We’ll get into all the ways the metaverse is supposed to change the world in just a moment. How its decentralized, blockchain-based algorithms are going to revolutionize online commerce. How its virtual meeting spaces are going to pave the way for the workplaces of tomorrow. How its breakthroughs in 3D immersive technology are going to allow us all to travel seamlessly and instantly from one mind-blowing VR realm to another.
But first, a few words about 17th-century Dutch horticulture.
Back in the early 1600s, for reasons nobody to this day fully understands, the Dutch went nuts over tulips. In fact, demand for the blossom grew so irrationally exuberant, flower merchants began trading them at outrageously inflated prices, triggering the world’s first speculative bubble.