What is a metaverse, exactly?

Everything you never wanted to know about the future.

 For tech CEOs like Mark Zuckerberg or Satya Nadella to talk about, Metaverse is the future of the Internet. Or is it a video game? Or maybe it's a deeper uncomfortable, worse version of Zoom? It's hard to say.

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Talking to some extent about what "Metaverse" means is like debating the meaning of "Internet" in the 1970s. Building blocks of a new form of communication were in the process of being built, but no one really knew what reality would be like. So while this was true, at the time the "Internet" was coming up, not every idea was correct.

On the other hand, there is a lot of marketing hype surrounding this idea of Metaverse. Facebook, in particular, is in a particularly vulnerable position after Apple's move to restrict ad tracking. It's impossible to separate Facebook's future vision, where everyone has a digital closet, given the fact that Facebook really wants to make money by selling virtual clothes.

So, with all of that in mind;

Seriously, what does 'meteors' mean?

To help you understand how confusing and complicated the term "The Metaverse" can be, here is an exercise: Replace "The Metaverse" mentally with "Cyberspace" in a sentence. Ninety per cent of the time, the meaning will not change significantly. This is because the term does not really refer to a specific type of technology, but to a wide variety of ways we deal with technology. And the term may eventually grow just as old until it becomes commonplace as a specific technique once described. Broadly speaking, the technologies that make up the Metaverse can include virtual reality; a permanent virtual world feature that exists even when you are not playing, as well as augmented reality that mixes aspects of the digital and physical world. It is. However, these locations do not have to be obtained exclusively by VR or AR. A virtual world, like Fortnite, which can be accessed by computers, game consoles and even phones, can be a metaphor. It also translates into the digital economy, where consumers can create, buy and sell goods. And, in the most idealistic vision of Metavers, it's interactive, allowing you to move virtual items like clothes or cars from one platform to another. In the original world, the elephants are exposed to the aggression of the fast dwarfs. Right now, most platforms have virtual identities, avatars, and inventory linked to a single platform, but a metaverse can allow you to create a persona that you can easily take with you wherever you go wherever you go. can copy profile photo from a network. Social. What this all means is difficult to analyze, because when you hear explanations like the one above, the understandable response is, "Wait, does it not already exist? World of Warcraft, for example, is a permanent virtual world where people can buy and sell goods Fortnite has virtual experiences like concerts and an exhibit where you can learn about Rick Sanchez MLK Jr. You can put on an Oculus headset and stay in your personal virtual home.What does "Metaverse" really mean, just ' a new kind of video game? Well yes and no. To say that Fortnight is "Metaverse" would be like calling Google "Internet". Even if you could theoretically spend most of your time in Fortnite socializing, buying things, learning, and playing, that does not necessarily mean that it covers the full scope of the Metaverse. Surround On the other hand, just as it would be fair to say that Google builds parts of the Internet, from physical data centers to security layers, it's also true that the creators of Fortnite build parts of the Epic Games Metaverse. And it's not just the company that does it. Some of this work will be done by technology giants like Microsoft and Facebook, which I recently renamed Meta to reflect this work, though we are not yet used to the name. There are many other different companies, including Nvidia, Unity, Roblox and even Snap, that are building infrastructure that can become a meteorite. It is at this point that most debates about what is included in the Metaverse begin to stall. We have a vague idea of ​​what we might call metavers at the moment, and we know which companies are investing in this idea, but we do not yet know what it is. Facebook sorry meta not found yet think it will include fake houses where you can invite all your friends to hang out. Microsoft believes it can include virtual meeting rooms to train new employees or to communicate with your remote associates.

It is at this point that most debates about what is included in the Metaverse begin to stall. We have a vague idea of ​​what we might call metavers at the moment, and we know which companies are investing in this idea, but we do not yet know what it is. Facebook sorry meta not found yet think it will include fake houses where you can invite all your friends to hang out. Microsoft believes it can include virtual meeting rooms to train new employees or to communicate with your remote associates.

Issues of these futuristic ideas range from optimistic to fan fiction. On one occasion during Meta's ... presentation on Metaverse, the company showed a scene where a young woman sitting on her couch was browsing Instagram while watching a video posted by a friend of a concert uploaded. What is happening in the whole world?

The video becomes part of the concert, the woman appears in an Avengers-style hologram. She has the ability to make eye contact with her friend who is physically there, they can both hear the concert and they can see the text floating on stage. It sounds great, but it does not really promote any real product, or any potential for the future. In fact, it brings us to the biggest problem with "Metaverse".

Why is a hologram included in Metaverse?

When the Internet first appeared, it started with a series of technological innovations, such as the ability of computers to communicate with each other over long distances, or the ability to switch from one web page to another. These technical features were the building blocks that were then used to build the abstract structures through which we know the internet: websites, applications, social networks and everything else that depended on these building blocks. And that means saying nothing about the compatibility of interface inventions that are not strictly part of the Internet, but that are necessary for it to work, such as screens, keyboards, mice, and touch screens.

