the one that isn’t hyped!”
Daily Inspiration: “You’ll never get to the future if you never attempt the future!”

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