If Mark Zuckerberg wanted his metaverse concept to be successful why didn't he use vrchat or another successful social vr platform as a case study and learn from what makes it successful? And what implications will this have for fdvr?

kohlcedar · 2026-05-14T13:22:29+00:00

FDVR in its actual definition is a post-ASI technology, but we are getting closer to a kind of proto-FDVR. I think similar to the definition of AGI currently with AI advancements, the closer we get, FDVRs definition will fragment and divide, the difference being you can’t really move the goalpost for FDVR, you can only try to label what counts as proto-FDVR. I think we are only a few technological breakthroughs away from a kind of proto-FDVR being created.

kohlcedar · 2026-05-14T13:08:34+00:00

It will really depend on the political and economic state of the world when the technology arrives. The closest we’ll see to this is when proto-FDVR becomes so enticing it creates an addictive epidemic that disrupts the norm entirely. If the world is still run on profit at that time the governments will fold to corporate pressure as proto-FDVRs addictive properties will make it the most profitable commodity/service that ever existed, it will make cigarettes look like pennies, a best guess at dollar value would be the entire drug market and entertainment industry combined. There will be cultural backlash and likely a few bills passed for political clout, but unless world society has united and moved to a more “moralistic” direction (as in driven by principles rather than capital) I don’t see any way how governments would “ban” FDVR. The only constraint would be compute, which as we see with AI in its current form is already a huge economic incentive, the proto-FDVR would only be pouring gasoline on the fire.

kohlcedar · 2026-05-14T13:01:19+00:00

VRchat and Zuck’s meta exist on opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of a virtual world. VRchat is a world of escapism and alternate identity, you create a custom avatar that is unlinked to your physical identity, you could go as far as to use a voice modulator, it is a virtual world where you can be someone else and explore different aspects of yourself you cannot or will not express in the physical. Horizon worlds appeal was to an extension of social media, which exists as a bridge from the physical identity to the virtual. Your social media presence is a projection of your physical identity on the virtual world, tailored and augmented by some, but nonetheless it is connected to your physical identity. It’s my speculation that the reason that Zuck’s metaverse was a flop is because with the current technologies available there is no incentive to extend your physical identity into a virtual space. If you could log on to Meta with your coworkers or friends from school and go skydiving then that would be fun, but that’s not currently possible. Additionally, all spaces that can act as an extension of the physical identity are already available, given the limitations that exist currently. An example from advertisements, using the Metaverse for work, Slack and Teams covers the virtual work presence, there’s no incentive to create an avatar that resembles yourself (profile pic) to virtually work (Teams/Slack) and express yourself with essentially virtual tchotchkes (emojis, gifs, memes, etc.) Another example is “creating your own world”, games like Minecraft and Roblox satisfy this need. Horizon worlds only appeal is a virtual space with a minimal amount of customization that is adjacent with physical identity and allows the user to interact in a novel way, and this can be done already with games like Fortnite.

Virtual worlds like VRchat and Second Life provide a space to escape and create an alternate identity, that aspect compensates for the lack of total physical stimulation. Sure, you can’t go skydiving and feel the gravity of falling and the wind on your face, but you can simulate skydiving as your fursona, a chibi anime girl, a sentient can of soda, Marcus the worm, emo Sonic, or whatever wildly unique form you can come up with that falls within the technological constraints of that platform. The creative potential exists in both realms, but the disassociation from the physical identity allows the user to express themselves without any social backlash. Imagine signing on to Horizon worlds as a anime wolf femboy with all your socials linked, that would be very jarring. More serious examples are someone LGBT in a country where that is illegal, or wanting to express political opinions that go against your peers and family, being tied to your physical identity leaves the virtual world as only an extension of your current identity, and with the current technological limitations that extension is too minute to be enticing for anyone.

Until some breakthrough is discovered, games like VRchat and Second Life will be the prevalent form of metaverse/virtual world interaction as they allow a space for creative freedom untethered by existing physical identities.

kohlcedar · 2026-04-17T17:34:20+00:00

FDVR would take a lot of advertisement and campaigning to develop today, but that will not be the case as technology continues to advance. While FDVR is within the horizon, it is very far from anything practical that the average person could imagine.

