The Impact of the Metaverse with Mark van Rijmenam

With all of the AI advances and the metaverse, people will face the decision on how to embrace the technology because it will become unavoidable. Today’s guest is Dr. Mark van Rijmenam. Mark is The Digital Speaker. He is a leading strategic futurist who thinks about how technology changes organizations, society, and the metaverse. Mark is an international keynote speaker, five time author, and entrepreneur. He is the founder of Datafloq and the author of the book Step Into the Metaverse. His mission is to help organizations and governments benefit from the innovative emerging technology while ensuring that it is done ethically and responsibly. Recently he founded the Digital Futures Institute which focuses on ensuring a fair digital future for everyone. 

Show Notes:

• [1:03] - Mark shares his background and current endeavors in the field.

• [2:40] - Using ChatGPT, Mark wrote a book and you can’t really tell until the end.

• [5:02] - After a while, the patterns are noticeable.

• [6:49] - Start understanding the metaverse but understanding what it is not.

• [7:40] - “What the metaverse is is when the physical and the digital world converge. It’s nothing more than the next iteration of the internet. We move from a 2D internet to a 3D internet.”

• [8:49] - When the digital comes into the physical, we get augmented reality and it has very interesting uses.

• [10:37] - The problem with the next iteration of the internet is how to behave in this new world.

• [12:32] - Right now, the newer generation has less distinction between the digital and physical world.

• [15:03] - Some people’s behavior is unacceptable online and some don’t realize how public their actions are.

• [16:14] - We already see a problem with people not recognizing the distinction between digital and physical. Some are already addicted to social media.

• [19:11] - With the heavy use of digital content with children, it will become harder for the next generation to separate the two.

• [21:33] - The transition is so fast that we don’t know what the implications are.

• [23:18] - Education is crucial but no one is teaching us how to use this emerging technology.

• [25:18] - Children and adolescents are particularly impacted by this transition.

• [27:23] - When earning his doctorate, Mark had to have permission to do his research for ethical reasons.

• [28:57] - We don’t have to use social media and emerging technology as it becomes available.

• [31:20] - How can education keep up with the speed of change?

• [32:30] - ChatGPT