[00:00.000 --> 00:09.700] Welcome to our talk. I am Starr Brown, and I am pleased to introduce Bob Gorley of [00:12.860 --> 00:19.280] OODA Datalink, and I am the executive director of the XR Village, and you're joining us today [00:19.280 --> 00:25.100] to understand, from fiction to reality, the history of the metaverse and XR. [00:27.540 --> 00:31.540] Thanks, Starr. And Starr, first I want to say thanks for pulling together the XR Village. [00:31.560 --> 00:35.460] For those of you who haven't done it yet, please sign up for our Discord, [00:35.460 --> 00:38.900] because there's going to be a lot of persistent content in the Discord, [00:38.900 --> 00:41.880] including things like these slides that we'll put there. [00:43.100 --> 00:49.400] And the XR Village has got a Capture the Flag going on right now, and some demos with some [00:49.400 --> 00:54.380] advanced technology that's really awesome. What we'd like to talk about today is the past, [00:54.380 --> 00:59.460] present, and future of the metaverse, and some threats to the metaverse. [01:00.010 --> 01:04.940] We thought I'd start with some slides that I'll quickly go through just to talk about my view of [01:04.940 --> 01:09.780] the threats, and then Starr and I will have a discussion on the topic. Sound about right? [01:09.780 --> 01:10.680] Sounds good. [01:10.680 --> 01:14.740] Okay, let's do it. So the topic of these slides is defending the metaverse, [01:14.740 --> 01:19.620] and I wanted to give you just an overview of what I'm trying to capture in these notes. If [01:19.620 --> 01:24.200] you want a copy of this, just send me an email or come to the Discord server for the XR Village, [01:24.200 --> 01:28.500] and I'll post these there that you can download. So we are going to talk about the metaverse and [01:28.500 --> 01:33.440] what it is and what it's not, and how that relates to XR. We're going to talk about then [01:33.440 --> 01:37.140] the key threats and some ideas of mitigating the threats. And we're going to talk a little bit [01:37.140 --> 01:42.200] about the history of this stuff. Before going further, I wanted to talk about the history of [01:42.940 --> 01:52.740] XR. XR, meaning virtual reality, extended reality, augmented reality, all together, [01:53.240 --> 01:57.100] has a long history that I think actually starts in science fiction. [01:58.500 --> 02:06.920] There was a 1935 science fiction story called Pygmalion's Glasses, which outlined what the [02:06.920 --> 02:12.460] metaverse is talked about today and what XR is talked about today. Science fiction, a nice short [02:12.460 --> 02:18.740] story, but it was really an exciting vision of what could happen if you can put on goggles and [02:18.740 --> 02:24.160] be in a different world. And that's what we're building and experimenting with today in the XR [02:24.160 --> 02:30.040] village. But there are threats. And that's what we wanted to get into with this presentation. I [02:30.040 --> 02:34.760] say there's five threats, but I'm going to talk about a sixth one that I learned about today. [02:34.800 --> 02:39.660] And with your feedback, maybe there's more. We need to talk about the threats so we can figure [02:39.660 --> 02:46.880] out how to mitigate the threats. The bottom line up front, we are building through extended reality [02:47.520 --> 02:53.940] a new system, a metaverse, a new wave of technology. And it is not going to be more [02:53.940 --> 03:00.500] secure than the current waves of technology. The three waves as we see them, the first wave was [03:00.500 --> 03:06.340] the Internet itself connecting computers and servers together in an interoperable way. The [03:06.340 --> 03:12.680] second wave of Internet technologies is the mobile revolution based upon cell technologies [03:12.680 --> 03:19.140] that included mobile devices and all the applications that came with that. The third [03:19.140 --> 03:26.620] wave that is now being built is this XR wave. It's a wave towards the metaverse. [03:26.620 --> 03:31.720] It really is the future. The first two waves are still going to be there for a long time, [03:31.720 --> 03:38.280] but the third wave, the XR wave, is what is being built right now and is why this village is so [03:38.280 --> 03:45.160] hopping over here. Next, please. So what is the metaverse? You hear metaverse frequently. My view [03:45.160 --> 03:50.960] is don't lock into anyone's specific definition. It's far too early for that. But what is being [03:50.960 --> 03:58.060] built is a massive, scalable, interoperable network of networks and persistent virtual [03:58.060 --> 04:04.520] reality and augmented reality worlds. That metaverse is being built, but it's not here yet. [04:04.520 --> 04:09.960] We have hints of what's coming, and I'll show you a few on the next slide. Next, please. So these are [04:09.960 --> 04:16.360] some of the hints that we're seeing. I don't think of any of these as the metaverse. They're just [04:16.360 --> 04:22.560] indicators of what's coming when it's all linked together in a scalable, persistent way. You have [04:22.560 --> 04:27.280] all seen the business collaboration tools and the education collaboration tools. I think you've [04:27.280 --> 04:31.820] probably all seen the games that are out there that can be accessed through any computer or mobile [04:31.820 --> 04:37.340] devices through extended reality, augmented reality, virtual reality. You don't have to have [04:37.340 --> 04:43.020] the goggles, but the goggles help a lot too. You have also seen the other tools that are being [04:44.340 --> 04:51.560] the games like Roblox, Fortnite, and others. The digital twins in the business world you've seen. [04:51.560 --> 04:56.880] These are all hints of what's coming, but it's not the metaverse yet. Next, please. The metaverse [04:56.880 --> 05:02.140] is coming, however, and that metaverse of tomorrow is going to impact so many industries, [05:02.140 --> 05:07.880] as you can see over in the XR Village, and get hints of what is coming, including just about [05:07.880 --> 05:13.460] anyone who needs to work with data for a business or professional reason, but also anyone who likes [05:13.460 --> 05:19.200] entertainment in a nice 3D interactive way. It is going to be a trillion dollar industry. Next, [05:19.200 --> 05:23.820] please. I'd like to jump in and share that we have a live working model of a digital twin [05:23.820 --> 05:30.620] scenario in collaboration with ICS Village. It's off the rails, and you can interact and [05:30.620 --> 05:36.820] explore practical uses of this novel technology. You remind me of another thing that I think we [05:36.820 --> 05:43.300] should have told these folks about, and that is BadVR. BadVR is awesome. First of all, it's a [05:43.300 --> 05:49.600] great name for a company, but Bad stands for bring all your data to VR, and there's a demo [05:49.600 --> 05:56.040] in your village. There is all new ways to visualize real-time with spatial packet capture [05:56.040 --> 06:02.820] directly into the goggles, so that in your living world, you can see Wi-Fi signals, [06:02.820 --> 06:09.540] other cellular signals, RF signals, and so on. Awesome. The way the business analysts look at [06:09.540 --> 06:14.220] this trillion dollar industry is shown here. Next, please. Now, I want to talk about the [06:14.220 --> 06:19.140] threats, and when I built this, I was thinking of five major threats that are coming in the [06:19.140 --> 06:24.740] metaverse that are not being dealt with yet, in my opinion. Now, running a village, I want to [06:24.740 --> 06:29.440] be able to take input from everybody in the village to see if this covers all the threats or [06:29.440 --> 06:34.060] not. I did hear of a sixth one today I want to tell you about. Brief review of these threats [06:34.060 --> 06:38.660] being built, I mean, that are impacting the metaverse. There's new privacy threats we all [06:38.660 --> 06:42.960] need to worry about. If you have a device on your head, and that is collecting data and moving that [06:42.960 --> 06:48.400] data to the cloud, there are privacy issues that we need to sort out today. There's the issue of [06:48.400 --> 06:53.740] languor. What happens if you put on devices and it just pulls you into this world in ways that make [06:53.740 --> 06:58.460] you want to detach from the real world? And if too much of that happens in society, what's going [06:58.460 --> 07:03.700] to happen to all of us? And that relates directly to the third one, the onophrenia, which is an [07:03.700 --> 07:08.980] inability over time to distinguish what is real and what is not real. A very serious threat. [07:09.000 --> 07:15.020] Absolutely. There's new fraud vectors. If someone can know so much about you, including what you [07:15.020 --> 07:19.940] really desire, it's going to make it easier for them to commit fraud against you. And then I list [07:19.940 --> 07:26.780] the last one here of unleashing demons. The worst of human spirit may be tapped into and brought out [07:26.780 --> 07:32.700] in ways that are not good. Now, I wanted to talk about the sixth threat, Star. It's one that [07:33.220 --> 07:40.740] it really didn't dawn on