Technology pioneer Elon Musk torched Mark Zuckerberg’s dream of a virtual metaverse during an appearance on The Babylon Bee’s podcast, comparing the sometimes unwieldy virtual reality devices to “a TV on your nose” and mocking the concept.
Musk was asked about the concept of a metaverse – a digital reality created by big tech CEO Mark Zuckerberg that is meant to allow individuals to experience a virtual world with the help of peripherals his company sells, and further funded by advertising – by one of the podcasts hosts during his appearance yesterday.
“I don’t know if I necessarily buy into this metaverse stuff,” said Musk. “You can put a TV on your nose, I’m not sure that makes you in a metaverse.”
The founder of Tesla and Space X joked, “When I grew up, it’s like ‘Don’t sit too close to the TV, it’ll ruin your eyesight.’
“Now your TV is like literally right here” said Musk, holding his hand directly in front of his eyes. “What? Is that good for you?”
Musk then complained about the motion sickness already widely reported by some virtual reality users, which prompted a question directed at Musk about the potential of a direct link between a computer and the user’s brain to transport the user to a virtual reality.
“A neural link, long term sophisticated neural link, could put you fully, fully in a virtual reality,” admitted Musk, without seeming overjoyed by the prospect.
He soon doubled down, suggesting he does not see a future in which Americans use the metaverse as a daily escape.
“I don’t see someone strapping a frigging screen to their face all day and not wanting to ever leave, it seems, no way,” said Musk. “I’m far from disappearing into the metaverse.”
“It sounds jut kind of buzzwordy.”
He added that his previous ability to foresee the potential of the Internet to transform humanity leads him to believe he is correct that Zuckerberg’s metaverse is a passing fascination that will not see widespread adoption.
“I currently am unable to see a compelling metaverse situation, Web 3.0 sounds more marketing than reality,” said Musk.
“I don’t get it, maybe I will, but I don’t get it yet.”