Meet Me in the Metaverse | Timeline

WebMe 1975 1992 1990 VIDEOPLACE is released and is considered the first interactive VR experience. 20 Neal Stephenson coins the metaverse in hit novel Snow Crash. 22 Ultima VI: The False Prophet introduces immersive sim gaming (a precursor to the metaverse). 21 2003 Second Life is formed and attracts one million active users by 2013. 23 2009 Bitcoin is released, jumping in value from less than 1 cent to $47,000 in 2021 . 24 2014 Facebook buys Oculus for $2 billion. 25 2014 Gavin Wood – co founder of Ethereum – defines Web3 . 26 2017 Microsoft acquires AltspaceVR . 27 2024 2028 2026 Plans are announced for first blockchain-based international trade agreement. A major fashion retailer’s NFT products begin to outsell its physical goods. To combat rising costs and increase access, a public university system opens VR campus . 2029 U.S. libraries begin to install public-use virtual reality devices. 2030 In China, common items like deeds, driver’s licenses, and birth certificates are certified on a blockchain . 2031 European Commission classifies new category of workers who spend 100% of time in metaverse workspace. 2034 The average adult spends equal amounts of time in immersive virtual worlds as the real one. 2020 The average American adult increases their time online 25% to 16 hours a day. 28 2020 Travis Scott hosts a concert inside Fortnite for 27.7 million fans. 29 2021 NFT by artist Beeple sells for 69.3 million dollars at Christie’s auction. 30 W eb Me // Programmabl e World // The Unreal // Comp uting the Impossible Trend 1 Timeline

Programmable World 1982 NASA uses an early iteration of digital twins to simulate rescue scenarios for stranded Apollo 13 mission. 71 1982 Researchers at CMU connect the very first IoT device : a Coca-Cola vending machine. 72 2008 MINI produces the first augmented reality advertisement , which appears in three German automotive magazines. 73 2013 MIT researchers develop the first iteration of M-Blocks, self-assembling robots . 74 2016 Microsoft releases HoloLens , its augmented reality headset. 75 2016 AR game Pokémon GO reaches 500 million downloads within 12 months of release. 76 2019 MIT researchers use CRISPR to create shapeshifting hydrogels . 77 2019 SNAP releases Landmarkers , lenses that let users augment famous landmarks. 78 2020 UC Davis neurosurgeons use mixed reality headsets to prepare for surgery on conjoined twins. 79 2024 Major supermarket chain launches AR app allowing customers to overlay products with filters of customized information such as allergens or sustainability ratings. 2031 Most schools provide students with AR glasses to improve learning outcomes. 2029 Paris Fashion Week features a color- changing clothing line made from smart materials. 2037 Buildings over 30 stories are required to use programmable steel which absorbs impact, self-heals and can be reprogrammed for remodeling. 2025 Manufacturer announces new automotive assembly line controlled and reconfigurable through digital twin platform. 2032 Flagship smartphones start shipping with embedded holographic projectors . 2021 Habitat for Humanity builds first 3D printed livable home . 80 WebMe // Programmable World // The Un real // Comput ing the Impossible Trend 2 Timeline

OpenAI’s GPT-3 writes articles that are difficult to distinguish from human-created work. 119 EU drafts regulation concerning use of “trustworthy” AI. 121 An S&P 500 company experiences a 22% market cap loss in a single day after a disinformation attack goes viral . Most clothing retailers offer customers a personal fashion AI assistant . New regulation for standardized testing requires test questions to be written with GTP-5 to ensure equity and lack of bias. Grammy Awards introduce new category “Synthetic Collaboration” that includes awards for “Best Performance by Human-AI group.” Major venture capital firm funds round for startup claiming it can preserve someone’s consciousness in an AI. First responder teams for the largest European ambulance service are equipped with dedicated AI triage assistants . 1966 1997 2013 MIT’s ELIZA, an early NLP program, is considered the first capable of attempting a Turing Test . 112 IBM’s Deep Blue computer beats chess grandmaster Gary Kasparov. 113 ProPublica uses AI text generation software to publish a series of 52,000 stories. 114 Goodfellow et al. publish the first article on Generative Adversarial Networks . 115 Barack Obama appears in a video warning about fake news, only to be revealed as a deepfake . 116 A piece of artwork generated by a GAN sells for $432,500 at a Christie’s auction. 117 Google releases a demo of the Duplex AI assistant which books an appointment using mimicked human voice. 118 2014 2018 2018 2018 2020 Microsoft, the BBC, CBC/Radio-Canada, and the NYT release Project Origin , media provenance certification software. 120 2020 2023 2028 2033 2037 2026 2030 2021 WebMe // Progr ammable World // The Unreal / / Compu ting the Impossible The Unreal Trend 3 Timeline

1994 2008 2013 2020 2021 1999 Peter Shor develops a quantum algorithm to solve integer factorization. 159 1965 Gordon Moore coins Moore’s Law . 158 2008 DARPA launches the SyNAPSE program to develop new neuromorphic machines inspired by the design of the brain. 161 Los Alamos National Lab installs Roadrunner, the first petaflop capable supercomputer . 162 Distributed computing project Folding@home breaks exascale threshold . 167 Tesla reveals Dojo supercomputer for processing video data. 168 HRL Labs releases the Surfrider neuromorphic chip which has 576 neurons and runs on only 50 mW of power. 164 2014 Israeli scientists build computer using DNA structure that is capable of 330 trillion operations per second . 165 2019 Researchers at Caltech, UC Davis, and Maynooth University release a re-programmable DNA computer . 166 2012 1Qbit is founded as the first dedicated quantum software company. 163 Quantum computing company D-Wave was founded. 160 2031 Manufacturing companies become the largest consumers of neuromorphic chips . 2030 2024 2028 Major logistics company cuts operating costs by 18%, citing efficiencies gained from quantum-based route scheduling . 2035 DNA-based data storage becomes industry standard in financial services . UN Environment Programme announces research partnership to bring quantum capabilities into the fight against climate change . 2025 Leading Indian cancer-treatment clinic announces 78% rise in successful preemptive detections citing use of HPC for better personalized medical insights. Zettascale is achieved . Supercomputers surpass the processing power of the human brain. Computing the Impossible Trend 4 Timeline W ebMe // Progr ammable World // The Unreal // Computing the I mp os sible