Is it Possible to Describe the Metaverse?

All the information you've always wanted to know about the future of discussing the future.(Can You Explain What the Metaverse Is?)

I have heard tech CEOs such as Satya Nadella and Mark Zuckerberg discuss how the internet will evolve into something called the metaverse. Instead, it's a video game. Or is it simply a more unpleasant iteration of Zoom? It's hard to determine.

A year and a half has passed since Facebook declared it will be changing its name to Meta and concentrating on the developing "metaverse." Since then, the phrase has become almost completely useless. While Roblox facilitates user-generated video games, Meta is developing a VR social network, and some firms are providing little more than glitchy gaming worlds with NFTs attached.

Proponents ranging from small, niche firms to large tech companies have contended that the metaverse's lack of coherence is due to its ongoing development and infancy, making it difficult to characterize. For instance, not all expectations about what the internet will eventually look like were realized in the 1970s.

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However, despite the fact that the major internet companies are beginning to invest in generative AI, a lot of money and marketing hype has already been invested on promoting the concept of "the metaverse." Particularly Facebook is in a precarious position because of Apple's decision to restrict ad tracking, which negatively impacted the company's earnings. Facebook's vision of a world where everyone has a digital wardrobe to browse through and its genuine desire to turn a profit from virtual clothing sales are inseparable. However, Facebook is not the only business that may profit monetarily from the hoopla around the metaverse

Keeping all of that in mind, now

Sincerely, What Is the "Metaverse"?

Here's an experiment to help you see how nebulous the word "the metaverse" might be: In your mind, substitute "cyberspace" for "the metaverse" in a sentence. Nine times out of ten, the meaning won't vary all that much. This is because the phrase genuinely describes a wide (and frequently hypothetical) change in the way we engage with technology rather than any one particular kind of technology. 

Nine times out of ten, the meaning won't vary all that much. This is because the phrase genuinely describes a wide (and frequently hypothetical) change in the way we engage with technology rather than any one particular kind of technology. And as the particular technology that the name previously denoted becomes mainstream, it's certainly likely that the term itself may soon become just as archaic.

In general, the technologies that businesses allude to when discussing "the metaverse" might include augmented reality, which blends elements of the digital and physical worlds, and virtual reality, which is defined by persistent virtual worlds that remain even when you're not playing. It's not necessary, though, for certain areas to just be accessible through VR or AR. Virtual worlds have begun calling themselves “the metaverse.” Examples of these worlds include parts of Fortnite that are accessible via PCs, game consoles, and even smartphones.

A lot of businesses that have joined the metaverse bandwagon also hope to build a new digital marketplace where people may produce, purchase, and trade items. Though it's more difficult than it seems, under the more idealized conceptions of the metaverse, you can move virtual goods like vehicles or clothes from one platform to another. While some supporters assert that emerging technologies like as NFTs can enable movable digital assets, this is patently untrue, and moving goods across virtual worlds or video games is an incredibly difficult undertaking that no one firm can do.

It's challenging to interpret anything since, upon hearing descriptions such as the ones above, one would reasonably ask, "Wait, doesn't that exist already?" World of Warcraft is one instance of an ongoing virtual marketplace where users can trade goods. Through a Fortnite display and other online events like concerts, Rick Sanchez could learn about MLK Jr. If you put on an Oculus headset, you can step inside your own virtual home. Is that what "the metaverse" really means? Merely a few fresh genres of video games?

Yes and no, then. It would be similar to stating Google is "the internet" if Fortnite were to be called "the metaverse." You may socialize, shop, study, play games, and spend a lot of time in Fortnite, but it doesn't always indicate that you've experienced all that individuals and businesses mean when they refer to "the metaverse." In the same way that Google does not construct the entire internet; it just constructs portions of it, such as physical data centers and security layers. 

Not just Microsoft and Meta, two of the biggest tech companies in the world, are developing technology for virtual world interaction. Along with several smaller businesses and startups, many more major corporations are constructing the necessary infrastructure to produce better virtual worlds that more closely resemble our real-world experiences, such as Nvidia, Unity, Roblox, and even Snap.

For instance, in order to strengthen its potent Unreal Engine 5 platform, Epic has purchased a number of businesses that assist in the creation or distribution of digital assets. Unreal is a platform that is mostly used for video games, but it is also being used in the film industry and has the ability to help anybody create virtual experiences. Real and interesting advancements are being made in the field of creating virtual environments.

That being said, it remains completely implausible to see "the metaverse" as a single, cohesive location akin to Ready Player One. This is partially because the raw computing power required for such a concept could be much further away than we think, and partly because companies would have to cooperate in a way that is simply not profitable or desirable—Fortnite wouldn't be motivated to give players a portal to jump straight over to World of Warcraft, even if it were easy to do so. 

Due to this annoying truth, significantly distinct nomenclature has emerged. Rather, many companies and enthusiasts now refer to any given game or platform as "a metaverse." 

