How Web1 became the metaverse | Sarah Wolinsky | TEDxBrentwoodCollegeSchool

Much buzz has been generated, both positive and negative, around Web3 - the metaverse - often marketed as one part World of Warcraft, one part Ready Player One, all parts minted on the blockchain in finite quantities and available for purchase for a limited time only. But if there is a third of something, there must be a first and second; what, exactly, were Web1 and Web2, and where did they go? What were the hallmarks of the early internet, and what drove it to become the thing we know and love (?) today? All things have a history, and charting that narrative is a vital part in understanding its impact on our lives and its future. And how lucky are you, to get to sit in a theatre or in front of a livestream on a Saturday morning and learn that the nebulous cloud in the metal rectangle in your pocket has a history of its own? As is perhaps stereotypical or at least emblematic of her generation, Sarah meandered about in her young adulthood, searching for the meaning of life or at least a job that could pay rent in Toronto; she picked up a teaching degree with a specialization in outdoor and experiential education and then pivoted into a Masters of History where she worked with some of the first historians of the internet, focusing on Japanese-American transculturation in online fandom spaces in the late 90s and early 2000s. The obvious next step in all of this was, of course, to move to the West Coast to teach high school math and houseparent 80 teenage boys, who were not quite as dazzled as she had hoped by her encyclopedic knowledge of Barbie animated films. If she had taken a slightly different path in 2003, she may have ended up a professional DOTA player, a fact which troubles her greatly. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx