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The 41 Best Shows on Disney+ Right Now

The 41 Best Shows on Disney+ Right Now

Disney+, if you didn’t know, isn’t just for kids. With its ownership of the Lucasfilm brand and the Marvel titles, the streaming service also offers plenty of grown-up content in its bid to compete with Netflix and Amazon—and we’re not just talking movies. Since launching the service, Disney has used the name recognition of Star Wars and Marvel to launch scores of TV shows, from The Mandalorian to Loki. In the list below, we’ve collected the ones we think are the best to watch, from those franchises and beyond.

Want more? Head to our best movies on Disney+ list if you’re looking for movies, and our guides on the best shows on Netflix and best shows on Apple TV+ to see what Disney’s rivals have to offer. Don’t like our picks, or want to suggest your own? Head to the comments below and share your thoughts.

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Behind the Attraction

Disneyland, Walt Disney’s very first theme park, opened up in Anaheim, California, in 1955. In the nearly 70 years since, Disney parks have become a worldwide phenomenon and inspired rabid fan bases who make annual (if not more frequent) pilgrimages to these so-called Happiest Places on Earth. But what goes on behind the scenes? From the creation of major attractions like The Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean to its bustling food scene (Dole Whip, anyone?), this docuseries—which just premiered its second season—goes behind the scenes of the world’s most famous amusement parks.

JFK: One Day in America

November 22, 1963, will forever be remembered as one of the most traumatic days in American history. As we hurtle toward the 60th anniversary of the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy, NatGeo has assembled a fascinating three-part miniseries that relives that tragic day, as told by the people who witnessed it.

Goosebumps

For more than 30 years, R. L. Stine’s Goosebumps books have fed the nightmares of young readers—much to their delight (well, usually). Now Disney is ready to inspire a whole new generation of horror lovers with this fun series, which follows the lives of a group of high schoolers who begin to unravel the terrifying truth about a decades-old murder—and the roles their nearest and dearest might have played in it—in their otherwise picture-perfect hometown. The always-affable Justin Long stars as a teacher who may or may not be possessed.

Loki

The MCU is exhaustingly huge. Yet while Loki is undoubtedly part of that universe, the series could just as easily work as a stand-alone piece, and it’s all the more fun and surprising as a result. There are enough plot twists, silly one-liners, and time-travel antics to keep everyone entertained, and even a wisecracking alligator. If that doesn’t do it, Loki has a visual effects budget that would put most Hollywood blockbusters to shame. Sure, it’s not the most intellectually stimulating show out there, but Tom Hiddleston does a great job of turning Loki into a fairly complex, interesting character. Loki’s long-awaited second season arrived on October 5, with new episodes streaming weekly.

Daredevil

Before Disney+ became the home for all of Marvel’s TV content, Netflix was the place to find it—beginning with Daredevil, in which blind attorney Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) spends his days seeking justice and his nights looking for revenge as a masked vigilante attempting to rid his Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of its criminal element. While the series ended in 2018, Cox has reprised the role and is currently at work on a new series, Daredevil: Born Again, which will be a Disney+ exclusive when it arrives in 2024—hopefully (the reboot is in the midst of a massive overhaul).

Ahsoka

We know what you’re thinking: Wait, another Star Wars series? And we don’t blame you for asking the question. But for old-school franchise fans, Ahsoka just might surprise you. Rosario Dawson reprises the title role as Ahsoka Tano, a former Jedi who studied under Anakin Skywalker, which she first played in season 2 of The Mandalorian. Here, Ahsoka sets off on a journey to locate Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen, Mads’ brother)—a master manipulator who seems to be on a mission to become the grand ruler of the galaxy.

The Wonder Years

In 2021, writer-producer Saladin K. Patterson (Frasier, The Bernie Mac Show) rebooted the award-winning, and much beloved, series The Wonder Years for a whole new generation. Don Cheadle narrates the adventures of Dean Williams (Elisha “EJ” Williams), as he comes of age in Montgomery, Alabama, in the final years of the Civil Rights movement. Both seasons of the worthwhile series are now streaming.

Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire

While Black Panther may have gotten an official sequel with 2022’s Wakanda Forever (which is, of course, available to stream on Disney+), this animated anthology series is in many ways a spiritual successor to that Oscar-winning MCU flick. More than a dozen up-and-coming African storytellers were handpicked to write and/or direct these 10 short films, which build on the makers’ cultures and histories to paint a fascinating, gorgeously animated—and often dystopian—picture of Afrofuturism.

Never Say Never with Jeff Jenkins

It’s never too late to find your calling. Just ask travel journalist Jeff Jenkins, who had never even stepped on an airplane until the age of 20. Fifteen years later, Jenkins has certainly made up for lost time. And in this new adventure series, which will air simultaneously on National Geographic, Hulu, and Disney+, Jenkins is setting out to learn about the world and its many cultures through travel—and test his own limits. Because, as he explains on the series: “As a chubby Black guy, I don’t see a lot of folks who look like me exploring the world.” Jenkins’ enthusiasm for what he does is infectious.

Secret Invasion

From the moment it launched, Secret Invasion sparked conversation—although not for the reasons Marvel might have hoped. Turns out, the studio used artificial intelligence to create the show’s opening credits, a move that turned off some fans. Whether it’s curiosity about those Midjourney-looking visuals or general interest in what Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) has been up to, Secret Invasion is worth a look. Captain Marvel costars Jackson and Ben Mendelsohn (Talos) team up again, and the show follows the two as they investigate a clandestine invasion of Earth by a shape-shifting alien race known as the Skrulls. If that doesn’t do it for you, you might want to tune in for Olivia Colman and Emilia Clarke’s first—though surely not their last—forays into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The Muppets Mayhem

As any Muppets fan will tell you, The Electric Mayhem Band is a highlight of any show the gang puts on. This time, Dr. Teeth and the gang are front and center, on a quest to record their first studio album with the help of an ambitious music executive, played by one-time YouTube star Lilly Singh. Get ready to rock.

A Small Light

While the story of Anne Frank is well known, the life of Hermine “Miep” Gies—Otto Frank’s secretary, and one of the five Dutch citizens who helped to hide the Frank family—is lesser known. This powerful NatGeo miniseries helps to change that, with Bel Powley delivering a moving performance as a young woman who takes a heroic stand, regardless of the consequences.

American Born Chinese

Oscar winners—and Everything Everywhere All at Once costars—Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan reunite for this Disney+ original series. Jin Wang (Ben Wang) is your typical teenager who’s just trying to get through the day of dealing with high school social hierarchies. But his life is forever altered when he’s asked to serve as a mentor to Wei-Chen (Jimmy Liu), a foreign exchange student who is hiding some pretty big secrets. Like that he’s actually on an otherworldly mission from the heavenly realm and has chosen Jin to serve as his guide. Part coming-of-age tale and part mythological fantasy, the series is a formidable adaptation of Gene Yang’s graphic novel.

Star Wars: Visions

For a franchise as varied and diverse as Star Wars, sometimes its output can feel a little same-y. That’s not the case with Visions. The point of the anthology series is to provide “all-new, creative” takes on the Star Wars universe. The first series, which premiered in 2021, featured nine installments from some of the best anime studios in Japan, including Kamikaze Douga and Trigger. The second anthology, which arrived on May 4, 2023, broadens the scope further, incorporating work from studios in India, Ireland, Spain, Chile, France, South Africa, the US, and the UK. If you’re looking for the best one-off tales from the Star Wars universe, look no further.

The Mandalorian

The Mandalorian was, and is, exactly what the Star Wars franchise needed. Everything about this Jon Favreau series, which premiered in 2019 and just concluded its third season in April, feels like classic TV—from the episodic adventures to the cameos. Set in the outer reaches of the galaxy, it follows a moody, masked Mandalorian bounty hunter (WIRED cover star Pedro Pascal) and really delivers on the hype with its retro-futuristic robots, salty Space Western vibes, lack of Skywalker baggage, and, of course, Grogu (aka Baby Yoda). The Mandalorian really set the tone for what a great Star Wars series could be, and while not every subsequent show has been as good, others, like Andor, have lived up to the precedent it set—and proved Star Wars stories can make for great TV. If you’re on the lookout for Season 4, you likely still have a while to wait: The latest reports predict it won’t arrive until at least November 2024.

