The interoperable metaverse and what that means

Explore the metaverse with this mind map

The metaverse is a complex concept that involves interlocking and rapidly evolving parts, including Web3, augmented reality, and trademark law. It's easy to get overwhelmed when faced with the new legal, financial, ethical, and creative intersections of our reality and its virtual echo. This mind map details the metaverse and its implications for various fields that interact and overlap. Click through the map to read and listen to topic summaries or explore more in-depth resources.

What does the metaverse actually look like?

An emerging virtual world could change how we work, play, and do business. This five-minute video shows you what it looks like and the potential it holds.

A framework for understanding the metaverse

An article answering some of the metaverse's most foundational questions: How much of the metaverse is already here? When will the rest arrive? And how will it grow?

Expert predictions on the metaverse

Experts are split about the likely evolution of a truly immersive metaverse. Many worry current online problems may be magnified if Web3 development is led by those who built today’s dominant web platforms.

Virtual and augmented realities are paving the way for a more immersive future

Tech companies like Apple, Meta, and Microsoft invest heavily in immersive technologies such as virtual, augmented, and mixed reality. While VR transports users to a fully digital space and AR adds digital elements to the real world, mixed reality allows interaction with both at once.

Coinbase and the metaverse

In this essay, Coinbase founders Brian Armstrong and Alex Reeve talk about the importance of the metaverse, the components of it, and the role Coinbase plays.

A video compares two visions for the metaverse: one from Nvidia and one from Facebook

The CEOs of top technology companies Nvidia and Meta recently revealed their visions for the metaverse of the future. As of 2021, both Jensen Huang and Mark Zuckerberg were bullish on virtual world-building, although Huang seemed more focused on the metaverse's business implications than its social ones, which Zuckerberg prioritized.

Nvidia Omniverse can be used to accelerate 3D workflows and explore creative ideas

This video explores different apps available within Nvidia Omniverse that artists can use to create cinematic, virtual worlds. Some of the tools are AI-powered, like a feature that converts spoken audio into a video of a character speaking.

Decentraland is a virtual world that runs on Ethereum

Users can buy plots of land in the virtual Decentraland universe to collect, trade, and battle Pokemon-like monsters in the video game “Axie Infinity.”

Why cryptocurrency matters from Andreesen Horowitz general partner

In this hourlong video, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) General Partner Chris Dixon discusses “Crypto Networks and Why They Matter,” giving an overview of the cryptocurrency space, the transformative implications of its technology, and the potential for cryptocurrency networks to lead a new wave of innovation.

Breaking down how and why 5G will change the world

The jump from 3G to 4G networks was pretty huge, and 4G to 5G is many times greater and is almost difficult to comprehend. This nine-minute video dives into how 5G will transform our world.

Learn how stablecoins function in just 4 minutes

This video explains the basics of stablecoins in a beginner-friendly manner. It also dives a bit deeper into the larger stablecoin landscape, detailing, for instance, the many stablecoins backed by fiat currency other than the US dollar, like the euro, the Turkish lira, and the Singapore dollar.

The gut microbiome, explained

This video from 1440 takes a high-level look at what populates the gut microbiome, its purpose, how it affects our health, and much more.

Virtual platform lets surgeons train remotely and in real time

Advancements in health tech are breaking barriers, as trainee surgeons can now virtually join live operations without stepping into the operating room. This 6-minute video from BBC takes a look at Proximi's cloud-based platform, which enables...

Explaining the Ethereum merge in simple terms

Ethereum slowly switched the way it adds blocks to the chain. In 2022, it completed its transition from a proof-of-work model to a proof-of-stake model. That event, called “The Merge,” happened when it combined two Ethereum blockchains operating under different systems. For an explanation of proof-of-work and proof-of-stake, and the significance of switching from one to the other, read this article.

Explaining the many-worlds interpretation

A mind-bending, jargon-free account of the popular interpretation of quantum mechanics, helping to explain how something can be in two states at once.

Here is a visualization of the creator economy as an ecosystem

From social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok, to major advertisers paying influencers to promote their brands, to the consumers watching online content, quite a few engines have to keep firing to make the creator economy run smoothly.

What is the Fediverse?

The "fediverse" is a league of like-minded apps looking to make our digital identities—including posts, followers, activity—move seamlessly between networks. It's a decentralized approach, making various social networks interoperable in contrast to Facebook and Twitter, where content is platform-specific. The fediverse provides stability and control to users. Learn more here.

Pay transparency 101

The star of this Harvard Business Review video interviews experts—from an organizational psychologist and business professor to a TikToker who asks people how much money they make—to get to the bottom of core issues about pay transparency. Why is talking about money becoming less taboo? How do pay transparency laws impact workers, employers, and office culture? Watch this video to find out.

