“Field Notes from the Metaverse” will be a book that documents the history, perspectives, and narratives of the metaverse and virtual worlds.

  • Field Log #31: The Narratives of the Metaverse

    I have reached the final section. After showing all the history and establishing a model how to analyze and interpret metaverse narratives, I am now applying all this to a large sample size of different metaverse narratives to identify clusters based around a common perspective or assumptions. The result is a landscape of narratives, from…

  • Field Log #30: Editing Part 2

    I started this project in earnest in December 2023. At that point I had copied over all relevant blog articles, presentations and notes into a Word document, organized into a very rough outline. Since then I have added, rewritten, edited and restructured the contents many times, keeping a steady progress. Looking at the pure word…

  • Field Log #29: The Metaverse Duality

    As predicted, polishing the blockchain & Web3 section was a breeze, at least compared to the previous one. There were some changes here and there, especially sharpening the field notes. It’s a section that requires personal patience to read and write as I always want to jump in and add everything at once. But hey,…

  • Field Log #28: 150k!

    I just cracked the 150k! To be honest, I don’t have a word budget for the book. It will have as much words as it needs. And I absolutely expect the editors to throw a good chunk out to make it more streamlined. In fact, they are already doing it. On the side I have…

  • Field Log #27: Editing the Mobile Area

    49 of 75 chapters are ready for editing. That may not sound like good progress from the 41 chapters I reported two weeks ago, but I’m very happy with it. The last chapters were all chapters in the section about how mobile phones and other physical tokens created new interfaces into virtuality. And to be…

  • Field Log #26: Editing the Web Area

    I am happily typing away and 41 of 75 chapters are ready for editing. This included a couple of chapters that needed significant restructuring. I already knew that I had been sloppy writing the chapters on the Web area, but I really didn’t do a great job on those. I guess my biggest issue is…

  • Field Log #25: Big Editing

    I am in the process of going through every chapter, unifying the tone and style of the book, and making sure that there is a logical flow from chapter to chapter and section to section. This is my last pass before handing it over to the editors, and so far 31 of 75 chapters are…

  • Field Log #24: Happy New Year!

    It has been a year since I decided to embark on this silly side quest. And so far, playing a full-time author has been awesome. As I dug deep into the history of the metaverse and virtual worlds, I encountered a lot of interesting stories buried in old newsgroups, articles long taken down, and in books…

  • Field Log #23: Dungeons & Dragons

    The book already talked a lot about D&D, but only in the surrounding chapters. I talked about how D&D as a trend opened up the space for exploring metaphorical worlds, as well as the shift to personally step into these metaphors. In the field notes chapters I also talked about the impact that D&D had…

  • Interview with Jay Springett: Dungeons & Dragons and the Metaphors of the Metaverse

    Interview with Jay Springett: Dungeons & Dragons and the Metaphors of the Metaverse

    Jay Springett is a strategist and writer with a background in tech consulting and the philosophy of arts. He is currently an instructor at The New Centre and has guest lectured many university courses around the world. He speaks regularly about the future, technology and regenerative culture at events such as DevConnect (TR), Unsound Festival…

“Field Notes from the Metaverse” will be a book that documents the history, perspectives, and narratives of the metaverse. This blog documents the writing of the book, provides additional context & materials