Europe’s premier event Web3 Summit 2023: Impact the Economy powered by swissmoney is rocketing closer. Poised to transform how Europe uses the technologies of tomorrow on November 9th, Web3 Summit 2023 will bring together the brightest minds from across the Web3, tech and financial industries as global government officials, Fintech firms, developers, promising startups, crypto investors and miners work to shape the future of crypto, Web3 and the metaverse.
In an interview, Aragorn Meulendijks, Futurist, Metaverse Critic and Storyteller @ItsMrMetaverse illuminated how Web3 has changed, what it means for the world, and how the future is changing as AI changes the game.
Web 3.0 Paradigm Rising
Last year, at the Web3 summit, you explained why Web3.0 is not Web3. How has your view on what constitutes Web3 changed since then?
No, in fact the developments over the past year have further proven and cemented my explanation. With the rise of generative AI, we are witnessing the rise of Web3.0. Today, as I‘m writing this answer, my [health app] Whoop received an update integrating generative AI. My sleep app got the same 2 weeks ago. This allows me to have a conversation with the apps, to find out how I can best interpret its data and how it is relevant to me. This is Web3.0 and it does not include Web3 per se. It‘s all about the internet becoming “intelligent”.
However, that does not mean Web3 is no longer relevant. In fact, despite Web3 having lost much of the Limelight, it‘s more relevant than ever.
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With the rise of generative AI our privacy will be under attack more severely than ever. The possible anthropomorphization of Artificial Intelligence, with the goal of locking us into ecosystems and building our trust to extract more of our data, will be more prevalent and more insidious if we are not careful. Therefore, the rise of Web3 is also an important aspect of the disruption of society ahead.
If we wish to protect our privacy, we need to have a digital infrastructure to support that, and Web3 offers that and is pretty much the only realistic means currently available and ready for implementation.
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How has the entire Web3 industry changed in a year? What trends have died out, what new ones have emerged, and what new trends in Web3 do you see coming in the near term?
The ongoing bear market has influenced the Web3 development scene. But I think it’s good. I perceive it as a ‘long fast’ and just like a long fast does the body good, recycling misfolded proteins and eating up zombie cells (precursors to cancer) so is the bear market cleaning ship in Web3, driving on the project with real potential and killing off the deadweight.
DeFi has gained traction; much progress has been made on better and smoother implementations of the infrastructure. Initiatives like ‘Worldcoin’ which I realize is controversial, does however show an awareness and shift in focus in Web3 away from NFTs as a means to launch ‘quick money grab projects’ with thousands of auto-generated pictures, to the true value of Web3.
Web3 needs to overcome certain technical limitations, so it can be further integrated.
The further development of POAP’s and the like shows promise, as does the further evolution of DAO’s.
AI and Web3: the Perfect Partners
How is your view on what generative AI and the metaverse are changing? What might generative AI and the metaverse look like at their peak, and when might this be achieved?
It’s hard to predict what it will look like at its peak, because “peaks” are subjective to the scale of the timeline we look at. What might look like a slump in web3 today, might look like a straight line up if we look at progress over a 100 years.
What many people still don’t accept is the accelerating nature of technological progress. GenerativeAI didn’t exist before 2017. It was launched to the public in 2022, and it has reached hundreds of millions of people already.
This is indicative of the speed at which this technology is diffusing throughout society and civilization and technological development by its very nature accelerates in direct proportion to its diffusion.
More people using a technology means more investment, means more companies and people working on further developing this technology, means faster progress and more innovation.
Thus at the current pace, we can expect 95% of all content to be artificial by 2025, by 2025 everyone with a smartphone will have access to a personal intelligence (AI Assistant) that can inform all of our decisions. By 2030 I think we’ll see every job on the planet impacted by AI and Robotics, and we’ll start seeing the first serious problems with plummeting employment rates.
2030 – 2040 will see massive disruption as Humanity transitions from a Capitalist Economy based on Human labor, to a new world order, which will be characterized by the complete disappearance of all human labor.
The Metaverse, as a virtual expansion, extension and integration with our experience of reality and society will be significantly underway by 2030 and by 2040 it will be ubiquitous. Both a Virtual Metaverse, as Augmented Reality overlaying the real world and making up a big part of our interactions.
This year, at the summit, you’re going to talk about the relationship among generative AI, the metaverse, and Web3. Can the metaverse be viewed as just another form of Web3, while AI is just another tool to reach specific goals? How do you see this relationship evolving, and what should both individuals and businesses keep an eye on in this regard?
Web3 will be the infrastructure allowing the Metaverse to have Public Spaces, just like we have public spaces in the real world. Web3 will be essential in protecting our rights and privacy in the Metaverse.
AI will be powering the Metaverse, it will be an essential driving force of every aspect.
World Creation, Asset Creation, Generation, Rendering, Computation, it will be everywhere.. it’s hard to explain, but everything will be AI.
Many of the entities we’ll engage with in the Metaverse and the Real world will be AI powered as well.
All of us will have digital twins, AIs that represent us, and do our work.
AI will become the main source of Wealth and Income for most people. Owning AI will be like owning real-estate today, but everyone will own some, because ultimately we will need to provide everyone with it, in order to not create unbridgeable wealth gaps between humans with and without AI wealth.
How might this new global borderless digital, potentially decentralized network (or a network of networks) change the idea and modus operandi of a modern state?
It’s hard to say, what I do know is that nation states are being undermined by technology today. Technology is sabotaging nation states to operate, and this is posing a real danger to society. Which is why Web3 might be even more important, because if strong states dissolve or break under the pressure, the digital world might become a dangerous place, even more than today, and Web3 might be an essential part of maintaining coherence and security.
The Web3 industry is sometimes criticized for being usurped by VCs, forgetting its ultimate task of real decentralization, real digital & decentralized identity, and data ownership. What’s your take on this? How might it all change in the medium term and why?
This risk is real, today’s VC’s are driven by only 1 thing. Profits. Having said that, it’s hard to operate in this world and remain outside of it. Sometimes the only way to beat a system is to break it from the inside. I realize this sounds dangerous, but if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.
Ultimately I believe capitalism will come crashing down around us in the next 3 decades. The fact that OpenAI has a clause in its shareholder agreement declaring the agreement VOID in the case of AGI says it all. Even the smartest people on the planet don’t think capitalism and VC’s will survive the coming wave.
Solving Tomorrow’s Problems Today
What key social and technological challenges do you see for the Web3 industry now, and how might these be solved?
Web3 needs to focus on value, over profits. It needs to focus on decentralization and speed of processing. We need persistent, safe, secure digital identity. We need safe, and secure POAPs and other types of NFTs for everything going on in life. We need DOA’s that actually function, combined with AI Swarm technology for implementing ‘Wisdom of the Crowd’ in a real and feasible technological successor of democracy.
What role do you see for Bitcoin in the Web3 industry?
Bitcoin will be king I think. But with the current development of Bitcoin and rise of ordinals I think Bitcoin will remain very relevant, it will never be a mainstream pillar of Web3 directly, but it is the fundament for the new world in which Web3 will be another pillar to maintain coherence of digital civilization.
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