The billionaire battle for the metaverse?

Precisely what these plutocrats?mean by the metaverse is as yet unclear. will it be an all-consuming futuristic world of virtual reality,?avatars,?oceanside mansions and other?online razzmatazz?that will make the real world a dull place by comparison? Or will it simply be?a richer, more?immersive version of what already exists today:?a way to?socialize, work,shop and play online even as life in the everyday world carries on as normal??It is even less clear whether?tomorrow's internet users will be seduced by the dreams of entitled tech billionaires.

plutocrat n. /?plut?kr?t/ 有錢有勢(shì)的人；財(cái)閥

Razzmatazz?n./?r?zm??t?z/令人眼花繚亂的活動(dòng)

immersive adj. /??m??s?v/（計(jì)算機(jī)系統(tǒng)或圖像）沉浸式虛擬現(xiàn)實(shí)的 ( technical 術(shù)語(yǔ) )

entitle ?v. ??/?n?ta?tl/??1.~ sb to sth 使享有權(quán)利；使符合資格?You will be entitled to your pension when you reach 65. 你到65歲就有資格享受養(yǎng)老金。?2.?給…命名（或題名）?He read a poem entitled ‘Salt’. 他朗誦一首題為《鹽》的詩(shī)。

A look at the ambitions of Meta, Nvidia, Epic and Tencent give a sense of the scope of the undertaking. Each has their niches. Mr Zuckerberg has earmarked?$10bn this year mostly to develop the virtual-and augmented-reality headsets and glasses that he hopes will provide a dominant access point to the metaverse, much as Apple's iPhone does with the mobile internet. Nvidia is focused on what it calls the omniverse, a technology based on its chips that brings engineers, designers and other creative types together virtually to make things-mostly, for now, in industrial settings. Epic has been creating virtual worlds for years, including "Fortnite". In the metaverse, its killer App may be Unreal Engine, a platform that gives its own and other developers the ability to make lifelike?3D experiences, including games, films, architectural models and industrial designs.?Tencent has China to crack. Mr Ma is probably wise to play it carefully, given the Communist Party's techlash. But his firm's popular WeChat super-App, including WeChat Pay, is already a 2D version of what the metaverse could become in 3D.

Earmark?/???mɑ?k/ ?[ VN ] [ usually passive ] ~ sb/sth (for/as sb/sth) ?指定…的用途；預(yù)先安排，確定（未來(lái)發(fā)生的事情）

?The money had been earmarked for spending on new school buildings. 這筆款項(xiàng)已指定用于新校舍建設(shè)。

Augment??v. /??ɡ?ment/ [ VN ] 增加；提高；擴(kuò)大

Omniverse：宇宙，萬(wàn)有，天地萬(wàn)物，森羅萬(wàn)象，全世界，全人類（包含了所有可能的宇宙，所有的可能的物理法則）

Chip-technology：芯片科技? ? ? ? ? ??Lifelike：栩栩如生的；逼真的

Techlash：科技抵制潮（《經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)人》中出現(xiàn)的合成詞，指對(duì)科技巨頭如“谷歌”，“臉書(shū)”的抵制）

Behind their futuristic ambitions lie some common experiences. First, the mobile internet is reaching the end of an era.??In America and Europe, politicians are threatening tighter rules against monopolies and privacy abuses, especially with respect to Facebook and Google. In China, the tech industry is reeling?from the government onslaught. Not for nothing are some first-generation tech entrepreneurs in America and China calling it quits. Those who remain standing need a?compelling new story to tell.

Reel?/ri?l/1.踉蹌；搖搖晃晃地挪動(dòng)；蹣跚??I punched him on the chin, sending him reeling backwards. 我一拳擊中他的下巴，打得他向后打了個(gè)趔趄。2.~ (at/from/with sth) 感到震驚；感覺(jué)心煩意亂??I was still reeling from the shock. 我嚇得依然昏頭轉(zhuǎn)向。 3.似乎在不停旋轉(zhuǎn)；仿佛天旋地轉(zhuǎn)?When he opened his eyes, the room was reeling. 他睜開(kāi)眼睛時(shí)，房間似乎在不停地旋轉(zhuǎn)。

Onslaught：~ (against/on sb/sth)~ (of sth) 攻擊；猛攻

譯文

Precisely what these plutocrats?mean by the metaverse is as yet unclear. will it be an all-consuming futuristic world of virtual reality,?avatars,?oceanside mansions and other?online razzmatazz?that will make the real world a dull place by comparison? Or will it simply be?a richer, more?immersive version of what already exists today:?a way to?socialize, work,shop and play online even as life in the everyday world carries on as normal??It is even less clear whether?tomorrow's internet users will be seduced by the dreams of entitled tech billionaires.

確切地說(shuō)這些財(cái)閥們說(shuō)的“元宇宙”還只是模糊概念，并不明確。會(huì)是一個(gè)充滿虛擬現(xiàn)實(shí)、虛擬人物、海濱豪宅和其他在線狂歡的未來(lái)世界，讓現(xiàn)實(shí)世界相形見(jiàn)絀? 或者，它只是目前已經(jīng)存在的世界的一個(gè)更豐富、更具有沉浸感的版本：一種社交、工作、購(gòu)物和在線娛樂(lè)的方式都在線上，但日常生活照常進(jìn)行? 更不清楚的是，未來(lái)的互聯(lián)網(wǎng)用戶是否會(huì)被有權(quán)勢(shì)的科技億萬(wàn)富翁的夢(mèng)想所誘惑。

A look at the ambitions of Meta, Nvidia, Epic and Tencent give a sense of the scope of the undertaking. Each has their niches. Mr Zuckerberg has earmarked?$10bn this year mostly to develop the virtual-and augmented-reality headsets and glasses that he hopes will provide a dominant access point to the metaverse, much as Apple's iPhone does with the mobile internet. Nvidia is focused on what it calls the omniverse, a technology based on its chips that brings engineers, designers and other creative types together virtually to make things-mostly, for now, in industrial settings. Epic has been creating virtual worlds for years, including "Fortnite". In the metaverse, its killer App may be Unreal Engine, a platform that gives its own and other developers the ability to make lifelike?3D experiences, including games, films, architectural models and industrial designs.?Tencent has China to crack. Mr Ma is probably wise to play it carefully, given the Communist Party's techlash. But his firm's popular WeChat super-App, including WeChat Pay, is already a 2D version of what the metaverse could become in 3D.

看看Meta，英偉達(dá)，Epic和騰訊的勃勃野心也能感受到元宇宙未來(lái)之廣闊。他們都有自己的專業(yè)領(lǐng)域。扎克伯格劃出100億美元專項(xiàng)資金用于開(kāi)發(fā)虛擬現(xiàn)實(shí)以及增強(qiáng)現(xiàn)實(shí)頭顯和眼鏡，他希望這些工具能夠成為元宇宙的主導(dǎo)接入設(shè)備，如圖蘋(píng)果手機(jī)對(duì)移動(dòng)互聯(lián)網(wǎng)的作用一樣。英偉達(dá)專注于其稱為“omniverse”的科技，該科技基于其芯片，可以讓工程師、設(shè)計(jì)師和其他富有創(chuàng)造力人士一起在虛擬空間協(xié)作制造東西。目前而言，大部分應(yīng)用在工業(yè)領(lǐng)域。Epic多年以來(lái)一直打造虛擬世界，包括《堡壘之夜》。在元宇宙，Epic殺手級(jí)應(yīng)用應(yīng)該是“虛擬引擎”，它為自身及其他開(kāi)發(fā)者提供可以打造游戲、電影、建筑模型及工業(yè)設(shè)計(jì)逼真3D體驗(yàn)的平臺(tái)。騰訊有中國(guó)市場(chǎng)去攻克。鑒于國(guó)內(nèi)的“科技抵制潮”（反壟斷），馬化騰應(yīng)該足夠聰明去妥善處理。但其公司的超級(jí)應(yīng)用微信，包括微信支付，已經(jīng)是未來(lái)3D元宇宙的2D版。

Behind their futuristic ambitions lie some common experiences. First, the mobile internet is reaching the end of an era.??In America and Europe, politicians are threatening tighter rules against monopolies and privacy abuses, especially with respect to Facebook and Google. In China, the tech industry is reeling?from the government onslaught. Not for nothing are some first-generation tech entrepreneurs in America and China calling it quits. Those who remain standing need a?compelling new story to tell.

這些科技巨頭未來(lái)性的雄性壯志源于一些共同的經(jīng)歷。首先，移動(dòng)互聯(lián)網(wǎng)已經(jīng)到了一個(gè)時(shí)代的終點(diǎn)。在美國(guó)和歐總，政治家威脅將制定更加緊縮的政策反對(duì)壟斷和隱私侵犯，特別是臉書(shū)和谷歌。在中國(guó)，科技領(lǐng)域也在政府的管制下受到?jīng)_擊。美國(guó)和中國(guó)的一些第一代科技企業(yè)家退出并不是沒(méi)有原因的。那些依然屹立不倒的則需要講述有吸引力的新故事。

英文原文《經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)人商論》21年12月刊，譯文僅供參考，歡迎大家討論。