back to article Facebook posts job ad for 10,000 'high-skilled' roles to 'build the metaverse' – and they'll all be based in the EU

Brit political has-been and Facebook global affairs veep Nick Clegg fired off a missive over the weekend announcing that the antisocial network would be hiring 10,000 people from across the European Union to help "BUILD THE METAVERSE" (VERSE-VERSE-VERSE-VERSE). What's the metaverse? Well, no one's quite sure – it doesn't exist …

  1. This post has been deleted by its author

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Just a little propaganda to avoid unwanted regulations...

    "See??? 10,000 jobs!!!!! Don't regulate us, please, and shut down all those pesky investigations into our anti-privacy practices and other rule-breaking stuff..."

    1. ecofeco Silver badge

      Re: Just a little propaganda to avoid unwanted regulations...

      I smelled the same thing. Odoriferous isn't it?

    2. chivo243 Silver badge
      Trollface

      Re: Just a little propaganda to avoid unwanted regulations...

      Not just 10,000 jobs, but Hi-Tech Jobs! In Europe no less!

      Not sure which side that will please...

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Europe

        Ahaa! It's a Brexiteer plot to destroy the EU(vil) Empire!!

        1. seven of five

          Re: Europe

          To win a race, you'd either have to be faster or make the competition stumble.

          1. You aint sin me, roit

            Re: Europe

            Or cut (regulatory) corners...

  3. Howard Sway Silver badge

    A dream that nobody wants except for the tech giants

    I'm sure visions like this are a great way to get yourself noticed if you work somewhere like Facebook, but who's going to actually want to use it for any length of time? I can't see it being anything more than a world of not greatly convincing graphics, where you get to do little more than roam a virtual shopping mall and get constantly bombarded with advertising in order to pay for the huge cost of constructing and running it. An hour of it would probably be enough to send anyone stark raving mad and go "I spent two grand on a vr headset for this shit?".

    1. Mark 85
      Big Brother

      Re: A dream that nobody wants except for the tech giants

      That is FB's taking their system to the extreme. They want all eyes on their platforms 24-7. Thus, nothing will ever be made, transported, or in shops as there won't be any shops with everyone scrolling FB all the time.

      Raises a few questions.. FB is built on "eyes" and advertising. If everyone is on FB, no one is working. So without a workforce, who will supply the products that provide their advertising revenue? Come to think of it, who will provide the work necessary to keep FB running?

      This isn't well thought out, IMO.

      Icon: Because this is FB and they're watching everything.

    2. Warm Braw

      Re: A dream that nobody wants except for the tech giants

      Fortunately it can easily be defeated by strategically removing the manhole covers in major cities.

      1. Winkypop Silver badge
        Joke

        Re: A dream that nobody wants except for the tech giants

        Re: Manhole cover removal.

        And what happens when said manholes are full?

    3. You aint sin me, roit

      Re: A dream that nobody wants except for the tech giants

      Have you seen Minecraft or Roblox? Graphics will get better over time, but even with basic graphics loads of people will immerse themselves for hours in a virtual shopping mall.

  4. Rich 2 Silver badge

    Faecesbook are getting involved

    Oh shit!!!!!

    1. MyffyW Silver badge

      Re: Faecesbook are getting involved

      I know ... I mean I was more than happy to pop my metaverse cherry in intriguing ways on Linden Labs, but the idea that that my Uncle Knobhead would find out about my antics in a Facepalm-derived construct is highly unappealing.

      1. GraXXoR

        Re: Faecesbook are getting involved

        At least your palm is only hitting your face... Imagine where a lot of peoples palms are going to be when surfing some dodgy but highly fidelitous VR locales...

        As the saying goes, if it exists...

  5. Paradroid

    No, Mark

    When I watched Ready Player One, I saw the scenes of people wearing VR headsets as a dystopian nightmare. Bizarrely, Zuck seems to have watched it and thought "this is the future, we have to build it". Let's hope he doesn't get round to watching Squid Game.

  6. dave 81

    Its all fun

    Until the Metaverse Snow Crash's, and scrambles your brains. Come el reg, the "Metaverse", and not one mention of Snow Crash (Neal Stephenson) where the word originated?

    1. Kevin McMurtrie Silver badge

      Re: Its all fun

      There's the Sword Art Online anime series too. It's all lots of fun except for the part where millions of brain interfaces and high power AI hardware is abused every bit as much as you'd expect.

    2. Cederic Silver badge

      Re: Its all fun

      I'm worried both by the lack of mention in the article, and the lack of people upvoting you for highlighting this. Inexplicable disregard for the inventor.

      Ok, so he was influenced by MUDs and undoubtably by Neuromancer and the current work towards a 'metaverse' is probably going to end up resembling Tad Williams' Otherland vision more than a single monolithic metaverse, but give the man credit where it's due.

  7. Arthur the cat Silver badge

    All fun and games

    until someone breaks their neck falling down the real world stairs they couldn't see while in VR.

    AR strikes me as potentially useful, VR is a recipe for 7x24 couch potatoes and/or major injuries. I can see the ambulance chasers personal injury claims lawyers rubbing their hands with glee about VR.

    1. Mark 85

      Re: All fun and games

      I can see the ambulance chasers personal injury claims lawyers rubbing their hands with glee about VR.

      In Zuck's world, there won't be any lawyers as they'll all be busy watching the screen scroll.

    2. Richard 12 Silver badge
      Boffin

      Re: All fun and games

      There's a lot of fun VR games, and it's potentially a really great way to demo and test out buildings and similar to clients before building the real thing.

      There's a lot of buildings with really silly architectural mistakes that a virtual walk through would have spotted before a single RSJ was cut.

      TBH, I think AR is more niche, as it needs much larger physical spaces to be useful.