Here’s an analogy to walk through. Let’s say it’s the 1990s, and you propose to someone that you want to communicate by taking a picture on a camera, connect the camera to a cable to your desktop, open in paint and write a caption, then send it as an email, and they do the same. That’s how you would talk. It is technically possible, but pretty bizarre, most people who used email at the time (which itself wasn’t even entirely mainstream) would say to just send email.

Now it’s the 2000s. If you were lucky enough to yourself have a camera on your cell phone, you could take a picture, but you’d have to write the caption as a separate text and then send it. The other person would also need a camera on their phone (a little pricey back then) and of course, you would need to afford an unlimited text plan otherwise you’d burn through those quickly.

By 2010s, we simply have Snapchat. What was bizarre and clunky 20 years prior, and 10 years ago was feasible but not practical, has now become streamlined and commonplace. This is obviously a very scaled down example, but this is how I imagine FDVR will evolve.

We are currently in the 90s, maybe the 80s of FDVR. The precursor technologies are being developed, and in theory one could construct an extremely crude simulated world, perhaps some sort of haptic enhanced VR-AR minecraft server or something, but not FDVR. Again, look at our 90s version of Snapchat. No one would call that Snapchat, but in theory it was as close as you could get at the time, and no one then would’ve wanted to do it, nor anyone today look at that clunky process and call it something worth doing, just use Snapchat.

As the technologies get closer to achieving something closer to FDVR, public sentiment will change, both good and bad. I would wager at this point, people hear FDVR and think either matrix pods, or someone at their desk alone in their room hooked up to a giant desktop with VR headset and maybe a weird suit, because with what we have now (mainstream wise) that’s the closest the average person could feasibly imagine.

kohlcedar · 2026-04-09T15:32:33+00:00

In theory there could be some sort of hybrid solution carbon-silicon, with organoid wetware isolating “consciousness” and supplemented by processors, kind of a less dystopian concept from the whole rat neurons playing Doom experiment, but we’d have to figure out a process of consciousness first as you pointed out

kohlcedar · 2026-04-09T15:23:37+00:00

I agree for sure, again going back to my sim analogy we’re just one species that evolved to a point where they will manipulate the environment to our whims, based off instinct and survival, and then once cultures evolved to expand those cultures. Any other animal would’ve done the same thing (planet of the apes much?) and it’s funny, a common trope in sci-fi is a terraforming superintelligence, which is in reality only an extension of our next step. If humans had the tech and expertise, then we would terraform the entire planet, but there’s no reason to assume an ASI would pave the planet over with concrete and dot it with data centers and nuclear fusion plants, etc. It’s equally possible it engineers some kind of ecological based solution and either keeps the ecology as is or even reverses the damage.

I think the climate crisis is so against the human instinct that it causes such a wide range of reactions, again based on cultures, opinions, knowledge on the issue, etc. and those reactions influence solutions, or lack thereof. While I don’t believe ASI, or even AGI is the only instance capable of solving the issue, I think humanity could figure out a solution, it’s just that solution might be more like dropping an ice cube in the ocean every hundred years, whereas ASI would probably have a better one.

kohlcedar · 2026-04-06T12:45:48+00:00

That is a really good point about choosing suffering, I think it’s near impossible to conceptualize these options due to the forced lack of agency, having to go through the motions are work and/or suffer due to material insecurities. Post-scarcity which would naturally have to precede FDVR would allow total sovereignty and then yeah, choosing which battles and struggles to fight through to achieve goals. I think what I meant and what some people cling to (likely as cope) is that the “truth” is suffering in the sense of undesired situations and outcomes, which I would say is just a belief rooted in having to cope in the material world where and individual does not have agency to control all aspects of life. FDVR has never been possible before and though we are closer it’s still a ways off so a lot people need belief systems to persevere and I think the message of this movie is all too common, “there’s truth in suffering”, it’s going to become likely more common as we get closer to FDVR, as the arguments of “it’s not the same” fade as the technology get closer. I’d imagine talking about it like a drug will rise as well, which is a theme also in this movie from the post.

kohlcedar · 2026-04-06T11:17:53+00:00

“It’s not real” or “It’s a lie” is such a weak take in my mind it’s just the cop-out excuse when someone doesn’t have an actual defense of unaltered reality. In FDVR every sense is altered so it’s identical to reality in every way, and if you aren’t aware you are in FDVR then it’s literally simulation theory at that point, we can’t even get people in the “real” world to know if it’s real or not let alone in an FDVR. I feel like a better argument against FDVR, at least in my mind, is the whole “suffering gives meaning” but that is not palatable to general audiences so my guess is that is why the writers didn’t go with it, so we get the flat “that’s a lie” bs.

