Get ready to level up your Metaverse knowledge this Summer with this reading list.
It’s the season to sit in the sun, sip a cool drink, put your feet up and relax with a good book. I suggest that at least one of your summer reads be a book that will tell you more about the future. No. Not one on fortune telling. But a new career destination…in the Metaverse!
Seriously, you can look back on your year in tech, business, or marketing and wonder…was everything I did exciting or important for my future. I hear from many of you a resounding NO! That’s probably because you are too savvy to be stuck in the old era and better suited to the new era ahead…the era of the Metaverse. And believe me, this reading list is as interesting as the Metaverse is. Let’s look at what you need to read soon.
Don’t overlook the “classics”. They are great stories, and they paved the way to today’s building of the Metaverse. I would highly recommend that you pick at least one of these to read just for the fun of it. Then move on to the more thoughtful and sometimes more academic works that will truly be enlightening. A must-read is the only memoir included by author Jaron Lanier who provides engaging personal insight into the beginnings of virtual reality.
Check out the books that reveal what changes we can expect in the future—in medicine, marketing, and more. You can pre-order Matthew Ball’s book and be one of the first to read this book which is already touted as a best seller on the Metaverse! Whichever you decide to read, you will know more about the Metaverse and all its implications than most other professionals in your workspace.
So, get reading and enjoy the journey ahead!
The Soon To Be Best Seller
The Metaverse And How It Will Revolutionize Everything by Matthew Ball (Coming July 19, 2022)
This book is guaranteed to be a bestseller! Written by luminary Metaverse theorist, essayist, and VC, Matthew Ball, this book explores the “next internet.” Ball demonstrates that many proto-Metaverses are already here. Yet, these offer only a glimpse of what is to come. This book presents a comprehensive definition of the Metaverse before explaining the technologies that will power it―and the breakthroughs that will be necessary to fully realize it. ‘The Metaverse’ is a timely, authoritative overview of the subject. Don’t miss it!
Metaverse SciFi Classics
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
If you don’t have time to read anything else, read the book that first mentions the Metaverse by name—in fact, Stephenson coined the term. This book was written way before any technology was invented or deployed at scale to create this next stage of the internet. Highly readable and very engaging, this book begins the Metaverse odyssey. One of the world’s most visionary sci-fi writers, Stephenson just launched Lamina1, a layer 1 blockchain for the open Metaverse, after years of working as Chief Futurist at Magic Leap, where the Metaverse was one of the company’s north stars.
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
You will see people you know in this book. Wade Watts, our protagonist, enters a virtual utopia called Oasis and he feels alive for the first time in his life. Unfortunately, the tides turn, and Wade needs to find out how to survive…it’s a game, it’s a race against time, and it’s a struggle against evil. What more could you ask for? Down to earth tone for a book with so much excitement. While quite dystopic, just like most representations of the Metevaerse in SciFi, this book is definitely considered part of any technologist’s reading list.
Rainbow’s End by Vernon Vinge
While I don’t see this book listed that often in Metaverse lists, an article in Gizmodo outlines it well: “this Vernon Vinge book imagines a future where everybody wears computers knitted into their clothing, which are connected to augmented reality contact lenses or glasses. Everybody looks at the world through a layer of data, whether that's just social information about the people they're talking to or a full-blown MMO overlay that turns their college campus into a medieval village. People use these AR glasses to do everything from research to gaming. The book Vinge imagines AR as a technology that can pull the web into the real world.”
Augmenting Our Realities
Augmented Human by Helen Papagiannis
This book is brilliant and is for anyone who is interested in the basics of augmented reality—where it started and where it is heading. Dr. Papagiannis is a recognized expert in the field, so her insights are invaluable. What is so interesting about Papagiannis’ view of AR is not what it will do to or for humans but to what degree humans will be infused with these experiences, creating the augmentation of the human race. For her, this means greater creativity and innovation, and it is unlike anything we have seen before. Hardly a doomsday book, she does however warn that we must work together as a civilization to use these extraordinary tools wisely.
Augmenting Alice by Galit Ariel
This book has an exterior textbook aesthethic and when you open it you will be in for a surprise. This book is extremely comprehensible and has an augmented layer to allow for an interactive experience throughout. Absolutely fascinating read as Ariel moves through his information with references to Alice in Wonderland. She chose this device because “this masterpiece of popular literature describes the adventures of Alice as she explores new aspects of reality and confronts her own limitation in a virtual world.” That should be enough of a tease for this noteworthy book but, in addition, it encompasses all aspects of AR in the “most delightful way.”