  8. Throatwarbler Mangrove Silver badge
    FAIL

    Already done

    These guys took a stab at creating the Metaverse back in the early 2000s. I'm amazed to find it still around.

  9. Filippo Silver badge

    Every now and then, someone pops up and thinks that the classic sci-fi thing where people use some kind of 3D environment as the Internet would be pretty cool.

    Every single time, the thing crashes and burns, in those rare cases where it manages to take off at all.

    And then, the next bright spark who thinks of the classic sci-fi thing, each and every time, completely fails to learn from their predecessors' mistakes.

    Has anyone at Facebook thought, and thought really hard, about why nobody ever used VRML? Why Second Life failed? Why hardly anybody used the PS3 social 3D thing, what was it called, Playstation Life? Seriously, is there any significant demand for a shared social 3D space that isn't a videogame?

    I'm being honest here. Because, if they did ask themselves those questions, and if they do have valid answers, I would really, really like to hear them.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      thought [...] about why nobody ever used [thing]

      Sometimes, either the culture changes enough, or as the tech gets better (or cheaper), and there's a transition to it going from unpopular to popular. And all the apparently excellent the reasons why "nobody will ever use that thing" turn out to be no more than smoke.

      Video calls have, as I recall, quite a long history where they were - by today's standards - hardly ever used and considered largely pointless.

      Of course predicting the transition is not easy, and some things will never make it. And given the range of predictions available, someone will always be "right" ... even if only for now.

  10. Weylin

    But not world beating. ;)

  11. steamnut

    Which language?

    So, 10,000 Euro-coders from up to 27 countries with 24 official EU languages (amazingly still including English) - what could possibly go wrong?

    I am starting to think that this is all a political stunt that will never come to pass.

    1. Vulch

      Re: Which language?

      Why "amazingly"? The EU still contains more than one English speaking majority nation.

      1. codejunky Silver badge

        Re: Which language?

        @Vulch

        "Why "amazingly"?"

        Possibly because of the huge tantrum about removing English as an official language of the EU and so on. Junker tried to make a joke about it once to a crowd but had to switch to English to tell it so the people could understand.

      2. Paul Smith

        Re: Which language?

        Eh, no, it doesn't. Ireland is the only nation left in the EU with English as a first language.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Facepalm

      Re: Which language?

      Yeah, for example those writing Linux are rigorously WASP only and living in one country only....

      It's probably a political stunt, but not for the reason you outlined...

    3. jdiebdhidbsusbvwbsidnsoskebid Silver badge

      Re: Which language?

      Luckily for us English speakers, pretty much everyone speaks English. And a company based in one country with coders in another is pretty normal. All works fine.

  12. nijam Silver badge

    > "Like the internet, its key feature will be its openness and interoperability."

    Really? A Facebook spokesman said that?

    1. pc-fluesterer.info

      yes. They lie at you with a pale face.

  13. martyn.hare
    Big Brother

    Meanwhile, in reality

    Big Brother Zuck needs to buff his luck stat to dodge regulatory purgatory while minimising overall costs. Thus Ireland (aka "the EU") kills two birds with one stone, by offering up an army of leprechauns to shore up the tax breaks.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "No one company will own and operate the metaverse," the company said.

    Then it will fail because it's not actually solving a problem. At least the Internet was solving some problems back when it was being developed. This "metaverse" is just a big wank by Big Corp to stir up press-releases and make some extra $$$ before the idea crashes and dozens of users are left with non-working hardware.

    I do hope they name the first room/building/planet "Zune" in honor of those who've gone before...

  15. Binraider Silver badge

    So, second Life version 2?

    1. Synonymous Howard

      ‘Better Than Life’ ?

      1. Binraider Silver badge

        Why are we buried on a beach up to our necks smeared with jam?!!!!

  16. Boris the Cockroach Silver badge

    El-reg

    needs to build one too... a nice 5 story virtual office building on farceborks main street

    We can jeer at the passers by, the sub editors can inhabit the basement, and we'll snatch important people in the world of IT and feed them to the BoFH

    Much like these guys do in the world of banking

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNlYBNTCBG8

  17. sbt
    Coat

    Brit political has-been ... Nick Clegg

    Uh, I think you meant "never-was".

    Mine's the one with the Lib-dem manifesto (doubles as a handy drinks coaster!) in the pocket.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Welcome to Emperor of the Universe Zuckerberg's

    Walled Universe.

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I'm Loving It!

    For clarification, hate FakeBook, but like the Snowcrash idea!

    Let's partition it into "like-minded" areas - for instance Brexiteer's, conspiracy theorist's & Trump-ist's go in one area - provisionally named " F*ckwit City"

    You get to level up your Orc avatars & each Jan 6th, July 4th & other memorable dates, it's Battle Royale!

    :)

  20. Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

    It's not for the likes of us though is it...

    It's not for the likes of us though, it's for the millions and millions of people for whom digital watches are seemingly still a pretty neat idea.

  21. pc-fluesterer.info
    Big Brother

    anybody remember Google Glass?

    And the public rage that stopped it? Where is the rage against the Metaverse?

    1. Plest Silver badge
      Facepalm

      Re: anybody remember Google Glass?

      Google Glass sounds like cutlery, "metaverse" sounds cool and futuristic in a 1970s sci-fi kind of way.

    2. Filippo Silver badge

      Re: anybody remember Google Glass?

      I don't think it was public rage that stopped Glass. I think it had more to do with the utter lack of any practical use beyond novelty value. I strongly suspect this may be the Metaverse's downfall as well, but I'm ready to be surprised.

  22. Winkypop Silver badge
    FAIL

    Plug in, drop out, like

    Join the Zuck-Borg today!

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