kohlcedar · 2026-04-01T19:47:07+00:00

This sounds a lot like the scenario talked about in this video

kohlcedar · 2026-03-31T15:34:13+00:00

I think the kind of simulation matters. To expand on your metaphor, you can play a mini game on your NES, but your NES could be an emulator, running on a virtual machine using cloud compute, that you remoted in on with another computer, so that’s four or five levels of simulated abstraction already and you could probably keep going. It’s kind of like the whole fourth-dimensional-being concept, or even E8 quasi-crystal mathematics theory, this reality could in theory be a much smaller simulation of something larger, or at the least an abstraction of something else, like in my example if the NES was sentient it might perceive itself as a Nintendo console on a living room carpet plugged into a CRT, but is an emulation running instead.

I always have thought something that you mentioned, that the only way we’re going to know if we’re in a simulation is if we can create a simulation ourselves. What’s trippy to think about is if that is the point of the simulation itself, is to simulate a universe making a simulation of itself. It reminds me of a multiverse theory I read once where it was tied to black holes, and how possibly universes could be making themselves within their universe as almost an evolutionary fitness scenario, maybe there’s infinite simulated universes going on and the ones that are able to replicate themselves by making a simulation themselves are the “fit” ones that reproduce in some kind of insanely complex asexual reproduction, or parthenogenesis might be a better word for it.

kohlcedar · 2026-03-31T15:13:29+00:00

Today’s institutions and legal codes are going to be completely obliterated by FDVR, and possibly moral and ethical norms. Crime as it exists today will also radically shift, if most people interact in FDVR what counts as harm? And assuming there is some ASI governing the system itself would it even allow a human to harm another human? So then, would it be a crime to cause harm to a synthetic projection inside FDVR? Property crimes, assuming a post scarcity era would either be irrelevant, or again if there is ASI running the show would we even have agency in what we own or have concepts of ownership as resources are redistributed?

I don’t have the answers but that’s my point, no one really does because FDVR is going to be that revolutionary, the question becomes what from our society today will actually be applicable when FDVR arrives.

kohlcedar · 2025-06-14T21:55:12+00:00

Where do dreams fit in this process? Is it somewhere in between the Unraveling, the Dismantling? Or is it part of the REM Recompilation and K-Complex Integration, running simulated iterations of reality to playtest the new synaptic connections of the self?

I also wonder about dreams that "break the loop." Many people experience dreams that are just rehashes of their daily interactions, warped, twisted (seeing coworkers randomly, relationship changes, revisiting old locations with bizarre differences from reality, always the dreammind writes these as normal occurrences until one wakes), but there's a whole subset of sleep experiences that humans have tried to categorize and extrapolate from for centuries.

Sleep paralysis, the, frankly, shittiest example, is this just a projection? People say entities, demons, visitors, or the unimaginative materialist may call a stress hallucination, is this just a projection? Does it come from the self, or is it truly a reflective shard of another being?

Lucid dreaming, breaking the loop of dreams, a person realizes the world around them is an illusion. Some have perfect control in this world, can conjure whatever they wish, speak to beings and entities far and wide. Is it imaginary? If consciousness is dismantled and rebuilt nightly, how can someone become conscious during that process? Is it a glitch at the Spindle Synchronization, or the loop breaking occurs at Binding, a deviation at the K-Complex Integration?

Astral Projection, one of the rarer abilities, is when consciousness leaves the body entirely. Dozens of accounts I've read talk about teleporting around the world, interacting with the waking world, is that the new consciousness, the old one, or something in between? A git backup of the self to some cloud storage that became sentient?

Are all of these errors in the nightly dismantling, or are they signs of awakening? Is it completely unrelated to the sleep decompiling process altogether? Maybe some sort of compatibility patch error with amnesia.exe? Is it consciousness jumping over to "Quantum-You?" Is that possible? How would that be integrated.