SuperSight by David Rose
In Rose’s view, what we see and how we see it will no longer be bound by biology. Our future vision will be changed and adjusted with digital information, evolving into what he calls, “SuperSight.” Well researched and well written, this book goes far to explain the advances in technology and what it will do for us, both positively and negatively. As a lecturer, inventor and five-time entrepreneur, Rose knows what he is talking about. He easily brings you into his world and keeps you there. The book is accentuated throughout with a variety of visual techniques to help describe his concepts. He sees these advances as very positive although does discuss what he believes are the six hazards: social isolation, increased surveillance, weakening of skills, heightened persuasion, inaccurate data, and societal inequity. Packed with information but highly readable.
The Business of XR
Dawn of the New Everything by Jaron Lanier
Highly readable, very personal memoir about the “birth” of virtual reality. The London Times once dubbed it “poetic and prophetic.” Lanier sets just the right tone in describing his lifetime experience in the emergence of VR and how this is both a scientific and cultural shift from our present reality. A must-read.
Future Presence by Peter Rubin
Written by the Senior Editor of WIRED magazine (in and of itself a great magazine to read), this book elaborates on the intersection of virtual reality and today’s culture. Rubin goes beyond contemporary thinking and explores what VR might mean to the human connection now and in the future. He states that with the sensory immersion that VR delivers, we can become the art. That means we will not just experience the world from the outside in, but from the inside in. As an insider, he tells us to be aware of how technology will change our lives—with the emphasis on our lives. Large reference list for further research if desired.
Reality Bytes by Christine Lion-Bailey, Jesse Lubinsky, and Micah Shippee,PhD
According to these authors, Virtual Reality can do so much for the world in the field of education. Teachers are beginning to use AR and VR in their classrooms and, to a great extent, it is working. It is invigorating the classroom, charging up students and creating an outstanding learning environment. While targeted primarily to educators and to those who are responsible for financing new educational endeavors, this book will give you solid information about a very special and important application of this new technology. Very informative and useful.
Reality Check by Jeremy Dalton
If you are an entrepreneur or working for a company that needs new growth, this is the book for you. Never have we seen more opportunities for business than in the virtual or augmented reality that is currently underway. These opportunities are available to all who have vision and this book will give you the knowledge you need to incorporate the technologist edge in your company. Learn how this is working for others and learn how to adapt them for your situation without any unnecessary jargon. This is a straightforward book for people who like their information to be direct and uncomplicated. Dalton is a seasoned professional and an important voice in the industry.
Experience On Demand by Jeremy Bailenson
Bailenson, a renown professor at Stanford University, spent decades researching the effects of Virtual Reality on humans. Sounds odd, I know, but this technology can actually help us to live better lives, be nicer to other people, recover from trauma, minimize stress and so much more. It allows us to transport ourselves to experiences that expand our creativity or reduce our anxieties. A very informative and hopeful look at the new world ahead.
The Age of Smart Information: How Artificial Intelligence and Spatial Computing Will Transform The Way We Communicate Forever by Mike Pell
Written by Envisioneer, Mike Pell, in 2019, The Age of Smart Information is about the next wave of Metaverse innovation in the way we communicate. This book presents a visionary and pioneering perspective from a seasoned professional and is an impactful read for anyone in the spatial computing industry, and beyond. Pell is one of the deep thinkers that many turn to in order to better understand the seismic shift in communications and content that is upon us.
Just The Metaverse Please
The Metaverse Handbook by Quharrison Terry and Scott “DJ Skee” Keeney
The authors call the Metaverse “the internet’s next Tectonic Shift!” It isn’t about whether the Metaverse will change our lives, it’s about when. This book will give you great insight into the innovations that are beginning to emerge that will indeed change the way we live and create the world around us. Terry and Keeney reveal 120 creators who have built the tools needed to run the Metaverse. Recognizing that not everyone is ready for this, they try to gently guide their readers to come to their own conclusion. They state that “at a fundamental level, the Metaverse is a new way to learn, connect and share culture.” When you finish reading, they hope you will agree.