me, this threat, until conversations this morning about the future of [07:40.740 --> 07:46.520] all this technology. And it's the threat to us humans and our livelihoods. Now, this relates [07:46.520 --> 07:52.800] to far more than just XR. This is XR plus artificial intelligence plus overall better [07:52.800 --> 07:58.720] automation and technologies. And we see what's going on right now in Hollywood to screenwriters [07:58.720 --> 08:04.740] and actors and actresses. And this is a serious threat to them. But it's also a threat to [08:04.740 --> 08:09.520] journalists. It's a threat to truck drivers. It's a threat to those who work in agriculture [08:09.520 --> 08:14.480] and the mining industry. This is another threat we need to think about. The future of XR. Is that [08:14.620 --> 08:21.060] a threat to us humans? Which leads to the need for frameworks to solve these threats. And I'll [08:21.060 --> 08:26.540] just rapidly push through these frameworks. I believe personally we need to think through what [08:26.540 --> 08:32.880] does everybody need to do to mitigate these threats? And I'm looking for open ideas here. So please [08:32.880 --> 08:37.800] get a copy of these slides off our server. Read through this. Give me your feedback. How do we [08:37.800 --> 08:43.780] address these threats? I've put in suggestions for individuals, communities, companies, governments, [08:43.780 --> 08:49.000] and academia. And we don't need to go through all of this right now. It's my suggestions, [08:49.000 --> 08:55.540] things for people, us to do. We need to keep learning. Go ahead and hit the next. For communities, [08:55.540 --> 09:00.600] the communities like DEF CON community, what do we want out of this new world of extended reality [09:00.600 --> 09:06.500] and virtual reality and enhanced and augmented reality? We need to figure that out. For companies, [09:06.500 --> 09:10.440] companies have a role to play here too. They really need to be building in security that [09:10.440 --> 09:18.840] meets our requirements. So I interject here. The thing with building, you hit a keynote for me, [09:18.840 --> 09:24.440] and the point is that we need to start thinking about building products, software, hardware, [09:24.440 --> 09:31.480] and policy better by design from the beginning so that we avoid problems in the future. Yeah. [09:31.480 --> 09:39.940] Yep. Cool. There's a role for governments. I don't want the government in our VR, but they're [09:39.940 --> 09:44.660] going to be there. And also, I think there's a role in our government in pushing back against [09:44.660 --> 09:51.560] hostile nation states that are going to be in our extended reality. So we need to decide what we want [09:51.560 --> 09:57.320] our government to do in this world. Yeah, absolutely. The entire purpose of XR Village [09:57.320 --> 10:03.600] is to drive better public policy. No one likes being told what to do, but the reality is that [10:03.600 --> 10:09.700] for society to function, we all need some set of regulations. A framework is a good place to start, [10:09.700 --> 10:17.000] but we need to get collectively informed, educated, have a little fun, but then go make the rules [10:17.000 --> 10:23.520] better. Make the rules we want to see because we're in a position now with emerging policies [10:23.520 --> 10:32.620] and other legal representations in Washington and beyond that these conversations are happening. So [10:32.620 --> 10:38.900] now is the time to scream to make sure that we can inform better public policy for tomorrow. [10:38.900 --> 10:43.880] Yeah, what a great goal, and it's a great opportunity to engage with this village, [10:44.760 --> 10:51.720] which gets to this recommendation list here. Join our Discord server, come meet with Star over in [10:51.720 --> 10:57.500] the village, and get engaged. And that Star is kind of the end of the graphics, really, [10:57.500 --> 11:05.200] if you wanted to transition to the discussion portion of our time together here. Yeah, I think [11:06.140 --> 11:10.860] the time is now. I don't know how to make that go away, so we're going to live with it. [11:10.860 --> 11:17.900] But the point is, how many people in this room knew what extended reality was before sitting down? [11:18.460 --> 11:22.840] You knew the umbrella term. That's wonderful, because every single person with the exception [11:22.840 --> 11:28.900] of one has said, I have no idea. I've talked to thousands of people so far this weekend, [11:29.420 --> 11:35.260] and in a room of computer people or security people, I might expect that you'd have