“Web 5.0?! Let’s go!”
Jay Latta is an Emerging Technology Strategist with over 35 years of experience. His work focuses on industrial and enterprise IT and innovation. He is a sought after public speaker, technology journalist and consultant. Anelia Heese caught up with him about sci fi, Web 5.0 and calling bullshit.
When Jay starts to talk about his work, you are almost immediately struck by his unbridled enthusiasm for the future. He is a communicator at heart, and when you ask him what a Technology Strategist does, he gets really excited:
“In my time at big corporations, I realised that people build certain language terms to hide behind it. You have the CMO, the CTO, and the CEO, and they hide behind their exclusive knowledge and jargon. I help them to talk about their work in a way that makes sense, and I do this by getting a non-expert to ask questions until they understand. When someone asks the right questions, they realise they can’t bullshit anyone anymore.”
Marketing vs Metaverse
Is the metaverse not just a bunch of bullshitters, the so-called “rich white kid of technology”? To some degree, yes. Jay gets pretty upset when someone calls the metaverse a $14 trillion business. “Where do they even get these numbers?! Why should anyone care?!” He is almost visibly exasperated when he complains how marketing has warped the whole idea of the metaverse: “Immersive technology has been completely messed up by marketing. People refer to it in dystopian terms, like Ready Player One or The Matrix. All these investors are just interested in how to make as much money as possible, instead of thinking: How can I bring value?”
If the first motivation for the internet would have been how to make money, it would never have gotten off the ground. It developed because it had a military purpose, and then a “bunch of us nerds just tried everything.” Web2.0, as we’ve come to know it, is an era of the web where the web is more mobile than ever before. However, we’ve also seen dangerous levels of centralisation of the web. “A select few companies are building services behind paywalls, and they’re forcing us to pay for it in some way or another. When Zoom mandated that people have to return to their offices, that actually meant that their platform is shit and they don’t care about making it any better.”
Web 5.0
What would the next iteration of the web look like? “You want to talk about Web 5.0?! Let’s go!” Jay isn’t called a Chief Dreamer without reason: “Right now, with ChatGPT and large language models, we’re seeing the first steps towards smartification of the web. With Web4.0, people who are pretending that they can do something will become obsolete. There will be a huge emancipation of creativity. Web 5.0 will be, in my opinion, a dematerialization of tech. Dematerialization of tech means no smartphones. We might even be using molecular printing to create biodegradable smart dust! You’ll be able to wear cuff links that open doors. Instead of a smartphone, you will have smart contact lenses or glasses, and maybe even implants.” He sees the hesitation on my face, and then quickly adds: “I guess the first generation will be non-invasive. I do not want to have a firmware update in my brain.”
An Anarchist Future Awaits
This all sounds a bit scary to me, Jay. Shouldn’t we be worried? There is a distinct change in tone, a seriousness in his demeanour when he answers:
“I grew up in former Czechoslovakia during the Communist regime. My father was a human rights activist, and we were forced to flee the country. But I've been heavily influenced by East European science fiction. It was a different kind of science fiction. It was a more positive science fiction because the future depicted in these stories were always beautiful. The future is slightly anarchist, but in the original sense: a society based on voluntary cooperation, without hierarchical institutions. If you read the science fiction of the West, it is always about aliens and some brave hero who will save us.”
He pauses for a second, takes a deep breath: “Deep down, I’m still that little boy who believes our future can be beautiful. It just depends on what we make out of it.”
Jay’s Essential Reading List
Isaac Asimov - The Foundation Series
Frank Herbert - Dune books
Iain Banks - The Culture series
Neal Stephenson - The Diamond Age
Neal Stephenson - Snowcrash (THAT metaverse book)