What Is the Metaverse, and Will It Be Worth the Wait? – Bloomberg

Bloomberg: Balance of Power focuses on the politics and policies being shaped by the agenda of President Biden’s administration.
Companies around the world are beginning to commercialize “cultured” meat products, developed by growing animal cells in a lab rather than killing living creatures
Taiwan Elections Set Stage for Tighter Presidential Race in 2024
Your Sunday Asia Briefing: Covid Protests Sweep China
Philippines Sees Debt-to-GDP Ratio Falling to 50% by 2028
China’s Industrial Profits Drop as Covid Surges, Prices Fall
US Jobs Report Likely to Show Subtle Progress for Fed: Eco Week
US Shoppers Kick Off Holiday Season With a Muted Black Friday
Where ‘Vision Zero’ Is Working
Musk’s Twitter Slides Say ‘We’re Recruiting’ Following Job Cuts
Chinese Protesters Use Tricks to Evade Censors, Vent Covid Anger
Ukraine Latest: Russia Continues to Reinforce Troops in East
Kuala Lumpur Is Top Global City for Expats
Can Jedi Mind Tricks Sell a £16 Million Home in London?
The Top London Museum Shows to See This Winter
The Top Paris Museum Shows to See This Winter
Ukraine’s Victories May Become a Problem for the US
Putin’s Few Oil Buyers Demand Deep Discounts
Elon Musk and the Confessions of an Ayn Rand Reader
Professor Behind Effective Altruism on What SBF’s Fall Means
Apple’s Reliance on China Grows Perilous With Chaos in iPhone City
The Robot Tractors Are Coming, Just as Soon as We Crush a Few Bugs
India’s Top Court to Consider Legalizing Same-Sex Marriage
China Jails Chinese-Canadian Pop Star Kris Wu for 13 Years on Rape Charges
Berlin Runway Invasion Shows Hubs Vulnerable to Climate Protests
Copper’s Biggest Mystery Is Finally Cracking
How to Drop a New Building on Top of an Old One
Where ‘Vision Zero’ Is Working
Thailand’s Cannabis Industry Clouded as Legal Threats Emerge
Crypto’s Brutal Slump Has Finally Caught Up With Bitcoin ATMs
Crypto Lender Seeks $1.5 Billion Funding Value Despite FTX Chaos
FTX Invoked by Canada Banks Group in Call for Payment Safeguards
Nate Lanxon
Imagine a three-dimensional online world where you teleport from your London office to a meeting room in Singapore, shop at a digital replica of your favorite clothing store then join a friend for a round of virtual golf. To some, this aspirational version of the internet known as the metaverse is the future of human interaction. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg changed the company’s name to Meta Platforms Inc. and is pouring billions of dollars a year into efforts to dominate this “next frontier.” But it’s unclear what a unified virtual universe would look like, or whether people really want it. 
It would combine technologies including video-conferencing, games like Minecraft and Roblox, crypto tokens, email, virtual reality, social media and live-streaming. Just as you might create a document in Microsoft Word and send it via Google’s Gmail to a colleague to read on an Apple iPad, items in the metaverse would be able to move across an ecosystem of competing products, holding their value and function. A digital work of art bought as a non-fungible token, or NFT, from Company A, say, would be displayable on the virtual wall of a house in a game made by Company B. 

source