Tech’s new aesthetic. About a year ago Mark Zuckerberg released the first images of his avatar in the metaverse — a horrifying, dead-eyed cartoon — and was widely mocked. Over time, the images were forgotten… as was, to a certain extent, the metaverse. It’s been a very busy AI year, after all. Does “Meta” even still exist? And didn’t I see Zuck on Threads the other day, diving back into the OG social media wars?

But that’s all more a summary of recent press attention than an accurate read of the last year. In the first place, Facebook has, in total, surpassed 3 billion monthly active users. Then, last week Lex Fridman filmed his most recent podcast in the metaverse, with special guest Zuckerberg jacked in miles away, revealing the company’s quantum leap in avatar realism. And okay look, I have never been a big ‘new toys’ guy, but these effects are incredible. Lex and Zuck look like people in this clip. Or, they are very close to looking like people, now safely beyond the uncanny valley. 

In Spielberg’s Ready Player One, the cartoonish look of the OASIS never made much sense. From the earliest days of Snowcrash to the Matrix holy trilogy, we have always known the dream: the parallel virtual world needs to look and feel like the real world, but elevated + we get superpowers. A lot of this is just a vibe, but you know it when you feel it, and a year ago the vibe was off. Today? I’m leaning in.