Despite the drawbacks of his approach and the unfortunate flaws in execution, Persico succeeds in showing that history is not a never-ending succession of contingent self-descriptions. It is one ultimately constituted by our questioning search for God who, as Abraham Joshua Heschel reminds us, is always himself “searching for man.”  
French philosopher Gabriel Marcel’s writings on “intersubjectivity” help us see why the metaverse impedes our ability to grasp reality’s most important truths. When every aspect of how I present myself to others is a choice, all my relations become objects of manipulation. Without the authentic connections of involved, concrete, and personal relationships, I become irretrievably disconnected from reality.