more [11:36.120 --> 11:41.720] understanding of at least what the umbrella encompasses, so that we can understand the [11:41.720 --> 11:46.820] vulnerabilities that lie ahead to help. You know, and Star, I think this is one, [11:46.820 --> 11:51.200] it underscores for me that you are a pioneer, and the other village founders, and I'm very glad [11:51.200 --> 11:57.000] this is starting. It was here last year in a small way, but now you've really grown. And I think [11:57.000 --> 12:01.080] next year, you're probably going to be connected to every other village, it seems like. It seems [12:01.080 --> 12:07.760] like it. And to be honest, a lot of our current setup came because it takes a village, and that [12:07.760 --> 12:13.360] is the theme for the year. And we wouldn't be here without having been accepted as an adjunct [12:13.360 --> 12:21.220] to other appropriate areas, from biohacking, to car hacking, to ICS and beyond. Policy, of course. [12:21.440 --> 12:27.860] This year we're standing alone, and we have pretty, pretty solid interest in the topic, so [12:27.860 --> 12:34.780] I'm really here to ask the community to contribute, to think about how the metaverse [12:34.780 --> 12:41.820] and how living outside of what you can touch can be affected, and think about the naughty [12:41.820 --> 12:49.100] things. Think about the way we can tell people what we need to fix today. Right, I think that's exactly [12:49.100 --> 12:54.220] what I think needs to happen, too. If we want our technology to serve humans and make the universe [12:54.220 --> 12:59.040] better, we need to figure out what these threats really are and then how to mitigate them. And I [12:59.040 --> 13:03.720] love the way that you said we're informing policy, because we have direct connections now into the [13:03.720 --> 13:11.180] policy world. We are. We're making great leaps ahead in some regards, but we are still talking to [13:11.180 --> 13:17.120] each other. We need to get to a position where we can include and educate, and I think [13:17.120 --> 13:22.200] we're really at the right time to do so. Another thing I noticed about your village is [13:22.200 --> 13:27.420] there's a lot of young people there. It is. This morning I think everybody was maybe [13:27.580 --> 13:32.860] a little hungover, and that's awesome, but we have a lot of children this [13:32.860 --> 13:40.040] morning in this equipment, and really becoming some of the best demonstrators. I have [13:40.480 --> 13:46.960] a seven-year-old grabbing Wi-Fi bars out of the sky and giving bad VRs demo. They latch on like [13:46.960 --> 13:53.140] this. They adopt like this. This is why we need to think about this. I work largely in the education [13:53.140 --> 14:01.060] space, and I've encountered many teachers who are actively using AR in the classroom, VR in the [14:01.060 --> 14:07.580] classroom. They've been doing it for five years. They have zero concept. Who is looking backwards [14:07.580 --> 14:13.480] at their children in said classroom? They didn't even know it was a thing. They didn't know that [14:13.480 --> 14:19.520] data was stored. They didn't know that data was perhaps viewable in ways that they might not [14:19.520 --> 14:26.720] expect. So things beyond... there's temperature sensing technology, and I'll just leave that there. [14:26.720 --> 14:32.520] So it's a pretty interesting field to put on glasses and see something that we're not all [14:32.520 --> 14:39.420] realizing is being seen. And can I put you on the spot and ask you for a real definition of XR? [14:39.420 --> 14:44.920] Because I'm not sure I'm using that in the proper way. And how do you define XR? I tend to think of [14:44.920 --> 14:51.240] XR as being an umbrella term. So for me, it's less about the metaverse. And I think working [14:51.240 --> 14:59.320] through you, it makes me really think beyond hardware. So I think it's XR encompasses AR and VR [14:59.320 --> 15:10.160] along with the associated virtual worlds. Wonderful. That's great. Well, I really think this [15:10.160 --> 15:16.640] village is contributing already. And I'm wondering if we can entice more people into the Discord [15:16.640 --> 15:24.580] server, if we can persist this dialogue between DEF CONs. Absolutely. Absolutely. So join us on [15:24.580 --> 15:29.060] Discord, XR Village. You'll find our information on Twitter and on the slides. And not those [15:29.060 --> 15:34.380] slides, though. So we'll come over. We're down yonder. We'd love to have you come play and then [15:34.380 --> 15:39.340] come see the demos and check us out. Cool. Thanks.