Andor

Andor is something of a miracle. Created by Tony Gilroy, the filmmaker brought in to save Rogue One, it’s the origin story of one of that movie’s most beloved characters, Cassian Andor (Diego Luna). Set in the early years of the Rebellion, it charts Andor’s path to becoming one of the most integral of the Rebels. With a supporting cast that includes Fiona Shaw and Stellan Skarsgård, it also features a fantastic score from Nicholas Britell (Moonlight, Succession). After spending so much time with Mandalorians and Jedis, it’s a welcome reprieve and perhaps the closest thing to prestige TV the Star Wars universe has released yet,

Ms. Marvel

With Ms. Marvel, Disney manages to combine its knack for producing coming-of-age tween fare with its new role as caretaker of the MCU. Iman Vellani charms as Kamala Khan, an Avengers-obsessed high schooler from Jersey City who feels like an outsider in most areas of her life. But when a gold bangle arrives from her grandmother in Pakistan, Kamala begins to realize that all the time she’s spent fantasizing about what life would be like with superpowers might have been preparing her for real life. With one foot in the teen drama world and the other in the comic book universe, Ms. Marvel—which just happens to feature Marvel’s first Muslim superhero—marks yet another admirable step forward for the company in both innovation and inclusion. Vellani’s Ms. Marvel recently made the leap to the big screen; she can currently be seen starring alongside Brie Larson in The Marvels.

Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures

If helping to raise a new generation of Star Wars geeks was even a small part of your reason for having kids, this brand-new animated series, which is basically the Star Wars version of Muppet Babies, is a great place to start their education. Set during the High Republic era, approximately 200 years before the events of The Phantom Menace, it follows a group of young Jedis—Jedi Lites—who are sometimes stumbling their way through learning the ways of the Force. Like any good kid series, it also teaches important lessons about life and making a positive difference in the world.

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law

Tatiana Maslany is no stranger to complicated characters (see: Orphan Black) or to playing more than one side of a single character (see again: Orphan Black). In She-Hulk, she gets to hone her deft skills even further while amping up the silliness of it all. Maslany plays Jennifer Walters, the cousin of Bruce Banner/The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), with whom she shares that angry green gene. Ultimately, this turns out to be a boon for Walters—and the audience—when she is given the chance to head up a new branch at her law firm that’s dedicated to cases involving “superhumans” like herself. While Maslany could easily carry the show on her own (yet again, see: Orphan Black), an all-star supporting cast that includes Ruffalo, Jameela Jamil, Tim Roth, and Benedict Wong only adds to the fun and further cements the show’s place in the MCU.

Obi-Wan Kenobi

Ewan McGregor has not always had the kindest words for the Star Wars prequels in which he first played the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi—a role he inherited from Alec Guinness, who also had plenty of less-than-favorable things to say about the franchise. So it was somewhat surprising when Lucasfilm announced that McGregor would be donning his Jedi gear again to star in a stand-alone Star Wars series for Disney+. (Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy has already said there will not be a second season.) In many ways, however, it allowed McGregor and former costar Hayden Christensen to course-correct some of their earlier work, as it follows a downtrodden Obi-Wan attempting to process his personal and professional disappointment over losing Anakin Skywalker (Christensen) to the Dark Side.

The Beatles: Get Back

In January 1969, just more than a year before they announced they were breaking up, the Beatles allowed a film crew unprecedented access to the creative process and recording of Let It Be, which would be their final studio album. Fifty years later, Oscar-winning director Peter Jackson was presented with the nearly 60 hours of film footage and more than 150 hours of audio that resulted from this project, and he remastered it and turned it into a three-part docuseries. Whether you’re already a Beatles fan or not, the documentary is a fascinating look at the creative process of one of the music world’s most influential bands as they work against the clock to finish recording an album, decide to have a free concert on their label’s rooftop, and occasionally butt heads. Knowing what the subjects do not know—that this will be the last time they perform live together or record an album—only adds to the project’s intimacy. The miniseries won all five Emmys it was nominated for, including Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series.

Moon Knight

Oscar Isaac brings yet another marquee name to Marvel’s growing roster of all-star talents with Moon Night. Here, Isaac plays a man with dissociative identity disorder, giving us not one but three distinct characters: mercenary Mark Spector, British gift shop employee Steven Grant, and the mysterious—and seemingly ominous—Jake Lockley. Ultimately, he must face off against himself to get the answers he’s seeking. For Moon Knight, Isaac told Empire that he was thrilled to be able to do something “really fucking nutty on a major stage”—and he delivers.

The Book of Boba Fett

As with The Mandalorian, Jon Favreau helms this Disney series, in which the criminally unsung bounty hunter of the Star Wars films finally gets his day in the sun. The series is technically a spinoff of The Mandalorian and takes place in the same time frame, after the events of Return of the Jedi. That explains why Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison) and his partner Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen) are attempting to take over the underworld previously controlled by Jabba the Hutt.

The Muppet Show

While The Muppet Show, which ran for five seasons between 1976 and 1981, is considered a piece of classic television today, it wasn’t always smooth sailing for creator Jim Henson. Henson produced two one-off Muppet specials that were intended to take the show into prime time, but neither came to fruition. Fortunately, the Muppets did have a recurring gig in “The Land of Gorch” sketches that aired during Saturday Night Live’s first season, which—when that became a hit—gave Henson proof that there was a potentially massive audience for an adult-oriented Muppet show (not to mention celebrity connections to entice plenty of A-list names to host). The rest is Muppet history.

The Punisher

The Punisher is yet another Netflix-turned-Disney+ Marvel series that also happens to be a spinoff of Daredevil. Like Daredevil, the Punisher (real name: Frank Castle, played by Jon Bernthal) is a vigilante who seems to relish exacting revenge, regardless of the results. He and Daredevil operate within the same universe, and while the Punisher sort of admires Daredevil’s quest for true justice, Daredevil despises the Punisher’s by-any-means-necessary methods. Bernthal brings an intensity to the role that, while undoubtedly violent, also has a sense of humor about it.

DuckTales

If you’re looking to recapture the magic of the original DuckTales, in which rich old Uncle Scrooge McDuck looks after his nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie, the original cartoon (which ran from 1987 to 1990) is here. But so is the newfangled version, which features the same fun adventures and an all-star voice cast that includes David Tennant, Danny Pudi, Ben Schwartz, and Bobby Moynihan as Scrooge, Huey, Dewey, and Louie, respectively.

Boy Meets World

If ABC’s TGIF lineup wasn’t a part of your night as a kid, you clearly didn’t grow up in the ’90s. But Disney+ is happy to right that wrong by housing all seven seasons of the teen sitcom in its library. Corey Matthews (Ben Savage) deals with the ups and downs of growing up and ever-evolving relationships with friends and family—plus that one teacher, Mr. Feeny (William Daniels)—who always has the right answer to your problems, whether you like it or not. As the show progressed and the kids grew up, serious issues like drugs and sex were thrown into the mix, which didn’t always please the network. When the show aired on the original Disney Channel, a few episodes weren’t included in the lineup because of the more mature subject matter. You can also check out all three seasons of Girl Meets World, the series reboot (which features Corey as the parent and Mr. Feeny) when you’re done.

Jessica Jones

Just about six months after Daredevil arrived on the scene, Netflix took another chance on a Marvel property with Jessica Jones. In this dark dive into the world of superheroes, Krysten Ritter plays a private investigator who gave up her days as a superhero after a major catastrophe. But you can’t deny who you are, as Jessica discovers when it seems like every case that comes her way forces her to confront her past—and the supervillain Kilgrave (David Tennant), who turned her into a shell of her former self.

Hawkeye

Yet another in an ever growing string of spinoff TV shows from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Hawkeye gives some long overdue attention to Jeremy Renner’s Clint Barton, who in many ways has often seemed like the forgotten Avenger. The supernaturally skilled archer is in most of the ensemble Avengers films, but this Disney+ series marks his first solo outing. The show sees Hawkeye teaming up with Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld), a precocious twentysomething who shares his skills for slinging arrows but lacks his eye for danger. It’s set during the holidays, and there are shades of Die Hard as the eponymous character tries to save the day and make it home in time for Christmas. Let the arguments about whether it’s a Christmas TV show begin.

Monsters at Work

Monsters at Work is the Monsters, Inc. spinoff you didn’t know you needed. It picks up the action six months after the end of the iconic Pixar movie—after Sully and his friend and colleague Mike (a giant green eyeball) have reworked the Monstropolis energy grid to run on laughter instead of children’s screams. The show, which includes elements of a workplace comedy, premiered in the summer of 2021 and has a second season (presumably) coming later this year.

The Bad Batch

Yes, Disney really is milking its Star Wars properties for all they’re worth. The Bad Batch is an animated spinoff series set in the aftermath of the Clone Wars, between the prequel trilogy and the original trilogy in the overarching timeline. It follows a group of clone soldiers with genetic defects that give them individual traits and personalities, making them well suited to taking on daring mercenary missions. There are 16 episodes apiece in the first two seasons, with a third and final season scheduled to premiere in 2024.

WandaVision

This slow-burning sitcom parody is unexpectedly compelling. For the first couple of episodes, even hardened Marvel fans will have very little idea what’s going on, as Avengers Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany) live out an idyllic family life in black-and-white 1950s suburbia. Quickly, it becomes clear that something is wrong in the quiet town of Westview, as the world of the show ties into the wider MCU. Olsen reprises her role in Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange sequel, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which picks up right after the events of WandaVision. Though there will not be a second season, fan-favorite Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) is getting a spinoff, Agatha: Darkhold Diaries, which is expected to drop in late 2024.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

After the surreal sitcom stylings of WandaVision, the second Marvel show to land on Disney+ covers more familiar ground. It’s an action-packed thriller that follows Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) and Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) as they try to fill the void left by Captain America in the months after the events of Avengers: Endgame.

Star Wars Rebels

Accessible for kids and adults alike—and undoubtedly one of the best Star Wars TV series on Disney+—this animated series follows a group of rebels led by the former Jedi Kanan Jarrus (Freddie Prinze Jr.) and featuring his force-sensitive Padawan, Ezra Bridger (Ezra Gray). Fan favorite Ahsoka Tano (Ashley Eckstein) is another regular character across its four seasons, which do a neat job of fleshing out the time between the end of the prequel trilogy and the beginning of the original one.

The Simpsons

Have you got some time on your hands? Well, the 34 seasons of The Simpsons currently streaming on Disney+ should keep you busy. What can be said about one of the longest-running—and arguably most famous—animated TV shows ever made? While the first season is a little patchy by today’s standards, and there are ongoing arguments about when the show went from essential viewing to neglected cash cow, whatever your view, there are literally weeks worth of entertainment here.

X-Men: The Animated Series

If you really want to nerd out, this critically acclaimed animated X-Men series from the ’90s is worth a watch. In fact, the first two films in the live-action movie franchise drew heavily from this cartoon, which serves as a nice reminder of what can be done with rich source material.

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

This seven-season series, which is for serious Marvel fans, revolves around S.H.I.E.L.D.’s less super agents, led by Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg). The first season takes a while to warm up, but it really hits its stride in its second and especially third seasons, and it eventually ramps up with a complex plot that ties into the films.

Agent Carter

Agent Carter is a better show than Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., but it struggled to find an audience during its two seasons. Hayley Atwell reprises her role as Peggy Carter from several MCU films in this 1940s-set series, where she doubles as an agent for the US government while helping Howard Stark (Tony’s dad) out of more than one jam. The two seasons stretch to only 18 episodes, so it’s a quick watch, but one worth making the time for.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

This is another Star Wars animated show worth seeking out, though it’s not to be confused with the equally worthy 2003 animated series Star Wars: Clone Wars from legendary Samurai Jack creator Genndy Tartakovsky. Both series deal with the period between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith and chronicle the rise of Anakin Skywalker from arrogant Padawan to powerful Jedi Master.

Inside Pixar

There’s a lot of behind-the-scenes content on Disney+. These are short clips that, in another age, would have been confined to the DVD extras menu. But this series of 20-minute documentaries on different Pixar movies offers a fascinating insight into the animated hit machine.

What If …?

Here’s an animated series based on one simple question: What if? The Watcher, played by Jeffrey Wright, is an extraterrestrial being who observes the multiverse, occasionally making minor changes to influence events. This series looks at how events in the Marvel movies would have turned out differently if they’d had a Sliding Doors moment. The first episode follows an alternate timeline in which Steve Rogers remains a scrawny sidekick and Agent Carter becomes a Union Jack-draped super soldier. Actors from the films reprise their roles, including Josh Brolin as Thanos, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, and Karen Gillan as Nebula. A second season was originally promised to debut in early 2023, but it has suffered a few setbacks. Its first new episode is currently scheduled to drop December 22.

The SAG Deal Sends a Clear Message About AI and Workers

The SAG Deal Sends a Clear Message About AI and Workers

On Monday, the leadership of the Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists held a members-only webinar to discuss the contract the union tentatively agreed upon last week with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. If ratified, the contract will officially end the longest labor strike in the guild’s history.

For many in the industry, artificial intelligence was one of the strike’s most contentious, fear-inducing components. Over the weekend, SAG released details of its agreed AI terms, an expansive set of protections that require consent and compensation for all actors, regardless of status. With this agreement, SAG has gone substantially further than the Directors Guild of America or the Writers Guild of America, who preceded the group in coming to terms with the AMPTP. This isn’t to say that SAG succeeded where the other unions failed but that actors face more of an immediate, existential threat from machine-learning advances and other computer-generated technologies.

The SAG deal is similar to the DGA and WGA deals in that it demands protections for any instance where machine-learning tools are used to manipulate or exploit their work. All three unions have claimed their AI agreements are “historic” and “protective,” but whether one agrees with that or not, these deals function as important guideposts. AI doesn’t just posit a threat to writers and actors—it has ramifications for workers in all fields, creative or otherwise.

For those looking to Hollywood’s labor struggles as a blueprint for how to deal with AI in their own disputes, it’s important that these deals have the right protections, so I understand those who have questioned them or pushed them to be more stringent. I’m among them. But there is a point at which we are pushing for things that cannot be accomplished in this round of negotiations and may not need to be pushed for at all.

To better understand what the public generally calls AI and its perceived threat, I spent months during the strike meeting with many of the leading engineers and tech experts in machine-learning and legal scholars in both Big Tech and copyright law.

The essence of what I learned confirmed three key points: The first is that the gravest threats are not what we hear most spoken about in the news—most of the people whom machine-learning tools will negatively impact aren’t the privileged but low- and working-class laborers and marginalized and minority groups, due to the inherent biases within the technology. The second point is that the studios are as threatened by the rise and unregulated power of Big Tech as the creative workforce, something I wrote about in detail earlier in the strike here and that WIRED’s Angela Watercutter astutely expanded upon here.

Will Life Be Better in the Metaverse?

Will Life Be Better in the Metaverse?

Once several generations had come and gone and nothing of that sort had happened, other interpretations began to emerge. Maybe Jesus had been speaking about the afterlife and the more ethereal promises of heaven? Maybe the kingdom was merely the steady cumulation of justice and equality that humans were tasked with bringing about?

