Field Log #37: Bit by bit

This is a semi-regular update on my progress to document the history, perspectives, and narratives of the metaverse.

Current book word count: 168,972

Writing

The last eight weeks were a gruesome series of discussing wordings, phrasing, intentions and if they were defensible.

First and foremost, “this “Field Notes of the Metaverse” is not a book of predictions. There already are a lot of books on potential futures of the metaverse. I want to explicitly set it apart by only discussing the history.

But history is a funny thing. You’d think it’s objective, but it’s really not.

I knew that when going in and from the outset wrote a number of principles, rules and guidelines for myself. Importantly, I aimed to describe all metaverse narratives, concepts and prescribed properties fairly in the history sections while allowing subjective voices to come through in the field notes and personal comments.

“Fairly” is also a funny word, isn’t it?

And so, I went out and asked several friends and colleagues in the field to have a look at specific sections and boy howdy they didn’t disappoint and absolutely roasted me.

So here I am, discussing if the Cypherpunk Manifesto really does not allow nuance, or if it instead defined privacy as selective disclosure..

So. Many. DIscussions.

The previous update was on May 24, 2026. Since then I have removed almost 20.000 words. But that’s a story for the next update.