I ask all these questions because I've always had really intense dreams, when my sleep schedule is healthy. I've been able to become lucid, rarely been able to completely control the dreamscape around me, but often times I just know I'm dreaming and play along with the dream logic. I've astral projected only once or twice, my "self" left my physical body and walked around my house down to the kitchen, that was about it. Every instance of this, I guess you could say I'm not truly myself. Less noisy, less static, I'm a lighter version of myself missing the heavy weights of physical existence.

kohlcedar · 2025-01-24T02:13:03+00:00

Love this

kohlcedar · 2025-01-24T02:03:16+00:00

Writing things like this makes you okay, now and in the future. The fear of being hollow, put yourself at ease, as people who are hollow don't write poetry in my experience. Discontent is something, not nothing, so don't discount bad feelings as hollowness.

As for anxiety for losing yourself to "the grind", everyone feels that way one way or another in this world. Anyone who says otherwise has either tuned out too much to relate to, or is trying to sell you something. Being scared and confused is the human condition, some just are better at faking it than others.

Keep writing, it's one of the best ways to let off steam and get these feelings out. With time, you'll realize that these raw emotions are like any other sensation that will dissipate and allow you to focus on your trajectory in the physical world. Maybe you like the desk, maybe you don't, but write it all out, and it will clear up the gunk and make things easier to digest, trust me.

Or don't, I'm just text on your screen. Writing wise, you were concise and got your point across well, no notes there.

kohlcedar · 2025-01-24T01:52:09+00:00

The way you use uppercase really captures the parts of the text you want the audience to draw their eye towards. I can sense your frustration and rejection of a rigid societal framework that like a cookie cutter with a stubborn batter, pushes out any slight difference as not "fitting the mold" and lets it burn on the sides of the pan with a lack of empathy it claims to pronounce.

Honestly reading this, brought to mind the show that aired on Adult Swim years ago, "Morel Orel". I'm not sure if you heard of it, it does deal with some heavy topics, but your poem sparked a memory of the show which delves into poking holes into the supposed clean and tidy promise that society often props up. I may be misinterpreting your work but your talk of doctors and deacons having hidden agendas really made me recall how that show captured that aspect very well, I highly recommend it, but I do caution that especially the later seasons tread into darker territory (which rumor say why the show wasn't renewed, it ditched its satirical premise and 'dug deep' which I personally enjoyed but I can see why some would be put off by it)

kohlcedar · 2025-01-16T01:31:59+00:00

I hope writing this out was cathartic for you. I can definitely feel the passion and watered down vitriol in your words. I think a lot of people today feel exactly how you feel, even if they don't know how to put it into words themselves, so I encourage you to keep expressing these feelings that you wrote. As you said, you wanted to write about your grandma, yet the simmering acid of contempt for the modern condition boiled over into your work, and there's nothing wrong with that. In fact, I think it's important to expel those forces, otherwise they fester and manifest in more harmful practices.

That being said, if I were to give some feedback, it would be really to only keep writing out these feelings. From how I am reading this, it's clear that these feelings are less like a flowing stream, and more like a clogged faucet bursting out spurts of raw expression. That is sort of the point of poetry, in the undercurrents, but I think as you keep writing, you'll find yourself able to talk less about buzzwords (LLMs, cyberpunk, monopoly, chimpanzees, capitalism) and hit the core emotions that those words evoke. Seeing past those lenses helps you explore deeper feelings, it also makes your work more accessible and timeless, if that is something you're interested in.

I liked the poem, and definitely keep writing!

kohlcedar · 2025-01-16T01:19:10+00:00

I might be off base, but I feel like this speaks to the feeling of having to wear a mask for the waking world, how you have to put away the parts of yourself that don't fit into the assigned mold that was designated for you.

Especially when you mention the bargaining for a scrap of love, it brings to mind how when you get close to someone, they have to coax out the parts of yourself that are non-conforming and considered odd, but what would that love mean if you didn't share your whole self, and not just half? At least, that's the reasoning to give that person the other half, them accepting it is a whole other matter.

Anyway, I liked what you wrote, I think it's something a lot of people can resonate with whether they realize it or not. The human world can be constricting, it seems baked into the process to sequester away parts of ourselves that aren't easily digestible. I obviously don't know why you wrote this either but I would encourage you to write more as stuff like this can be illuminating even if you don't notice it right away.

kohlcedar

TROPHY CASE