When I was growing up in the church, the popular evangelical interpretation was “inaugurated eschatology,” which held that the kingdom is both “now” and “not yet.” All the glories of heaven are still to come, and yet we can already experience a glimpse of them here on earth. It’s a somewhat inelegant interpretation, one that in hindsight feels like an attempt to have (quite literally) the best of both worlds: Believers can enjoy paradise in the present and also later in heaven. It’s this theological framework that comes to mind when I hear Zuckerberg go on about the physical world, AR, VR, and the porous borders between them. When he speaks about existing “mixed reality” technologies as an ontological pit stop on the road to a fully immersive virtual paradise, he sounds (to my ears, at least) an awful lot like the theologian George Eldon Ladd, who once wrote that heaven is “not only an eschatological gift belonging to the Age to Come; it is also a gift to be received in the old aeon.”

All technological aspirations are, when you get down to it, eschatological narratives. We occupants of the modern world believe implicitly that we are enmeshed in a story of progress that’s building toward a blinding transformation (the Singularity, the Omega Point, the descent of the True and Only Metaverse) that promises to radically alter reality as we know it. It’s a story that is as robust and as flexible as any religious prophecy. Any technological failure can be reabsorbed into the narrative, becoming yet another obstacle that technology will one day overcome.

One of the most appealing aspects of the metaverse, for me, is the promise of being delivered from the digital–­physical dualism mediated by screens and experiencing, once again, a more seamless relationship with “reality” (whatever that might be).

But maybe we are wrong to look so intently to the future for our salvation. Although I am no longer a believer myself, when I revisit Christ’s promises about the kingdom, I can’t help thinking that he was widely misunderstood. When the Pharisees asked him, point-blank, when the kingdom would arrive, he replied, “The kingdom of God is within you.” It’s a riddle that suggests this paradise does not belong to the future at all, but is rather an individual spiritual realm anyone can access, here and now. In his Confessions, Saint Augustine, sounding not unlike a Buddhist or Taoist sage, marveled at the fact that the wholeness he’d long sought in the external world was “within me the whole time.”

When you describe, Virtual, your longing to live in a digital simulation that resembles reality but is somehow better, I can’t help thinking that we have forgotten the original metaverse we already have within us—the human imagination. Reality, as we experience it, is intrinsically augmented—by our hopes and fears, our idle daydreams and our garish nightmares. This inner world, invisible and omnipresent, has given rise to all religious longings and has produced every technological and artistic wonder that has ever appeared among us. Indeed, it is the source and seed of the metaverse itself, which originated, like all inventions, as the vaporous wisp of an idea. Even now, amid the persistent, time-bound entropy of the physical world, you can access this virtual realm whenever you’d like, from anywhere in the world—no $300 headset required. It will be precisely as thrilling as you want it to be.

Faithfully,

Cloud


Be advised that CLOUD SUPPORT is experiencing higher than normal wait times and appreciates your patience.

26 Outdoor Gift Ideas (2023): Camp Cookware, Bike Accessories, Outdoor Apparel

26 Outdoor Gift Ideas (2023): Camp Cookware, Bike Accessories, Outdoor Apparel

Next time you tell that outdoorsy friend or family member to take a hike, make sure they head into the great outside equipped to enjoy it. In this guide, we have more than two dozen gift recommendations ranging from a titanium French press to a wool hat woven in Kathmandu. Our Gear team has tested everything on this list in the past few years.

Check our outdoor gear guides for more ideas, like Hiking 101, Best Bike Accessories, Best Tents, Best Barefoot Shoes, and Best Climbing Gear for Beginners.

Updated November 2023: We’ve added many new items, including bike liner shorts, a charcoal grill, a titanium French press, and more. We’ve also updated pricing and availability.

Special offer for Gear readers: Get WIRED for just $5 ($25 off). This includes unlimited access to WIRED.com, full Gear coverage, and subscriber-only newsletters. Subscriptions help fund the work we do every day.

‘The Beast Adjoins’ Is Seriously Creepy Sci-Fi

‘The Beast Adjoins’ Is Seriously Creepy Sci-Fi

The new anthology The Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy 2021 collects 20 of the best short stories of the year. Series editor John Joseph Adams was particularly impressed with Ted Kosmatka’s story “The Beast Adjoins,” which presents a fresh take on the idea of an AI uprising.

“It’s so great,” Adams says in Episode 492 of the Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast. “It pushes all the sense-of-wonder buttons; it’s got all this cool character stuff in there. It feels enormous. There’s so much going on in the story. I just love it.”

The story riffs on the Von Neumann-Wigner interpretation of quantum mechanics, positing a future in which advanced AIs are unable to function without humans present. Guest editor Veronica Roth, author of Divergent, found the story extremely creepy. “I reached the part where the machines were using people attached to the front of themselves to keep time moving, and I was like, ‘This is revolting. I love it,’” she says. “It has haunted me ever since I read it. I can’t stop thinking about it.”

Fantasy author Yohanca Delgado agrees that “The Beast Adjoins” is an unsettling story. “It’s such a beautifully realized and chilling premise, this reversal of what we imagine AI can do for us,” she says. “There’s a passage where [the AIs] are creating human tail lights—humans in jars that are just an eye and a blob of flesh. It’s such incredibly horrific writing. I’m a huge fan.”

For now “The Beast Adjoins” exists only as a stand-alone short story, but Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy host David Barr Kirtley wonders if the story could be expanded. “I just feel like this is such an interesting premise—these AIs that can only function when humans are observing them,” he says. “I feel like there are probably a lot of other narratives you could spin out of that.”

Listen to the complete interview with John Joseph Adams, Veronica Roth, and Yohanca Delgado in Episode 492 of Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy (above). And check out some highlights from the discussion below.

Yohanca Delgado on the Clarion workshop:

“At Clarion I skipped a week, and was just rocking back and forth in a panic in my room, because I was like, ‘I have to write something. I have this idea, and I can’t seem to write something else, but I also feel—you know that feeling when you want to write something, but you’re not quite ready? Like, you don’t feel like you’re the writer you need to be to tackle it yet … And the schedule at Clarion is relentless. I’d already missed a week, I couldn’t miss another one. I talked to Andy Duncan, who is a wonderful human, and basically he was like, ‘I don’t understand why you’re not just doing this.’ Which is sometimes what you need to hear. You need somebody to shake you by the shoulders and tell you, ‘Just go do it.’”

Yohanca Delgado on her story “Our Language”:

“My family is from the Dominican Republic and Cuba. I didn’t know of any Latin American or Caribbean monsters, so I set off on this research project to find them … The ciguapa is this woman—there are some stories that have it be male as well, but I was interested more specifically in the idea of it being a woman—who is very small and charming, in a feral way, and whose legs grow backwards. I found that to be a really interesting monster to think about. What would her powers be? What does it all mean? In researching this, I found that it’s really rooted in indigenous and enslaved folks’ stories. Because her real superpower was being able to escape. And I thought that dovetailed really beautifully with some conversations around gender and gender oppression.”

John Joseph Adams on the pandemic:

“Most people who are publishing a science fiction/fantasy magazine are not doing it as a job—it’s a side thing that they’re doing. They have some other regular job that pays the bills. So maybe because they were saving an hour commute to and from work every day, they had more time to work on their [magazines]. I honestly would have expected there to be a lot more closing up and ceasing publication, just because a lot of people lost their jobs once the pandemic hit, and there was just a lot of belt-tightening that was needed for almost everyone. So I was really surprised to see that everyone was so resilient. Maybe it was partly because everyone was thinking, ‘People need this right now.’ So it was more important to stick around, rather than close up, because we need this to look forward to when we’re dealing with all this scary bleakness out in the real world.”

David Barr Kirtley on “The Pill” by Meg Elison:

“One way in which this story is science fiction, in a really good way, is it doesn’t just present an idea then stick with that static situation, it keeps complicating it and keeps introducing these new twists … One of the things that is often said about science fiction is that a science fiction writer’s job isn’t to predict the automobile—anyone could predict the automobile. Your job is to predict the Interstate Highway System and the suburbs, to look at the second-order effects of these technological changes. And I thought the story functioned really well in that way as a science fiction story, where it’s not just about ‘How does this new technology affect the protagonist?’—though it certainly goes into that—but also ‘How does it affect the wider society?’”


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