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In the science fiction movie Ready Player One, people interacted almost entirely via a virtual realm called “The OASIS.” They created avatars, played games together, and otherwise socialized as we do in what we will call “meatspace”—a shorthand for the offline, “real” world. But the line between cyberspace and meatspace is becoming blurrier as the Internet impacts more aspects of our daily life. With that in mind, the idea of a “metaverse” will become more relevant. Read on to learn more about the future of the Internet—as well as, perhaps, reality itself.
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We must make a distinction here: the idea of a metaverse has been around long before it made headlines. The term “metaverse” has been around since the 1992 sci-fi novel Snow Crash. The word can refer to any 3D world that uses virtual reality to make an immersive, livable world. The virtual world of Second Life is often described as the first metaverse. Games like VRChat, Minecraft, World of Warcraft, and Roblox have also been cited as part of and precursors to the Metaverse as we know it.
The Metaverse is a collective term for immersive, avatar-based interaction on the decentralized Internet (Web3). Along with users playing games and chatting, businesses plan to use the Metaverse to perform transactions, hold meetings, and give virtual tours of houses. These experiences can collectively be called “XR”—a term that encompasses virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR). The idea is to create an immersive digital world that functions like meatspace but without the limits of physical space or time.
One of the most appealing aspects of the Metaverse is that you don’t have to look like yourself. If someone wants blue hair on their avatar, they can get it without going to a salon. Some people on The Sims 4 play as vampires, and older versions let people play as cats. The VRChat program was once dominated by a talking red echidna from Uganda. Whichever metaverse platform allows users to play as dragons will make a fortune. The sky's the limit.
Readers are probably wondering if there are any downsides to the Metaverse. The short answer is yes, there are. As with any form of social media, the Metaverse can be addictive. Furthermore, any addiction to computers or gaming can lead to obesity, increased risk of heart failure, and other issues.
A more pressing concern is the viability of the Metaverse. For the Metaverse to work, there must be standardization across multiple software platforms. As things stand, virtual reality platforms are both expensive and unwieldy. Hardware and software must be perfectly intertwined to make the theoretical metaverse work as well as possible.
Finally, there are worries about security. Would important user data be secure? Would there be any measures against sexual harassment or other illegal activities? These questions cannot be answered yet; the Metaverse is still in its infancy.
Many concerns about the Metaverse stem from worries surrounding social media and the Internet as they are, taken to the nth degree. If something is troubling about the Internet as it stands, the Metaverse will probably amplify that problem.
The recent prevalence of the Metaverse is due to a remarkable confluence of factors. The first is that the Metaverse has been steadily evolving since the dawn of the Internet. We have gone from text-based role playing to games like The Sims and Final Fantasy XIV which let users interact with each other as cats and vampires. These interactions have graphics, voice chat, and haptics that make for immersive experiences.
But the biggest reason that businesses showed interest in the Metaverse was the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to quarantine restrictions, many businesses had to go digital. Zoom, a relatively obscure platform that had been around since 2011, exploded in popularity because meetings could no longer be held in person. With employees unable to work in meatspace, businesses realized that many of their operations could be entirely digital. From virtual classrooms to job training and staff meetings, companies had to invent ways to train, work, and meet with staff online.
More and more assets went into these digital projects. This peaked with Facebook’s declaration that it would change its name to “Meta” and focus on making a virtual platform through which people could interact.
The Metaverse is often described as “the future of the Internet.” This is mostly correct. The Internet has been edging toward creating immersive virtual worlds for users to interact in. Due to recent events, businesses have started to see the potential in virtual classrooms and workspaces. It seems as though the Metaverse is inevitable.
But we should proceed with caution. There are serious security risks that the new Metaverse will need solutions for. People who are already addicted to video games may fall deeper down the rabbit hole as the Metaverse becomes more immersive. We are edging closer to “The OASIS,” but how long it will take us to get there is anybody’s guess.
The term “metaverse” refers to any form of immersive, extended virtual reality (including augmented and mixed reality) through which users can interact, perform transactions, and otherwise behave as they do in the physical world. A metaverse is not just a virtual world, but a virtual living space. The Metaverse is a future version of that that is decentralized, meaning that nobody owns it and that it is open to anybody who can access it.
Not in its final form, no. Certain online games (Horizon Worlds and Decentraland, for example) allow people to chat using avatars and text/voice, and many things about businesses have moved online. As things stand, we are moving in the direction of the Metaverse, but are not there yet.
Facebook’s Meta is one potential version of the Metaverse. The concept has been around for decades, and every new iteration is a hint at its final form. Facebook’s Meta is focused on making a virtual space for social networking and little else.
We don’t know. Many of the risks associated with excessive Internet users are likely to increase as we edge closer and closer to the eventual Metaverse. With the Metaverse’s recent relevance, however, these problems will be fixed sooner rather than later.
Virtual reality is an immersive visual medium that makes the user believe that they are in completely different surroundings. Augmented reality layers digital images onto things in the real world, such as the creatures in Pokémon Go. Mixed reality covers virtual objects that interact with users in the real world. “XR” combines all three ideas into one abbreviation.
