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4 HN recommenders · recommended in 4 months, 2021–2022
1:01:32 · 152K views · Oct 28, 2021
John Carmack's keynote at Facebook Connect 2021, where he speaks candidly about VR, Quest, and Meta's metaverse plans. He pushes back on hype and discusses retention and latency.
Commenters praise it as clear, honest thinking from Carmack and recommend it to technical people interested in VR and the metaverse.
8 comments from Hacker News
The Index is great, but it will lose in the end because of 3 reasons: 1) much cheaper price 2) portability 3) seamless onboarding experience I love my index but there is no way that it can currently beat oculus because of these things. Also, Oculus is well aware of these features. At least Carmack is. The highlight of connect for me was the Carmack keynote. I suggest all techies watch it: this video
Here's his actual keynote speech: this video As always, John is a master of communication and clear thought.
I recommend watching last year's speech by Carmack. It gives a little perspective as to why this was targeted to be a virtual session. He is not a fan of how Meta pushes the Metaverse, "Money is flowing and enormous wheels in the company apparatus are turning" and he wants to salvage that financial energy to push technology in some meaningful way. (Pushing down audio latency on the Quest 2 was such a talking point). This shows what Meta's tech is capable of, mask off, no per-rendered CG advert and I think that's a good thing. Besides that, afaik he is largely detached from that project now and only does once a week consulting, with the main focus being his pursuit of AGI. Doesn't change of course how embarrassingly bad Meta's money invested vs results achieved are. edit: Fount the spot I referenced. this video at 15:10 onward
> and the VR/meta chapter won't help Tangential to this thread, I listened to Carmacks keynote[0] for the Facebook Connect event, and it’s very refreshing to hear him push back, in ways that just make sense , instead of towing some corporate line that’s part fantasy and snake oil. See his comments on “social metaverse” and “3D vs flat screens”. [0] this video
hwers's comment lacks some context, but there is some truth to it. Consider Carmack's comment: this video @33:50 onward "A closed platform doesn't deserve to be called a metaverse, or does it?" Making money in the Metaverse is a pillar of what makes a virtual world an actual world. (Ignoring of who does the money making for now) Scarcity is an integral part of it. Skins, models, rare items. In the virtual world it all scarcity is artificial by definition. Just like with second life and the linden dollar making it to real exchanges. Second life sold worlds as some kind of virtual realtor in the past, VRChat's users sell custom created skins and rigged models today and Meta wants to be the platform facilitating that tomorrow, but on a grand scale. I also highly applaud Meta's contribution to FOSS btw.