Step into the Metaverse by Dr. Mark Van Rijmenam
A fascinating read that delivers a startlingly insightful discussion about how the world as we know it will fundamentally change as the physical and the digital worlds merge into the Metaverse. A future tech strategist and entrepreneur, Dr. Rijmenam is convinced of the extraordinary opportunities that lay before us. He believes that the Metaverse will unlock a trillion-dollar social economy filled with enormous opportunities as well as challenges. A great read for any business person who wants to understand the business side of the Metaverse.
The Metaverse: A Professional Guide by Tom Ffiske
The Metaverse: A Professional Guide helps explain the possibibilties of the Metaverse and gives professionals insights and guidance on how to navigate the burgeoning world of immersive technologies. By the end, you will have a firm grasp of the Metaverse and all the contingent technologies that link to its foundations.
Navigating The Metaverse: A Guide to Limitless Possibilities in a Web 3.0 World by Cathy Hackl, Dirk Lueth, and Tommaso Di Bartolo
In this book, my co-authors and I help organizations and professionals find the right opportunities in this fast-moving space. The book explore everything from the metaverse basics, to strategy, to launching your first metaverse project. In the book, you'll find data and market analysis to erase any doubt that the metaverse is the next big thing, foundational knowledge about the metaverse, metaverse economy, Web3 technology, fameworks to help find, nurture, measure, and capitalize on innovation in the metaverse, and more.
The Future Is Here
A Future So Bright by Kate O’Neill
O’Neill fervently believes that today’s innovative technology will save the world rather than destroy it as so many naysayers believe. Whether the concern is automation, climate change, abnormal diseases, misinformation, or other issues society faces, the clear answer for O’Neill is to understand the implications of technology and to make it work for us to solve our problems. Bluntly, she says the future is not what we think it is; the future is what we do. Therefore, the idea that we are moving toward a “dystopian world” is not inevitable. We will be responsible for the world we build, and it will be good.
The Future of You by Tracey Follows
As technology interrupts our daily lives, when does it begin to destroy the very essence of being human. This thoughtful book reveals the myriad ways that technology can subvert our lives—our very identities—with machine-made controls over our thoughts, personality, and relationships. The choice is ours…let things go on by themselves or take the necessary measures to manage the new technological advances. She asks the basic question we all have, “Who am I?” She then reveals how the question will be encroached upon unless we build the future together.
Coming In a Few Months
Dissecting the Metaverse by Charlie Fink (Fall 2022)
We also hear that Charlie Fink has a book coming out called Disecting the Metaverse this fall from Qintess. Fink has written several books before focused on AR, VR, XR that have been very well received in the immersive technology industry. I contributed to one his books, Convergence, How The World Will Be Painted With Data in 2019. Fink is a prolific writer and has a weekly XR column in Forbes. We can’t wait to read his book.
Into the Metaverse by Cathy Hackl (Coming January 2023)
My new book, Into the Metaverse: The Essential Guide to the Business Opportunities of the Web3 Era, is hitting shelves (both virtually and physically) in January 2023 published by Bloomsbury. Expect an informative, tactically savvy book for the current C-Suite executive or someone who wants to get there. No other book has addressed the state of the Metaverse in industry today and does it with such a deep understanding of the implications the Metaverse has on the economy of the future. This is a take-charge book that has all the spirit of a new adventure in a corporate individual’s work life.
Pure Fiction But Fun
LaundryGate: Strange Stories About The Future by Tery Spataro
A compilation of short stories that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Short, but staggering, works that define the world ahead of us. The subtitle “Strange stories about the future” sums up these unusual tales filled with otherworldly characters that shed light on the immense power of the virtual world. A quick read and several of the short stories will give you major Metaverse vibes.
Better Start Now
Just reading this “reading list” could very well give you the feeling that, if you wait, you just might be too late for the party, but don’t worry time is on your side as we’re still building the Metaverse. I realize that this is a long list of important books—each giving you different insights into our future—but I can assure you that you won’t regret tackling them. I probably also forgot some other great books, as this is not an exhaustive list of all the books out there, but now you have a list to start with and work from.
Enjoy your summer and know that you are now at the forefront of a new era and a new way of doing business. So wax your surfboard and get ready to ride this wave! It’s just beginning.
(Other suggested books include The Spatial Web, The Infinite Retina, The Augmented Workforce: How The Metaverse Will Impact Every Dollar You Make, Virtual Society, Parallel Metaverses, and more.)
