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Re:The metaverse is bullshit by simonh on Saturday October 30, 2021 @12:48PM (#29050177)
>"A Picture says more than a thousand words."

If I give you a thousand word essay, good luck crating an image that conveys the same information. I mean you could photograph the essay, but then we're back to text again.

Re:The metaverse is bullshit by TaXaZ on Sunday October 31, 2021 @12:00AM (#29054352)
Text is mightiest; but you should use "video" instead of "image". Video is the natural visual medium to convey an essay, not a still image.

Let's consider a philosophical essay as something highly abstract, then its video counterpart would be mostly audio (transcript of the essay). In other cases, e.g. a scientific report, video might be easier content to consume but producing a proper video for that take much more time than writing a 6-page text. The video as the visual medium counterpart has lot more complexity and not always worth it.

Consider a presentation: text+visual+audio, it's more capable to convey the essence of the material. So all these boils down to what is the perfect combination for a particular use case. From short to long image/video, from Instagram, TikTok to YouTube, each multimedia choice lead to different use cases.

And text is the mightiest not because that it necessarily convey better, but because it can:

1. produced/maintained/transferred with the least complexity than others, it's much more efficient representation in this regard.

2. It can represent with most rigorous detail (e.g. consider a math paper)

3. It has the easiest retrieval and mining

4. BUT It usually needs more effort to consume

It's always nice to choose the proper combination of text+visual+audio+interaction. AR/VR only add one ingredient (if you consider it a new one) to this whole toolbox we as humankind are building. It makes our communication much more complex, and much more powerful. However, at the end, the most basic one which is text will remain the mightiest. We may need to wait for some bizarre telepathy technology between brains to change the status quo.

Re:The metaverse is bullshit by reddog on Saturday October 30, 2021 @12:59PM (#29050294)
What if the essay topic was "Tell me what a tiger looks like".
Re:The metaverse is bullshit by betwixthewires on Saturday October 30, 2021 @01:07PM (#29050358)
Your point ironically works directly against you here. Your point is basically "describe an image without using images", it demonstrates how constrained the utility of images is, basically only useful for their own sake.
Re:The metaverse is bullshit by michaelmrose on Saturday October 30, 2021 @04:51PM (#29052198)
The Tyger By William Blake

Tyger Tyger, burning bright, In the forests of the night; What immortal hand or eye, Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies. Burnt the fire of thine eyes? On what wings dare he aspire? What the hand, dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art, Could twist the sinews of thy heart? And when thy heart began to beat, What dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain, In what furnace was thy brain? What the anvil? what dread grasp, Dare its deadly terrors clasp!

When the stars threw down their spears And water'd heaven with their tears: Did he smile his work to see? Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger Tyger burning bright, In the forests of the night: What immortal hand or eye, Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

Re:The metaverse is bullshit by fennecfoxy on Tuesday November 02, 2021 @10:51AM (#29082135)
The tiger

He destroyed his cage

Yes

YES

The tiger is out

https://826dc.org/student-writing/the-tiger/

Re:The metaverse is bullshit by THATthereguy on Thursday November 04, 2021 @04:59PM (#29112465)
Good ole Billy Blake. I want what he's having.
Re:The metaverse is bullshit by slightwinder on Saturday October 30, 2021 @01:04PM (#29050342)
> but then we're back to text again.

Or are we back at pictures? Because text is generally just a collection of tiny little pictures.