{"id":6757,"date":"2022-04-18T00:30:48","date_gmt":"2022-04-18T05:30:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.zoha-islands.com\/?p=6757"},"modified":"2022-04-18T00:30:48","modified_gmt":"2022-04-18T05:30:48","slug":"second-life-creator-shares-lessons-learned-from-one-of-the-worlds-first-metaverses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zoha-islands.com\/blog\/second-life-creator-shares-lessons-learned-from-one-of-the-worlds-first-metaverses\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Second Life\u2019 creator shares lessons learned from one of the world\u2019s first metaverses"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"text-uppercase\"><strong>by <a class=\"author url fn\" title=\"Posts by Thomas Wilde\" href=\"https:\/\/www.geekwire.com\/author\/thomaswilde\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Thomas Wilde<\/a><\/strong><\/span> on <time class=\"published\" datetime=\"2022-04-16T15:55:02+00:00\">April 16, 2022<\/time><\/p>\n<div class=\"col-md-8\">\n<div class=\"share hidden-xs\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"col-md-4 hidden-xs\">\n<div class=\"share announcement-box\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<header>\n<div class=\"row\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-684539\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/51943563297_d55a8bf993_k-630x334.jpg\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/51943563297_d55a8bf993_k-630x334.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/51943563297_d55a8bf993_k-1260x668.jpg 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/51943563297_d55a8bf993_k-768x407.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/51943563297_d55a8bf993_k-1536x814.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/51943563297_d55a8bf993_k.jpg 2048w\" alt=\"\" width=\"630\" height=\"334\" \/><\/div>\n<div class=\"row\"><em>Second Life<\/em> is still consistently updated to this day, with its most recent patch shipping on March 14. (Linden Labs Image)<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col-md-8\">\n<div class=\"entry-content clearfix\">\n<p>Philip Rosedale has spent a lot of time thinking about the \u201cmetaverse,\u201d\u00a0long before it became a buzzword in today\u2019s tech world, and he\u2019s got plenty of lessons to share with technologists building related software for the future.<\/p>\n<p>Rosedale, founder of Linden Lab and creator of the open-ended construction\/simulation game <em><a href=\"https:\/\/secondlife.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Second Life<\/a><\/em>, recently spoke at Madrona Venture Labs\u2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.geekwire.com\/2022\/seattle-startup-stack-wins-100k-top-prize-in-madrona-venture-labs-launchable-web3-event\/#:~:text=The%20startup%20studio%2C%20associated%20with,and%20about%2090%20people%20virtually.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Launchable event<\/a>, sitting down for an interview with veteran tech exec <a href=\"http:\/\/spencerrascoff.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Spencer Rascoff<\/a>, who taped an episode of <a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/office-hours-with-spencer-rascoff\/id1124608295\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">his podcast Office Hours<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full-width is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-691518\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Philip_Rosedale_Headshot_Color2-1-1-630x630.jpg\" sizes=\"(max-width: 261px) 100vw, 261px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Philip_Rosedale_Headshot_Color2-1-1-630x630.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Philip_Rosedale_Headshot_Color2-1-1-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Philip_Rosedale_Headshot_Color2-1-1-1260x1260.jpg 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Philip_Rosedale_Headshot_Color2-1-1-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Philip_Rosedale_Headshot_Color2-1-1-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Philip_Rosedale_Headshot_Color2-1-1-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Philip_Rosedale_Headshot_Color2-1-1-100x100.jpg 100w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Philip_Rosedale_Headshot_Color2-1-1-200x200.jpg 200w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Philip_Rosedale_Headshot_Color2-1-1.jpg 2021w\" alt=\"\" width=\"261\" height=\"261\" \/>\n<figcaption>Philip Rosedale.<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Rosedale founded Linden in 1999, which went on to launch <em>Second Life <\/em>in 2003. Linden is currently headquartered in San Francisco, with satellite offices in Seattle, Boston, Charlottesville, and Davis, Calif. Rosedale served as its CEO until 2008, and is currently back at Linden as a strategic advisor.<\/p>\n<p>Described variously as an online multimedia platform, a virtual space, and one of the overall weirdest experiences you could have on the internet in the 2000s, <em>SL <\/em>effectively blazed a trail for a lot of the base concepts that go into the current idea of the metaverse. This includes in-game currency, avatar design, and a peculiar, Web1.0-ish take on a decentralized economy. To this day, almost 19 years into its lifespan, there are people who make an actual living on what they can create within <em>Second Life <\/em>and sell to other users.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Second Life - The Largest-Ever 3D Virtual World Created By Users\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/B1Xxay54fYA?feature=oembed\" width=\"630\" height=\"354\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Players in <em>SL <\/em>participate in the world via a custom-made avatar, which can take just about any form, and can sculpt the world around themselves via a specialized programming language. Over the years, fans have created museums, stadiums, research centers, radio stations, and churches in <em>SL, <\/em>with several different nations going so far as to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.diplomacy.edu\/event\/diplomacy-goes-virtual-inauguration-diplomacy-island-and-virtual-embassy-second-life\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">open virtual embassies<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>That puts Rosedale in a unique position with regards to the metaverse, as he\u2019s essentially been working off and on in the overall space since 2003. Most of what metaverse boosters have been discussing is something that\u2019s already possible in <em>Second Life, <\/em>and Linden Lab has already had many of the problems that companies like Meta will have to deal with.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"callout clearfix\">\n<h4>Office Hours: <a href=\"https:\/\/dot.la\/philip-rosedale-metaverse-2657125163.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Virtual reality pioneer Philip Rosedale and the future of the metaverse<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/aside>\n<p>According to Rosedale, speaking off the cuff, roughly a million users still use <em>Second Life <\/em>today, but there aren\u2019t a <em>hundred <\/em>million because \u201cit doesn\u2019t work for grownups yet.