A metaverse is regarded as a wide network of 3D digital worlds whose one primary focus is on establishing social connections. In terms of science fiction, the term is elaborated as a hypothetical iteration of the virtual world, internet as one universal world that would be facilitated by the usage of augmented as well as virtual reality headsets.
While talking about Metaverse, the name of Neal Stephenson along with his famous dystopian cyberpunk novel named Snow Crash always comes together. The release of the novel took place in 1992. It is recognized as a grand canon of the genre, accompanied by Neuromancer of William Gibson which perfectly defines a matrix, a virtual reality data space.
Where did the concept of metaverse come from?
The actual depiction of the metaverse is done in the popular novel, Snow Crash. In the novel, it is perfectly described that the access to 3D virtual reality space is done via digital reality goggles as well as personal terminals which are quite familiar with the VR headsets and Oculus Quest and others.
To the users, this 3D space appears as an urban environment whose creation took place along a 100 meter wider road, the Street. The creation of the digital space was done by US studio Linden Lab. The discovery took place around eighteen years ago as a great place for newer experiences.
Many people find the vision of the metaverse by Stephenson quite familiar since most of the multi-player digital games such as MMOGs share several of its features. It is said that the users could exchange goods as well as services, meet their other fellow players, create virtual items, customize realistic avatars and own virtual property.
Virtual experiences such as Second Life are often described as protometaverses. Since their existence is marked in isolation each one of them is a digital island whose virtual assets and inhabitants never leave it.
The metaverse which Mark Zuckerberg is looking forward to creating isn’t all about a grand digital experience rather, it’s the next outstanding version of the internet. As per Zuckerberg, they have surfed through desktop, mobile, videos, web, text, etc., but that’s not the completion of the line.
The coming platform would be even more immersive. The experience of an embodied Internet, where it would touch every product which would be built.
Why is the metaverse future of the internet?
It’s an undeniable fact that advanced technologies such as augmented and virtual reality have become more accessible via smaller and more efficient headsets. When the internet was first discovered, people believed that everyone would slowly end up in cyberspace. Currently, we don’t even realize how much we are connected through the Internet.
According to the filmmakers, this would enhance the presentable experiences of the cinema industry. Some of the specific areas of improvement are as follows:-
1. Career opportunities
There would be a lot of opportunities such as animation, programming, sound design as well as illustration who’s demand would be higher. The mass is curious regarding who would be responsible for the creation of the future of the metaverse. Since it won’t be an inclusive environment.
Opportunities would only be limited to skilled developers, excluding simple experiences. Such sophisticated environments would need technology as well as designing professionals at a time when the profits would be in limited supply.
Hopefully, a wide range of new courses would be launched for the development of new talents. But all of this would take some time before things start fueling up.
According to the filmmakers, this would enhance the presentable experiences of the cinema industry. Some of the specific areas of improvement are as follows:-
2. Interaction
While discussing current as well as future of metaverse opportunities, we can speculate to vision things from a new perspective like interacting with family and friends on video calls or office meetings.
Face to face meetups could also prove to be advantageous from hybrid experiences such as meeting a teacher, consulting a doctor, customizing clothes, having fun at an art exhibition or just checking out the sales.
One of the renowned online games like Fortnite has already experimented with different shows by a few artists such as Ariana Grande and Travis Scott. Players are free to purchase the character outfits of their favorite personalities for personalizing their plays at the time of enjoying the musical experience.
3. Dynamic Creativity
Talking about the progress in future, technologies such as 5G would enable better quality, speedy and highly accessible productions. Both data and AI would unite to facilitate things such as dynamic creativity in video game programming and AR along with hybrid experiences at festivals, stadiums etc. The market is already full of such advanced technologies. Moreover, the Roblox gaming platform is used for selling customized items such as avatars, bags and sunglasses which can make around a million pounds.
Conclusion:-
While no one would become the owner of the metaverse similarly to no one who owns the Internet today, there would be some significant players in the space as well as companies such as Roblox, Meta, Epic Games, Microsoft as well as unity and many more amongst them. This is why they can generate millions of dollars for creating sci-fi dreams.
The metaverse is a versatile idea coined by a talented sci-fi author named Neal Stephenson in his book, Snow Crash. It is prone to become reality soon since several larger tech companies are betting that it would be bigger in comparison to the Internet currently.
The same kind of innovative technologies which was the reason behind the disruption of the financial services ever since the whole Bitcoin network came into functioning, in January 2009. It could be further used for enabling the continuance of the data in the metaverse.
Non Fungible tokens or NFTs are a perfect representation of how blockchain technology could be used for verification of the ownership of virtual assets and there exist already many 3D virtual and Extended reality platforms which would benefit from them.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs):-
Q1. What is metaverse Cryptocurrency?
A: One gets the opportunity to do a lot of things such as playing games based on blockchain etc. Cryptocurrencies hold a greater significance to the metaverse space. Cryptos are considered to be utility tokens in the metaverse. On the other hand, NFTs or nonfungible tokens are regarded as virtual collectables.
Q2. Is metaverse real?
A: The metaverse is a merged form of physical, virtual as well as an augmented reality that blurs the line between people’s interactions in real life and online. The metaverse vision of Facebook includes users augmentation with reality glasses or Oculus VR headsets.
Q3. Where did the term metaverse come from?
A: The term metaverse is a Greek word and it means ‘universe’ in English. The word ‘meta’ in Greek is referred to as a prefix popularly which means beyond or after.
Q4. What can metaverse do?
A: Currently, many platforms are equipped with inventories, virtual identities as well as avatars which are limited to a single platform, but through a metaverse, users might get a chance to create their persona which can take them anywhere as per their wish.
Q5. Is the metaverse the next Internet?
A: According to Mark Zuckerberg, the new name of his company, “Meta” and he has a vision of the future in the metaverse. Zuckerberg states metaverse as the next chapter of the internet world and not just his company.