According to this description, a "metaverse" might be anything from a video game to a VR concert app. Some go so far as to refer to the assembly of several metaverses as a "multiverse of metaverses." Alternatively, perhaps we inhabit a "hybrid-verse."

Alternatively, these words might imply anything. Coca-Cola released a mini-game tied to Fortnite along with a "flavor born in the metaverse." There are not any guidelines.

Most conversations on what the metaverse involves come to a standstill at this point. We have a hazy idea of what exists right now that, with the correct word definition manipulation, we might sort of refer to as the metaverse. 

Furthermore, we are aware of which businesses are funding the concept, but there isn't even close to consensus on what it is. Meta believes that it will have make-believe homes that you may invite all of your friends to visit. It appears that Microsoft believes it may incorporate virtual conference rooms for onboarding and distant employee communication.

Remarkably, Apple entered the field of augmented reality computing without ever using the term "metaverse."  

The company's new Vision Pro headgear is marketed as a "spatial computing" platform that functions similarly to an iPad or Mac, but with apps that leverage augmented reality. Its primary differentiator is a movable screen that allows you to see apps as an overlay on top of the actual environment. Though it is unclear if this type of interface will become popular, Apple is clearly separating itself from the rhetoric that supports virtual world immersion in the vein of *Ready Player One*.

Compared to other corporations' futuristic ideas, which range from hopeful to downright fan fiction, this is a reasonably practical view. During Meta's initial metaverse presentation, the business included a scene where a young lady is browsing Instagram on her couch and comes upon a video that a friend shared of a concert taking place halfway across the world. 

After that, the film turns to the performance, when the woman makes an Avengers-style holographic appearance. They can both hear the performance, view floating text hovering over the stage, and establish eye contact with her buddy who is physically present. Though it looks amazing, this isn't promoting a genuine product—or even one that may be developed in the future. In actuality, it leads us to "the metaverse's" main issue.

Why Are Holograms a Part of the Metaverse?

A number of technological advancements, such as the capacity to link web pages together or enable computer communication over long distances, were key factors in the early development of the internet.   

The websites, applications, social networks, and other abstract structures that we are familiar with on the internet were created using these technological qualities as the building blocks. Not to mention the convergence of interface advancements like keyboards, mouse, touchscreens, and displays—which aren't directly related to the internet but are still essential to its operation.

Some new building blocks have been introduced by the metaverse, such as the capacity to host hundreds of users in a single instance of a server (optimistic metaverse predictions suggest this will increase to thousands or even millions of users at once, but this may be overly optimistic), or motion-tracking features that can detect a user's hand and eye locations. Some very interesting breakthrough technologies, such controller-free interfaces and pass-through panels, are also included in Apple's Vision Pro. These technologies may be highly thrilling and futuristic.

There are some restrictions, though, that could prove insurmountable. Tech giants like Microsoft and Meta often leave out key details about how people will interact with the metaverse when they present animated films of their imagined futures. The majority of individuals have motion sickness or physical pain from using VR headgear for extended periods of time, and they are still somewhat bulky.

 In addition to the big challenge of figuring out how individuals can use augmented reality glasses in public without appearing like huge dorks, there is another difficulty with these spectacles. Then there are the VR accessibility issues, which many businesses are currently ignoring. Apple's Vision Pro, however, "solves" the issue of users needing to wear glasses by offering add-ons for prescription lenses.

This type of erasing of reality is common in film demonstrations of potential metaverse functionality. A figure in one of Meta's previous demos appeared to be floating in midair. Was this individual seated at a desk or was he or she attached to an immersive aerial rig? Is the holographic image of a person wearing a headset, and if so, how is it scanning their face? And occasionally, someone appears to be holding virtual objects in their real hands after grabbing them.

There are a lot more questions than answers raised by this demo.

This is acceptable in some situations. Not every technological concern is addressed by Microsoft, Meta, or any other firm that displays crazy demos like this one; rather, the goal is to convey an artistic vision of what the future could hold. It dates back to AT&T's voice-activated foldable phone demo, which was able to create 3D models and magically remove individuals from photos. At the time, it may have all seemed equally unbelievable.

How then do tech businesses showcase their ideas without exposing the cumbersome headsets and goofy spectacles that are part of their everyday lives? Thus far, their main approach appears to be to just create technologies from scratch. The holographic female presenter from Meta's talk? I'm sorry to break the illusion, but even with extremely sophisticated current technology, it is just not feasible. 

In contrast to motion-tracked digital avatars, which are now a little janky but may improve in the future, it is not possible to make a three-dimensional image appear in midair outside of strictly regulated conditions. regardless of what Iron Man says. 

Since both of the women in the demo video are wearing identical glasses, it's possible that they are intended to be seen as projections via spectacles. However, even that interpretation makes many assumptions about the physical limitations of tiny glasses, which Snap can attest isn't an easy issue to resolve. Furthermore, as demonstrated by Apple's video, reconstructing a 3D image of someone in a different location is difficult and verges on nightmare material.

