Will the future metaverse amplify the good—or the evils—of the real world?

The last month has seen a seismic shift in the fortunes of some of the most powerful tech companies in the world. The chaos following Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover has resulted in advertisers fleeing the platform and trolls running riot. Meta’s cull of over 11,000 staff after a collapse in revenue speaks of overinvestment and miscalculations. The architects of Web 2.0 are now scrambling to understand what’s gone wrong in a system that they themselves helped shape.