\u201d The problem with an avatar is that it can\u2019t match the amount of information that\u2019s communicated by looking directly at another human\u2019s face, which is why Rascoff\u2019s interview was being held in a shared Zoom meeting rather than <em>Second Life. <\/em>An avatar can\u2019t yet match the experience of a face-to-face human interaction.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat happened at <em>Second Life <\/em>was that we were good enough for people who were committed enough to really want to live there,\u201d Rosedale said, \u201cand in many cases, to give up their real-life identity and project themselves wholly into a virtual world that they could call their own.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat I think we did right is that we gave them enough power and ownership over the space. We open-sourced our client early on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rosedale also notes that content created for <em>SL <\/em>isn\u2019t owned by Linden Lab, which is a principle the company took and stood behind relatively early in its run. \u201cWe did just enough to get a fire started there.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full-width\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-655039\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/RL_Zuckerberg_Haptic-Glove-630x420.jpg\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/RL_Zuckerberg_Haptic-Glove-630x420.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/RL_Zuckerberg_Haptic-Glove-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/RL_Zuckerberg_Haptic-Glove.jpg 1000w\" alt=\"\" width=\"630\" height=\"420\" \/>\n<figcaption>Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg uses a haptic glove research prototype intended to create a realistic sense of touch in the metaverse. (Meta Photo)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Conversely, Rosedale has \u201ca lot of reactions\u201d to Meta. \u201cThe biggest thought that I have is, \u2018Oh God, not with that business model,&#8217;\u201d he told Rascoff. \u201cI was just at South by Southwest and I sat in listening to Neal Stephenson [<em>author of the 1992 novel <\/em>Snow Crash <em>that created\/popularized the terms \u201cavatar\u201d and \u201cmetaverse\u201d<\/em>], and he said the same thing, which delighted me. \u2018Don\u2019t use that business model.&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In general, Rosedale painted a picture of the metaverse as potentially dangerous, particularly with regard to the integration of AI. As a metaverse gathers information about its users, it presents possibilities like the development of AI-based recordings of people that could potentially be mistaken for real.<\/p>\n<p>Conversely, in <em>Second Life, <\/em>people have met, fallen in love, and gotten married. A real personal connection can take place, one that crosses cultural boundaries, despite that first meeting taking place behind avatars. Those connections, Rosedale says, have to be \u201cintimate, real-time, [and] present.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[The Meta] advertising model has become a combination of surveillance and AI that\u2019s designed to entice you, modify your behavior, draw your eyes away from something else,\u201d he said. \u201cThe difference when you take that to the metaverse is that in the real world, where we know where the ads are. So we can ignore them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThink what things would be like if that ended,\u201d Rosedale continued, \u201cif you were literally in the real world and the person walking next to you might be an advertisement. The existential risk of humans being placed in 3D spaces where you don\u2019t know where the ads are, and where they\u2019re empowered by the staggering amount of surveillance data you can get. I personally think there is no way we can go even a little way down that road, and some combination of regulation, good decisions, and a shared sense of what the dangers are will get us going the right way on that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Other takeaways from the interview include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>When asked to discuss his personal vision of the metaverse, Rosedale\u2019s two big points are the transition from 2D to 3D, and \u201cmaking the internet live.\u201d Instead of the solo experience of browsing a webpage, a metaverse user would be able to use a site together with other people that they could see, identify, and communicate with.<\/li>\n<li>Full-on, facially-attached computers as a metaverse interface are 10 years away, Rosedale thinks. Mobile devices are likely to get closer to that first as the technology matures.<\/li>\n<li>Rosedale is vocally concerned about crypto as it relates to wealth inequality. \u201cCrypto\u2019s absolutely going the long way on that, as any economist can tell you. It\u2019s making a small group of people richer than ever before, which is not what I think we need as a species right now.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>The utility of the in-game currency of <em>Second Life, <\/em>the Linden Dollar, is that it can be used to make small purchases. Most of the exchanges made in the in-app economy of <em>SL<\/em>, as users buy assets from professional <em>SL <\/em>crafters, are only a few dollars\u2019 worth at a time. That granularity is going to be necessary for any metaversal cryptocurrency. A two-dollar purchase with a $40 banking fee is a non-starter.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Listen to the full interview with Rosedale <a href=\"https:\/\/dot.la\/philip-rosedale-metaverse-2657125163.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">in this episode of Office Hours<\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered\">Have A Great Week From All Of Us At Zoha Islands\/Fruit Islands<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\u00a0<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Thomas Wilde on April 16, 2022 \u00a0 \u00a0 Second Life is still consistently updated to this day, with its most recent patch shipping on March 14. (Linden Labs Image) Philip Rosedale has spent a lot of time thinking about the \u201cmetaverse,\u201d\u00a0long before it became a buzzword in today\u2019s tech world, and he\u2019s got plenty &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/zoha-islands.com\/blog\/second-life-creator-shares-lessons-learned-from-one-of-the-worlds-first-metaverses\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6767,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2,3,4,5,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zoha-islands.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6757"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zoha-islands.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zoha-islands.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zoha-islands.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zoha-islands.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/zoha-islands.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zoha-islands.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zoha-islands.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zoha-islands.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zoha-islands.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}