What does the Metaverse have to do with AI? 

Rewind to 1994 when new kinetic and spatial metaphors were first breaking through into public consciousness, creating new action words for navigating a simulated world that could be experienced through the windshield of a computer screen.

We examine why a generation that has grown up in the simulated reality of social media is suddenly rejecting the techno fatalism of journalistic meta-narratives and resurrecting critical media theory as a vehicle for remembering the precedence of the real world as their frame of reference. And the role of AI in establishing new metaphors.

Show note: For more on this episode's discussion, see "Range: Why Generalists Triumph in an Age of Specialization" and "Jean Baudrillard in Cyberspace: Internet, Virtuality, and Postmodernity." [JSTOR access required].