Synthetic Minds | $73 Billion on a Metaverse Nobody Wanted to Live In
Synthetic Minds | $73 Billion on a Metaverse Nobody Wanted to Live In
The Synthetic Minds newsletter offers short daily insights to get you thinking. If you enjoy it, please forward. If you need more insights, subscribe to Futurwise and get 25% off for the first three months!
I turned my book into an interactive masterclass, built entirely with AI. Read how I did it here, or start using it for free.
Today’s topic: Spatial Intelligence
Meta Tried to Kill Horizon Worlds VR, Then Flinched
The company that sold the world on VR just tried to shut down the world it built inside its own headsets. If that is not a signal, nothing is.
On March 18, Meta moved to pull Horizon Worlds from Quest headsets by June. Within 24 hours, CTO Andrew Bosworth reversed the decision after backlash. VR support stays, with no new titles and limited maintenance.
Life support, not a strategy. This is what $73 billion in Reality Labs losses bought: a cartoony virtual world people visited once and abandoned.
The irony is that Meta proved photorealistic VR is possible. Zuckerberg and Lex Fridman recorded a full podcast using Codec Avatars so real that Fridman forgot he was looking at a digital face.
But Meta never shipped that quality to Horizon Worlds. Instead, users got cartoon legs and heavy headsets that track eye movements, map living rooms, and harvest biometric data, to land in a world resembling a 2008 Wii game.
The VR metaverse was never the wrong idea. It was the wrong decade.
Spatial computing needs sub-50-gram headsets that spin up hyperrealistic worlds, not surveillance goggles rendering cartoon parks. That hardware is converging but remains years away.
Meanwhile, Zuckerberg is building an AI agent as co-CEO to retrieve information faster and flatten management layers.
Perhaps an AI co-pilot would have flagged this $73 billion misallocation before it compounded.
'Synthetic Minds' continues to reflect the synthetic forces reshaping our world. Quick, curated insights to feed your quest for a better understanding of our evolving synthetic future, powered by Futurwise:
1. Smart glasses are getting a camera cover, addressing concerns about visibility and privacy. Is this a step in the right direction? (Gizmodo)
2. In a world where intelligence is becoming commoditized, leaders must adapt to a new reality where cognitive agility and the ability to orchestrate human and machine intelligence are the keys to success. (CEO World)
3. Robotic perception has advanced rapidly, yet vision alone cannot replace the nuanced feedback humans gain from touch. (Robotiq)
4. The U.S. Space Force and industry leaders are sounding the alarm on critical gaps in orbital intelligence, emphasizing the need for space domain awareness and resilience. (Via Satellite)
5. As Nvidia's AI conference highlights the growing divide between Silicon Valley and everyday people, Meta's realignment of spending to prioritize AI raises questions about the future of tech. (The Guardian)
If you are interested in more insights, grab my latest, award-winning, book Now What? How to Ride the Tsunami of Change and learn how to embrace a mindset that can deal with exponential change.
If this newsletter was forwarded to you, you can sign up here.
Thank you.
Mark
Frequently asked questions
Why did Meta try to shut down Horizon Worlds?
Meta moved on March 18 to pull Horizon Worlds from Quest headsets by June, effectively acknowledging that the virtual world had failed to attract lasting engagement. It represented the outcome of $73 billion in Reality Labs losses, producing a cartoony virtual world that people visited once and then abandoned rather than a thriving metaverse.
Link to this questionWhy did Meta reverse its decision to kill Horizon Worlds?
Within 24 hours of the announcement, CTO Andrew Bosworth reversed the decision after backlash. The result was not a renewed strategy but life support: VR support stays in place, though with no new titles and only limited maintenance going forward.
Link to this questionWas photorealistic VR technically possible for Meta?
Yes. Meta proved photorealistic VR was achievable when Zuckerberg and Lex Fridman recorded a full podcast using Codec Avatars so realistic that Fridman forgot he was looking at a digital face. However, Meta never shipped that quality of graphics to Horizon Worlds, leaving users instead with cartoon legs and a world resembling a 2008 Wii game.
Link to this questionWhat kind of hardware does spatial computing actually need?
Spatial computing needs sub-50-gram headsets capable of spinning up hyperrealistic worlds, rather than the heavy, surveillance-style goggles Meta shipped, which track eye movements, map living rooms, and harvest biometric data while only rendering cartoon parks. That kind of lightweight, high-fidelity hardware is converging but remains years away from being ready.
Link to this question
Dr. Mark van Rijmenam
Dr. Mark van Rijmenam is The Digital Speaker, a world-leading futurist and global AI keynote speaker who helps leaders decide what AI, and the technologies that follow it, mean for their business. He speaks to leadership teams at their retreats and to conference audiences worldwide, and his WAVE framework gives them a way of deciding that they keep using long after he has left the room. His Intelligence Age Scorecard measures how ready an organization is across the four WAVE pillars.
He holds a PhD from the University of Technology Sydney, is a Certified Speaking Professional and Global Speaking Fellow, and ranks among the world’s top futurists on the Global Gurus list (#1 in 2025, #3 in 2026). Salesforce named him one of its 16 leading AI voices. He has written six books, most recently Now What? How to Ride the Tsunami of Change, writes the Synthetic Minds newsletter on Substack, and founded Futurwise. Talk to his digital twin on WhatsApp: +1 (830) 463-6967.
