This episode is a deep dive on all things metaverse, defining what the metaverse is, and what it isn’t; covering frequent misconceptions (and nuances) around how VR or virtual reality, videogames, and other applications relate (and don&#8217;t relate) to the metaverse; and discussing how communities, fashion, sports, and more play here.  
We also go into where crypto comes in &#8212; including discussing trends in on-chain gaming, DAOs; themes like interoperability, composability; etc.  But we also go well beyond technology &#8212; and into science fiction, the arts, low-fidelity design, narrative, and much, much more &#8212; in this wide-ranging, hallway-style conversation between:
<ul>
<li>Herman Narula, author of the <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/675690/virtual-society-by-herman-narula/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">new book</a> Virtual Society: The Metaverse and the New Frontiers of Human Experience; Narula is also the CEO and co-founder of <a href="https://www.improbable.io/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Improbable</a>;</li>
<li>Elena Burger, deal partner on a16z crypto (where she focuses on games, NFTs, web3 media, infrastructure, and more); Berger also wrote a thoughtful <a href="https://a16zcrypto.com/virtual-society-the-metaverse-blockchains/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">review</a> of Narula’s book;</li>
<li>&#8230;and host Sonal Chokshi (who also shares writings on topics such as &#8220;<a href="https://www.wired.com/2013/04/present-shock-rushkoff-r-u-sirius/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">narrative collapse</a>&#8221; and more as well as past episodes of the a16z Podcast with Narula on <a href="https://a16z.com/author/herman-narula/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">distributed systems at scale, gaming</a>, and more).</li>
</ul>
For more on metaverse from the a16z crypto, please see <a href="https://future.com/7-essential-ingredients-of-a-metaverse/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this piece</a>. To order Narula&#8217;s book, please select from <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/675690/virtual-society-by-herman-narula/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here.</a>
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web3 with a16z is a show about building the next generation of the internet, from the team at a16z crypto. As a reminder, none of the content is investment, business, legal, or tax advice; please see a16z.com/disclosures for more important information, including a link to a list of our investments.

Michael Blau

The Metaverse, Crypto, Virtual Society

This episode is a deep dive on all things metaverse, defining what the metaverse is, and what it isn’t; covering frequent misconceptions (and nuances) around how VR or virtual reality, videogames, and other applications relate (and don&#8217;t relate) to the metaverse; and discussing how communities, fashion, sports, and more play here.   We also go [&hellip;]

web3 with a16z crypto Episode #14

The Metaverse, Crypto, Virtual Society