Florida Man: He's not a Luddite

Sep. 10—My brother Larry recently accused me of being a luddite just because I haven't gotten sucked into the metaverse as far as he has.

The way he tells it, he regularly has lox and bagels with Mark Zuckerberg, and I haven't even gotten to the deli.

Well, he's wrong. I am not now and have never been a member of the group of workers who destroyed the machinery in English cotton mills to save their jobs.

Those guys have been gone since 1816.

And I am definitely not opposed to new technology. I really like to look at 3-D printers, Apple watches and Netflix, especially Netflix.

No, I'm deep into computers, cell phones and computers and cell phones.

I'm just not into the popular definition of the metaverse, that is, a future internet that includes "immersive virtual worlds" where people connect with friends, work, play games and shop. Wait, there's more to the metaverse. It's also a cyberspace, a three-dimensional internet that you don't have to log into to use.

So for me, shopping (oh, yes), connecting with friends (of course), working (maybe) is good metaverseian stuff. But playing games and immersing myself in virtual worlds, not yet.

Now, I don't think my brother has yet immersed himself too deeply into virtual worlds, though he sometimes looks a bit strange on Face Time, but he is definitely into technology. He has a riding mower, a leaf blower, a snow blower and probably many more modern machines he hasn't told me about.

So, though I don't see myself getting immersed, I'd still like to have a flying car like the Jetson's, and be able to rent a robot that washes the car, does the laundry and is really a great French cook.