But over the past 18 months, a lot of metaverse pitches—from both startups and digital behemoths—have mainly relied on idealistic, unrealistic concepts. The "metaverse" that Chipotle used to advertise was actually a Roblox video game. Narratives concerning limited "real estate" in "the metaverse" generally allude to a glitchy video game including virtual land tokens, while simultaneously omitting the very real security and privacy concerns associated with the majority of well-known NFTs at the moment.

When a video from 2017 showing a Walmart VR shopping demo started trending again in January 2022, many assumed it was just another metaverse demo because most "metaverse" ventures are so confusing and disappointing. 

It also served to highlight the extent to which the present metaverse discourse is based mostly on marketing hype. Obviously, Walmart's VR shopping demo never made it off the ground (and for good reason). So when Chipotle does it, why should anyone think that this is the way of the future?

It is difficult to determine which portions, if any, of the many metaverse ideas will come true in the future due to this type of wishful-thinking-as-tech-demo. Should VR and AR headsets become affordable and comfortable enough for individuals to wear them on a regular basis (a big "if"), then playing virtual poker with buddies who are robots, holograms, and floating in space may become a thing. 

If not, you could always use a Discord video conference to play Tabletop Simulator.

The more commonplace ways that our current linked digital environment may be enhanced right now are likewise hidden by the flashiness of VR and AR. Tech companies could easily create an open digital avatar standard, for example, a file type that contains attributes you could enter into a character creator, such as eye color, hairstyle, or clothing options, and allow you to carry that data with you wherever you go, to be interpreted in any way a game engine pleases. For such, there's no need to construct a more cozy VR headgear. It's not as enjoyable to envision, though.

How Does the Metaverse Look at the Moment?

Determining the metaverse presents a conundrum since it requires defining away the present in order to be the future. We already have massively multiplayer online games (MMOs), which are essentially virtual worlds with digital concerts, global video conversations, online avatars, and commerce systems. Therefore, there must be something novel about these items in order to market them as a fresh take on the world.

If you have conversations about the metaverse long enough, someone will eventually (and tiresomely) bring up fictional works such as Ready Player One, which imagines a virtual reality world in which everyone works, plays, and shops, or Snow Crash, the 1992 novel that first used the phrase "metaverse." In addition to the ubiquitous notion of holograms and heads-up displays found in popular culture (which is essentially everything that Iron Man has utilized in his previous ten films), these fictional accounts offer a creative frame of reference for the imagined metaverse, one that tech companies might genuinely market as a novel concept.

In your mind, substitute "cyberspace" for "the metaverse" in a sentence. Nine times out of ten, the meaning won't vary all that much.

Perhaps more important to the concept of the metaverse than any particular technology is that type of hype. Therefore, it seems sense that those endorsing NFTs—cryptographic tokens that may act as certificates of ownership for digital goods, in a sense—are also embracing the concept of the metaverse. Granted, NFTs have negative environmental effects and the public blockchains upon which most of them are based have serious privacy and security issues, but if a tech corporation can claim that NFTs will be the digital key to your Roblox virtual house, then big deal. You've just elevated the value of all the bitcoin you own and turned your pastime of purchasing memes into an essential component of the internet's future infrastructure.

All of this background is crucial to understand because, despite our tendency to draw parallels between the early internet and our current conceptions of the proto-metaverse and conclude that things would inevitably improve and advance linearly, this is not a given. There's no assurance that people will want to play poker with Dream works founder Mark Zuckerberg or hang out without legs in a virtual workplace; there's also no guarantee that VR and AR technology will ever advance to the point where it becomes as ubiquitous as computers and smartphones do.

Since Facebook's rebranding, the idea of "the metaverse" has been a potent tool for marketing outdated technology, exaggerating the advantages of cutting-edge technology, and grabbing the interest of speculative investors. Additionally, a great deal of money has been lost with little to show for it. After suffering a $13.7 billion loss in 2022, Meta laid off nearly 10,000 workers in the first part of 2023.

However, as everything from 3D TVs to Amazon's delivery drones and Google Glass can attest, money pouring into an area does not always signal a big paradigm change is on the corner. The remains of doomed investments may be seen all across the history of technology.

That is not to say that nothing exciting is planned for the future. VR headsets like as the Quest 2 are becoming more affordable, and if a version of Apple's Vision Pro ever comes down to the price of a laptop, tablet, and phone put together, it would be one hell of a great headgear. The creation of virtual environments, such as video games, is becoming more straightforward. Additionally, I believe that photogrammetry—the technique for generating digital 3D things from images or videos—has advanced to the point where it is now a really useful tool for digital artists.

But futurism is somewhat necessary for the IT sector as a whole. It's one thing to sell a phone; it's quite another to sell the future. If there were a true "metaverse," it may really include largely of what we today refer to as the internet, with a few interesting VR games and digital avatars in Zoom conversations.

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