With the Metaverse, there are some new basics, such as the ability to host hundreds of people on a single instance of a server (ideally, future versions of the Metaverse can handle thousands or millions of people at a time). Or tracking tools that distinguish where a person is looking or where their hands are. This new technology can inspire the future and give meaning.

However, some limitations may be impossible to overcome. When technology companies like Microsoft or Fa-Meta show imaginary videos of their future vision, they often shed light on how people will deal with the Metaverse. VR headsets are still very complex and most people experience dizziness or physical pain if they wear them for too long. Augmented reality glasses face a similar dilemma, and at the top of the list of important questions is how people can wear them in public without looking like a big jerk.

So how do technology companies showcase their technological ideas without really showing the reality of heavy headpieces and doorknobs? Until now, their basic solution was to build technology from scratch. A holographic woman from the meta-presentation? I hate it to dispel illusions, but that's not possible with the latest version of current technology.

Unlike digital avatars that are tracked by motion, which is currently kind of the genre but will one day get better, there is no Genki version to display a three-dimensional image in the air without strictly controlled conditions. It does not matter what Iron Man tells you. Perhaps this should be understood from the images presented by the mirrors; in the demo video, however, the two women wear identical glasses, but further are assumed about the physical capabilities of the compact glasses. , which Snap can tell you is not the case. Easy problem to solve.

This kind of look at reality is often present in video demos of how Metaverse can work. Another demonstration by Meta shows characters floating in space - is this person tied to a deep vein or are they just sitting at a table? A person represented by a hologram; does the person have a headset, and if so, how is his or her face scanned? And at points, a person grabs the virtual items, but then grabs the objects that touch their physical hand.

This demo raises more questions than its answers.

On a certain level, it's good. Microsoft, Meta and every other company that shows such wild demonstrations try to give an artistic impression of what the future may hold, and do not necessarily answer every technical question. It's an ancient tradition that goes back to the AT&T demo of a voice-controlled folding phone that can magically erase people from photos and create 3D models, all in the same way, this time. Seems impossible.

However, this kind of aspiring-think-as-technology demo leaves us in a position where it is difficult to predict what aspects of the different views of the Metaverse will one day really be. If VR and AR headsets are comfortable and inexpensive enough for people to wear daily - a coffee "ash" - then perhaps the idea of ​​a virtual poker game where your friends have robots and holograms floating around in space. If not, you can always run a spreadsheet simulator on a discarded video call.

The brightness of VR and AR also obscures the more unusual aspects of meteors that are more likely to result. It will be fairly easy for technology companies to create an open digital avatar standard, a type of file that includes features that you can insert into character creators; such as eye color, hairstyle, or clothing options - and you let it go everywhere. . There is no need to make a more comfortable VR headset.

But it's not fun to think about.

What is Metaverse now?

The paradox of the definition of metaverse is that you have to remove the present to become the future. We already have MMOs that deal mainly with the virtual world, digital concerts, video calls with people from all over the world, online avatars and trading platforms. So to sell these things as a new vision of the world, there has to be something new.

Spend a lot of time talking about the Metaverse and someone will inevitably refer to legendary stories like Snow Crash, a 1992 novel that coined the term "Metaverse", or Ready Player One, which contains a virtual reality world. Taken down where everyone has jobs, games and shops. Combined with the general pop culture idea of ​​holograms and head-on displays (Iron Man has basically worn anything in the last 10 of his movies), these stories serve as a metaphorical reference to the metaverse, a metaverse called technology . Companies can actually sell like a commodity. New - looks like.

Replace "The Metaverse" mentally with "Cyberspace" in a sentence. 90% of the time, the meaning will not change significantly.

This kind of publicity is just as much part of the meteor idea as any other. After all, it's no surprise that people promote things like NFTs; cryptographic tokens that can serve as certificates of ownership of digital items, also linked to the idea of ​​different; Of course, NFTs are bad for the environment, but if it can be argued that these signs could be the digital key to your virtual mansion on Roblox, then move fast. You've turned your passion for buying memes into an important piece of infrastructure for the future of the internet (and possibly the value of all the cryptocurrencies you own).

This context is important to keep in mind as it is not the case to compare the prototype ideas we have with the early internet and assume that everything will improve and grow linearly. There is no guarantee that people without legs will want to walk around the virtual office or play poker with Mark Zuckerberg's DreamWorks, let alone whether VR and AR technology will ever be as seamless as it is today. There are all kinds of smartphones and computers.

It may be that some real zoom calls from the "Metaverse" are little more than a few cute VR games and digital avatars, but that's mostly just what we still think of as the internet.