This is a weekly update on my progress to document the history, perspectives, and narratives of the metaverse. For more on the contents and structure of the book, please see “Structuring my field notes“.

Current book word count: 71,820

I’m back from vacation!

Reading & Watching

I haven’t been doing much, except reading. Not everything was related to the book, or even the metaverse in general, but maybe you’ll find it interesting.

Here is a selection of books I enjoyed (Amazon link, not monetized):

“A City on Mars” was such a deep, informative, fun and delightful reality-check on the vision of living on Mars. TLDR: Not happening any time soon.

In the same style, “Ignition!: An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants” by John D. Clark was an equally fun and informative deep dive into rocket fuel and other things that go “boom” really loud.

I read “Mirror Worlds” by David Gelernter back in university and I thought it’s time to read it again. Expect a chapter on it in the book 😁

I had “How to Future” by Scott Smith and Madeline Ashby in my reading list for a while now and finally got to it. Really good for establishing terminology and language around the topic of futures thinking. (Also, this)

Conscious AI Is the Second-Scariest Kind – The Atlantic

Peter Watts is a legend when it comes to hard science fiction involving AI, consciousness, and pulverizing any involved lines. His article in The Atlantic about the current state of AI is chefs-kiss.

Ok, back to writing now. This week I’m tackling the Web 2.0 chapters and the interview with Edward Castronova.