Metaverse: What is it all about?

To some degree, discussing what the metaverse means is akin to discussing what the internet meant in the 1970s.

Back in the time, a new way of communication was in the offing, but no one knew exactly what it would look like until it happened.

The internet has come a long way since Tim Berners-Lee co-invented WWW (the World Wide Web) in 1989. However, as it was not an end product, its evolution continued. And obviously what we mean by the internet today is a lot different from what was conceptualised initially.

Lately, we have been introduced to the word metaverse for the first time after Facebook renamed itself as Meta, in an attempt to reflect the company's ambitions with the metaverse.

And all of a sudden there is a spate of discussion, speculation and prediction regarding the metaverse.

What is the metaverse?

The metaverse, according to the likes of Mark Zuckerberg or Satya Nadella, is the internet's future.

"The next platform and medium will be an even more immersive and embodied internet where you are in the experience, not just looking at it, and we call this the metaverse," Zuckerberg said after revealing the company's rebranding.

Soon afterwards, Microsoft also unveiled its vision for the metaverse. CEO Satya Nadella said in a Twitter video:

"The metaverse is not only transforming how we see the world but how we participate in it. As the digital and physical worlds come together, we are creating an entirely new platform layer, which is the metaverse."

The term 'metaverse' is often credited to Near Stephenson's dystopian sci-fi novel Snow Crash (1992).  The author imagined the interaction of lifelike 3D avatars in virtual realities.

The term metaverse, however, is ambiguous and does not mean any single type of technology. It is rather a broad way of how we use and engage with some of the modern technologies.

For starters, the metaverse is a universe that only exists on the internet – in 0s and 1s in computers – and you can access the place with VR headsets.

You could call it cyberspace or a virtual world or digital world. Just like in our universe we exist physically, in the metaverse, we can exist virtually.

Moreover, in the world of virtual reality, there is no single 'metaverse' that exists out there. There are multiple virtual realities built by different tech companies.

For example, Facebook's Horizon Worlds and Microsoft's Mesh are independent of each other. Horizon Worlds and Mesh are separate VR platforms.

On top of that, the metaverse is a converging point of emerging technologies such as AI, VR, AR, blockchain technology and its digital currencies, and NFTs. In fact, all of these technologies are gearing up to power the metaverse.

So, the term metaverse has become a kind of an all-encompassing name for 'virtual universe' and its associated technology, such as AR, VR, AI, crypto etc.

What is happening now?  

The idea of virtual reality or augmented reality is not something new. Likewise, the metaverse is not the stuff of science fiction and it is not even new. 

What is novel is the renewed focus led by Facebook among other top big techs attempting to reflect its ambitions in the metaverse.

While it has just been a few months since Facebook's rebranding, the discourse surrounding the metaverse has already taken off.

We have already got a glimpse of what a metaverse could look and feel like in Mark Zuckerberg's short promotional video.

As predicted by Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, it will take five to ten years for metaverse's primary features to become commonplace.

While many of the features of the metaverse exist now, from VR headsets to always-on online virtual presence, these are not universal yet. Being expensive, technologies behind the concept are not largely accessible to average consumers. 

It is like the early days of the internet. And just like the internet, it will continue to evolve. As the metaverse grows and evolves, it will provide you with a hyper-real alternate reality.

One important distinction of what Zuckerberg envisages with the rebranding of Meta is the centralisation of all the virtual reality platforms.

The notion of a centralised virtual environment, a 'place', that exists side by side with the real world has become popular this year. Then again, a universe where all the digital worlds connect and interact is still a thing of the future.

What does the future hold?

A glimpse of the metaverse can already be seen in online gaming worlds like Fortnite, Minecraft or Roblox. Millions of people play virtual social games like Roblox and Fortnite every day.

In these open-world games, human-like avatars build homes, work, buy stuff and do pretty much anything we humans do.

The metaverse's supporters envisage its users working, playing, and remaining connected with friends, families and colleagues. People would participate in concerts to office meetings to virtual trips.

Meta imagines a virtual world in which virtual reality headsets are used to link digital avatars for business, travel, or recreation. Furthermore, Zuckerberg believes that it could replace the internet or this is the future of the internet.

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and cryptocurrencies based on blockchain technology have sparked a surge in interest in digital ownership, making persistent virtual experiences more mainstream.

Steven Speilberg's 2017 film "Ready Player One" is probably the closest example of the metaverse. Set in a dystopian world, the protagonist—who lives in Ohio—just like all other people of his time, finds meaning to their lives in the metaverse.

Their worldly existence is boring and mired with problems. The Oasis – this is what the movie's metaverse is called – gives a chance to escape from reality.

What could be the impact of such a metaverse in our real world?

Let us have a look at what the protagonist of the movie has to say about his time:

"Except for eating, sleeping, and bathroom breaks, whatever people want to do, they do it in the OASIS. And since everyone is here, this is where we meet each other. It is where we make friends."

In another time he says, "It is a place where the limits of reality are your own imagination. You can do anything, go anywhere. Like the vacation planet. Surf a 50-foot monster wave in Hawaii. You can ski down the pyramids. You can climb Mount Everest with Batman. People come to the OASIS for all the things they can do, but they stay because of all the things they can be."