Book review: The Future Internet seen through rose-coloured glasses
Academic in style, super-optimistic in tone, Bernard Marr’s book pulls out several clunkers but also many ideas worthy of consideration
“Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.” So says Jeff Goldblum’s character, Ian Malcolm, about cloning dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. As technology is set to become even more inextricably bound up with everyday life, we too might be wise to consider what we should do as well as what we can do.
In this book, Bernard Marr details how two major innovations (both of which are already in their fledgling stages) will radically transform the internet as well as our lives: Web3 and the metaverse. Web3 will be the next iteration of the internet, using blockchains, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and cryptocurrencies. The metaverse, as seen in movies like Ready Player One, is an immersive 3D version of the internet accessed through virtual reality (VR).
