Louis Rosenberg, one of the greatest minds in the AR industry said that the metaverse might bring warping issues. Louis Rosenberg, the inventor of the world’s first AR system, expressed, the metaverse will be a frightening shift that might warp reality and affect how people perceive things IRL. 

Meta intends to pour billions into making the metaverse, they say that it should be a collaborative effort. Experts are wary of the negative impact, especially when it comes to harassment in a more immersive environment. Augmented reality pioneer Rosenberg is no different.

Writing for Big Think, Rosenberg said that the XR-heavy metaverse will merge the real and virtual and it will alter the significance and sense of reality for individuals. “I find this terrifying. That is because augmented reality will fundamentally change all aspects of society and not necessarily in a good way,”  

Rosenberg notes that AR in the metaverse will exacerbate the current issues of the web to a scary higher level. AR will possibly make the personal info of anyone publicly available to view and react accordingly. EG, Walking while wearing an AR headset while looking at others with a virtual bubble over their head, not only identifies them but also provides every info about them. 

Rosenberg claims that the world is headed in that path and that is scary. It is not hard to imagine though. EG: Instagram with the toxicity, and how it might tackle privacy and abuse in a more immersive space.

The metaverse will push users into a bubble, feeding them custom content and tailored ads. Platforms already provide tools like ‘hide’ and ‘unfollow’ to restrict certain kinds of content from appearing on their feed. If this happens in the metaverse, these tools will hide real things in the world behind a virtual wall, disconnecting people from what is happening around them, while forgetting people who can’t afford it. 

Is this Blackmirror IRL?