These are the days of fractures. From the pandemic to climate change to election results, there doesn’t seem to be much middle ground. That’s why it was so interesting to read the Pew Research Organization’s “Metaverse in 2040” report. It seems we’re equally divided about how we feel that the metaverse will play out, as we are in everything we do in the real world.

Interviewing 600 experts from various fields, the Pew saw an almost even split between those who thought we’d really be immersed in the metaverse by 2040 to those who thought it would have a minimal impact. 

• 54% said that they expect by 2040 the metaverse WILL be a much-more-refined and truly fully-immersive, well-functioning aspect of daily life for a half-billion or more people globally.
• 46% said that they expect by 2040 the metaverse WILL NOT be a much-more-refined and truly fully-immersive, well-functioning aspect of daily life for a half-billion or more people globally.

As tech journalists, my colleagues and I always observed that “the way to see the future of technology was to study the porn industry.” Years later, when I served on the National Academy of Sciences committee to help keep kids safe from porn on the early Internet, we concluded that porn lies on a continuum based on personal definition.

Lately, I’ve been revisiting the porn industry’s role as first movers in the future of the emerging metaverse. There’s a lot of activity, but much of it looks like an adults-only version of the rest of the metaverse. I visited Pornverse, which bills itself as the first explicit Metaverse, and DreamCam, which bills itself as a way to meet people one-on-one in the metaverse. (But this interview in The Sun hints that virtual sex is probably the meeting outcome.) My Google history this week is definitely raunchier than usual. It compelled me to write this article about what Porn and the Metaverse have in common. (Hint: You know it when you see it.) 

Analysts and consultants get paid to see the writing on the wall and tell their clients what the writing says. That’s why you’re seeing a mass onboarding of consulting firms into their avatar-filled new office spaces in the metaverse. The latest, KPMG, one of the four big accounting/consulting firms, launched its "metaverse collaboration hub" in Decentraland. It’s a hangout for staff and clients to "connect, engage and explore.” PwC set up its headquarters in the metaverse in January. Accenture’s Nth floor is its showcase for potential clients, group meetings, and even onboarding new employees. BCG (Boston Consulting Group) has its new digs in Sandbox.

For goodness sake. I know consultants gotta consult but I spent a good part of my day searching for their outposts in the metaverse and hearing a fair amount of dirt about how all that’s shiny is not as it seems. Take Accenture. Theoretically, they are onboarding all new employees by giving them an Oculus headset and meeting on the Nth floor. But, a colleague confided that, in fact, Accenture’s new employees were indeed given headsets but onboarding still takes place more traditionally. As for the others, I spent the better part of a day searching for their shiny new outposts in Decentraland and Sandbox. The problem is that neither has a directory or a search engine to tell me where to go. And at 3 PM in the afternoon both metaverses were eerily quiet — like Dodge City before the shootout. 

When it comes to discovery, the metaverse makes the app store look like a cakewalk. Entrepreneurial readers take note. The metaverse needs a search engine!

First comes the metaverse, then comes the slew of books: explanatory, business-focused, and future-forward. Venture capitalist and long-time metaverse watcher Matthew Ball's new book The Metaverse: How It Will Revolutionize Everything takes an eyes-wide-open look at the potential for the emergence of a new Web, while duly noting the challenges. Authors Cathy Hackl, Dirk Lueth, and Tommaso Di Bartolo’s new book Navigating the Metaverse: A Guide to Limitless Possibilities in a Web 3.0 World is the best choice for businesses and brands who want to understand the rules of engagement. The Metaverse Handbook: Innovating for the Internet's Next Tectonic Shift by QuHarrison Terry and Scott Keeney boasts a forward by NFT and metaverse doyenne Paris Hilton. All of these books provide similar fundamentals packaged with different writing styles. All paint a rosy, financially compelling point of view. But as always, the problem with books is that they’re pretty much a historical read in the lightning-paced world of emerging tech.

So many communities, so little time. Here are a few worth checking out:

• Liz King Caruso’s Techsy Talk
  The community meets on Facebook and you can find information from the mundane (where the best charter buses are) to the sublime (creating engaging events).
• Dahlia El Gazzar
  One of the sharpest event profs in the business using LinkedIn to house episodic shows about the events industry. You can watch live or watch the restream.
• Events Prof Community
  Just getting off the ground, you can apply to be a member of an exclusive club.

We’re hoping we’ll see more of them at our meetings, too.

Games of the Moment
When my kids were growing up, computers were slow. One of our favorite games to play was “Guess the Clip Art.” You had to guess the drawing as the computer drew pixel-by-pixel from floppy disks loaded with clip art. A clever variation on the guessing theme is a new game called GeoGuesser. You’re shown a scene from Google Earth and need to guess where it lies on the world map.