Pokemon Go Creator Thinks Metaverse Needs to Keep It 'Real'
Niantic Labs CEO John Hanke has been working on technology that helps people navigate and enjoy places in the real world since he helped create Google Maps nearly 20 years ago. So it's not surprising that he isn't a fan of the current hyperbole surrounding the notion that technology is poised to hatch a “metaverse" — a three-dimensional simulation of the actual world populated by digital avatars of ourselves gathering with friends, family and colleagues to play, work and experience other aspects of an artificial life so compelling that it feels real.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is such an ardent fan of a concept that he hails as an “embodied internet" that he recently renamed his company Meta. Hanke, though, fears Zuckerberg's vision would become more like a “dystopian nightmare."
Hanke instead is hoping to build technology that meshes with the physical world — an approach known as “augmented reality," or AR. That's what Niantic Labs has already done with Pokemon Go, a popular mobile phone game that deploys AR to enable people to chase digital creatures while roaming through neighbourhoods, parks and elsewhere. He recently discussed his hopes for what he calls a “real world" metaverse with The Associated Press.
Q: What bothers you the most about Mark Zuckerberg's push to create a metaverse?
A: I feel like people just have it wrong, thinking the future is people logging into a 3D world and walking around as avatars. I do not believe that is the future of technology and certainly not the future of humanity. I think it was a weird reaction to COVID in a way, with people sheltering at home, watching a lot of Netflix, getting a lot of delivery food, and kids living on Roblox a lot.
If you look at technology and where it
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