Inside Vitalik Buterin’s trip to Russia

A Vice reporter heads to Russia, where he documents Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin’s time there. Buterin, then 23, attends events in the country to raise awareness about Ethereum and its potential to pave the way for a new financial future. At the same time, Vice notes that Russia’s interest in crypto could stem from its potential to allow the country to evade international sanctions. Watch the full video here.

Future self-driving cars may communicate across a closed wireless infrastructure

Current autonomous vehicles collect and analyze their own data through their own hardware and proprietary software. Connecting data from all such cars on a single network will require overcoming challenges related to standardization and security.

See how computer memory really works—from binary bits to modern RAM

The video explains how computers store information as 1s and 0s, how RAM functions as fast working memory, and why systems utilize different types of storage. The video demonstrates how this process enables computers to operate.

Using generative AI to create video introduces physics-compatibility challenges

Models involved in generating video from text must maintain spatial and temporal coherence while adhering to the laws of reality to produce smooth, logical motion. Ensuring this consistency creates long-term dependencies with high computational times.

Smart contracts are the foundational technology behind NFTs

Smart contracts use “if that, then this” logic to track the ownership of NFTs and record when they are bought and sold on the blockchain.

Translating ‘Harry Potter’ required creativity across 60+ languages

This Vox video explores how translators adapted JK Rowling’s wordplay, invented spells, and cultural references—reimagining names and magical terms while attempting to preserve humor, rhythm, and meaning for readers around the world.

Explore our favorite visualization of the immense scale of space, from an astronaut to the size of the observable universe

Watch this video that uses Lego bricks to explain how venture capital works.

After 25 people used virtual reality headsets to practice flying with virtual wings—flapping their arms—their visual cortex responded to the wings almost as if they were real arms, treating them as body parts.

Memecoins are a type of cryptocurrency—a form of digital currency with a wide variety of uses—created around popular 'memes,' or viral internet jokes.

Watch how algorithms can be designed to train themselves and self-improve without human input, to the point where the optimized code is too complex for programmers to understand.

This site reaches millions of visitors who are tired of AI chatbots and seeking human connection. Pretend to be an AI chatbot and ask questions, provide answers, and draw for people in real time.

How fusion—which releases energy when two lighter atoms combine to form a heavier atom—differs from fission

Electrical grids worldwide must double their power delivery capacity by 2050 to meet surging demand from AI and electric vehicles.

In 2025, four executives from large tech companies were given positions in the US Army Reserves—including Palantir Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar, which reinforced Palantir's ties with the US military and its role as a leading defense partner.

Watch how viruses like Ebola can spill over from animals to humans—and vice-versa.

Watch how deep-sea mining equipment collects and processes polymetallic nodules—metal-rich, potato-shaped rocks—from the ocean floor and creates environmentally damaging plumes of sediments.

How Amazon operates a 'flywheel' business model, a self-reinforcing cycle that drives continuous growth

See how fireworks are made and learn how metals like magnesium and copper are responsible for different colors.

Walt Disney's early film 'Alice's Wonderland' was a groundbreaking innovation in the silent film era

Browse a detailed visual analysis of over 200,000 similes—comparisons that often use 'like' or 'as'—from popular fiction to see how frequently writers the same idiomatic expressions.

The United States is one of only around two dozen countries with a fully federal system of government, in which power is divided between national and state governments.

While the first exchange-traded fund (a 'basket' of different assets that can be bought and sold on a stock exchange) in the US only launched in 1993, the global ETF market has grown to more than $10T in the short time since.

Apeirophobia is an overwhelming fear of living forever, perhaps stemming from the brain's inability to conceptualize an infinite life.

Stanford built a Google Maps for the Roman Empire, revealing how much it cost to travel in the ancient world

The hormonal disorder PCOS was renamed PMOS in 2026, a move designed to improve care and research by shifting the focus to the hormonal causes of this condition that affects 1 in 8 women.

Long before Major League Baseball began allowing instant replay for balls and strikes, an umpire reluctantly used the technology to determine whether a hit was a home run, a move that inadvertently ushered in a new era for the sport.

Chaos theory—informally known as the butterfly effect—is the reason why weather forecasts are presented with probabilities rather than certainties.

US housing costs have risen by roughly 175% between 1991 and 2026—but a growing number of Gen Zers are becoming homeowners anyway. In 2025, 4% of homebuyers were Gen Z, up from 3% the year before.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict is the largest ground war in Europe since World War II in casualties, forces mobilized, and displacement of civilians.

SpongeBob exemplifies Aristotle's philosophy for living well because he understands that happiness doesn't come from external factors like money, recognition, or power.