Listening to technology CEOs like Mark Zuckerberg or Satya Nadella, the Metaverse is the future of the Internet . Or is it perhaps a video game? Or a Tiktok version? We still don’t understand it and it is easy to be confused, however there are certain characteristics and clues that can make our ideas clearer.
To some extent, talking about what it means is a bit like having a discussion about what “the Internet” means in the 1970s. The building blocks of a new form of communication were in the process of being created, but no one could really know what reality would be like. So, while we can assure you that the internet was coming, not all ideas of what it would be like were true.
We could initially say that the Metaverse is the purest version of cyberspace to try to understand what this innovation is about and ninety percent of the time, the meaning will not change substantially. This is because the term doesn’t really refer to a specific type of technology, but rather a broad change in the way we interact with technology. And it’s entirely possible that the term itself will become just as outdated when the specific technology it describes becomes commonplace.
Virtual Reality in the Metaverse
Broadly speaking, the technologies that make up the Metaverse can include virtual reality – characterized by persistent digital alternate worlds that continue to exist even when not being “played” – as well as such as augmented reality that combines aspects of the digital and physical worlds. However, these spaces do not need to be accessed exclusively through Virtual Reality or Augmented Reality. A virtual world, such as aspects of Fortnite which can be accessed through PCs, game consoles and even phones, could already be a part of this new reality.
We have a vague idea of the things that currently exist that we could call Metaverse, and we know what big companies are investing in the idea, but we still don’t know what it is. Facebook suggests including fake houses where you can invite all your friends to hang out. Microsoft seems to think it could include virtual meeting rooms for training new employees or chatting with your coworkers remotely.
It is important to keep all this context in mind because, although it is tempting to compare the ideas of the proto-metaverse that we have today with the first Internet and assume that everything will improve and It will progress linearly that is not a fact. There’s no guarantee that people will want to hang out legless in a virtual office or play poker with Dreamworks’ Mark Zuckerberg, much less that the technology, when it becomes real, will ever be fluid enough. enough to take the place of what smartphones and computers are today.
It may even be the case that any real Metaverse is little more than some VR games and digital avatars on Zoom calls, but above all something we can continue to consider as part of the internet.