The Metaverse—Where You Will Soon Live/Work/Date, The Best 2024 VR Headsets & Games, & More
Ed 11 | The grftf Newsletter
Hi friends -
This week we're diving into the Metaverse.
On The grftf Podcast, I chat with Alvin Graylin about his new book Our Next Reality, and we do a deep dive into the Metaverse and how it will impact our lives.
Once you listen to the ep, you can explore the articles included in this edition— the best VR headsets, the best VR games, the Metaverse for education and science, courses to take, and more.
This edition is sponsored by SciSpace—a new tool that uses AI to speed up research and helps you do hours of reading in minutes. Special promo codes are included in the sponsored section. Give it a try, then please drop a comment and let me know how you rate this new AI.
Enjoy!
Misha
What you’re getting this week:
The grftf Podcast Ep 11 | AI, the Metaverse, & Our Next Reality — Alvin Graylin
The best VR headsets of 2024
The best VR Games for 2024
The Metaverse Is Already Here, and K–12 Schools Are Using It for Education
The promise and pitfalls of the metaverse for science
Will 2024 be the Year the Metaverse Goes Mainstream?
Courses to take | Extended Reality for Everybody Specialization | Coursera
Key References: Snow Crash, Ready Player One
Latest from The grftf Podcast
Ep 11 | AI, the Metaverse, & Our Next Reality — Alvin Graylin
I chat with Alvin Graylin about the transformative potential of the metaverse, and how AI, VR, and AR will shape the future. We learn how Alvin survives China's cultural revolution, makes it to the US, and dedicates his life to bettering the world through immersive technologies. Alvin and I discuss what the metaverse is, how it works, and why it’s inevitable. Our convo underlines the importance of preparing for future technological advancements through education, critical thinking, and a proactive attitude towards societal betterment. And you will hear about Alvin’s new book Our Next Reality: How the AI-Powered Metaverse Will Reshape the World.
More about Alvin W. Graylin:
Alvin Wang Graylin (汪丛青) is a recognized technology pioneer, entrepreneur, executive, and thought leader with 30+ years of experience delivering innovative products in the AI, XR and semiconductor industries. Having built his foundation in VR research at the Human Interface Technology Lab over 30 years ago, Alvin has also developed his expertise in AI and Natural Language Processing after extensive studies at the University of Washington and MIT.
Alvin holds an M.S. in Computer Science from MIT, where he specialized in AI, and an M.S. in Business from MIT's Sloan School of Management on the entrepreneurship and operations track. He also earned a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington, focused on VR, AI, and CPU architecture. He was born in China during the Cultural Revolution and emigrated to the U.S. in 1980 as the country's reform period started. Alvin has recently relocated back to the U.S. after almost 20 years working/living in China during its internet/mobile boom and is currently based in Seattle, Washington.
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The best VR headsets of 2024: Expert tested and reviewed | ZDNET
Read the article here: LINK
The Best VR Games for 2024 | PC Mag
If you’re new to VR and gaming, this article breaks down some of the top games and what you need to get going.
Including:
Best for Casual, Controller-Based Platforming
Best for Guitar Hero Fans
Best for Fantasy-Based, FPS Action
Best for Relaxing Sports Competition
Best for Puzzle Fans with a Soft Spot
Best for Sci-Fi Action
Best for a Fairy-Tale Adventure
Best for Minecraft Lovers
Read the article here: LINK
The Metaverse Is Already Here, and K–12 Schools Are Using It for Education | EdTech Magazine
Even in its infancy, the metaverse has become a buzzword that remains a bit difficult to pin down.
So, what exactly is the metaverse, and why is it such a big deal?
Vriti Saraf, founder and CEO of k20 Educators, a global social learning community, explains that the metaverse is “a virtual version of everything you can do in real life. It is interoperable, owned by no one, and allows a lot of different platforms to live within it.” LINK
The promise and pitfalls of the metaverse for science | nature.com
Scientists have already started bringing their laboratories to 3D virtual spaces2, running experiments with virtual reality3 and augmenting knowledge by using immersive representations4.
This article considers how scientists can flexibly and responsibly leverage the metaverse, prepare for its uncertain future and avoid some of its pitfalls (Fig. 1). LINK
Will 2024 be the Year the Metaverse Goes Mainstream?
Tom Grogan, MDRx’s CEO joins Citi’s Sophia Bantanidis to explore the possibility of the metaverse going mainstream in 2024 catalyzed by new hardware rollouts.
They examine if the release of Apple’s VisionPro could prompt similar developments by other tech giants.
They delve into technologies underpinning the metaverse (e.g., AR, VR, spatial computing) and the value it can bring to corporates/consumers with potential use-cases in financial services.
Watch the video here: LINK
Extended Reality for Everybody Specialization | Coursera
This specialization is designed to be a broad learning experience around all things augmented, virtual, and mixed reality.
The 3 courses cover the fundamental concepts of XR, how to design and develop XR applications, how to discuss the emerging key issues in the landscape of XR, and how to bring XR into instructional settings. Learn more here: LINK
Key Metaverse References
Neal Stephenson’s 1992 novel Snow Crash describes a dystopian future of corporate city states, where a hacker underclass hides from reality in a virtual world known as the Metaverse.
Ready Player One is a 2018 American science fiction action film based on Ernest Cline's novel of the same name. The film was co-produced and directed by Steven Spielberg, written by Cline and Zak Penn, and stars Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, Ben Mendelsohn, Lena Waithe, T.J. Miller, Simon Pegg, and Mark Rylance. The film is set in 2045, where much of humanity uses the OASIS, a virtual reality simulation, to escape the real world. A teenage orphan finds clues to a contest that promises ownership of the OASIS to the winner, and he and his allies try to complete it before an evil corporation can do so. LINK
I loved today's part specially where you mentioned about future possibilities of VR and AR.
Loved the pod. Didn’t know there was such a prominent difference in the price points between apple and meta vr headsets