Elon Musk, the chief of Tesla and SpaceX, doesn’t seem to have much faith in the buzzwords of today’s tech industry, neither Web 3.0 nor the metaverse. Musk would rather glorify Neuralink, a neurotechnology company he co-founded and a company working to develop chip-like brain implants to enhance humans’ physical capabilities through computers. Musk spoke about his views during an interview with The Babylon Bee. However, he admitted that many people have discussed the metaverse with him.
“I don’t see anyone hanging a damn screen on their face all day. I don’t know if I’m necessarily buying into this metaverse thing, though people talk to me about it a lot. In the long run, a sophisticated Neuralink can bring you completely into virtual reality. I think we’re a long way from disappearing into the metaverse, this just sounds a bit of a buzzword,” Musk said during the video discussion.
The multi-billionaire tech mogul went on to add that he sees no possibility of people leaving the physical world to move into a virtual one.
“It’s going to ruin your eyesight, isn’t it? I can’t see a compelling metaverse situation right now or Web 3 sounds like more marketing than reality. I don’t get it, and maybe I will, but I don’t get it yet,” Musk added.
Earlier this year, Facebook rebranded itself as “Meta”, seemingly validating the metaverse space.
According to Mark Zuckerberg, in the metaverse future, “You will immediately be able to teleport like a hologram to be in the office without commuting, at a concert with friends or in your parents’ living room to catch up. This opens up more opportunities, where you live in. You can spend more time on what matters to you and reduce time in traffic.”
Bloomberg Intelligence reportedly expects the market opportunity for the metaverse to reach $800 billion (approximately Rs. 59,58,719 crore) by 2024.
With Neuralink, on the other hand, Musk claims to “enable someone with paralysis to use a smartphone faster with his mind than someone with thumbs”.
The device is implanted flush with the skull and charges wirelessly so you look and feel completely normal
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) Apr 9, 2021
While the metaverse is already witnessing adoption in the gaming sector, Neuralink is still in its development phase.
