On The Metaverse (Part 1)

The idea of a technological world where anything can be possible was first introduced in the 1992 science fiction novel , “Snow Crash” by Neil Stephenson which described a virtual reality and the term ‘metaverse’ was first coined.

The 2011 book, “Ready Player One” further promoted the idea of a virtual world where you can be anyone, do anything and go anywhere irrespective of who you are in the real world.

The movie based on the book starring Tye Sheridan and Olivia Cooke in the lead roles popularized the concept of virtual reality and introduced it as the ‘OASIS’, and gave every young mind watching it a sneak peek into what the metaverse could be like in the future.

Virtual reality will have (and even has) gadgets lined up for the best experience of the metaverse, where the creators will provide the most optimum experience of the virtual world.

• Today, head mounted display and hand controllers which influence sight, hearing and a limited amount of touch are a basic to VR.
• From books and movies an idea which sits into our mind is that bodysuits and omnidirectional treadmills will become a VR necessity in the future allowing the body to move about in a virtual space just like one does in the real world.

• Advanced forms of VR will most probably make use of neurohaptics and neurotech, which uses signals from the brain to replicate a virtual environment and perform certain actions without any user interface.

The metaverse carries the potential to be one of the biggest and impactful technological development of the future. This virtual reality will allow infinite simulations to create anything we want, be anyone, do anything – whatever the mind desires, it can create.

It doesn’t matter what you want, you can do it in this virtual space – buying virtual and real world objects (not to mention buying real world objects in the virtual world) to learning any skill you want, doing real world jobs in your virtual world desk/office and earning metaverse cryptocurrency and even using it in the real world.

Not only is the metaverse going to be a huge life changer for individuals, businesses and industries will also have mega changes thanks to the metaverse.

Companies will be creating products and services based on the consumers in the metaverse and will have entire teams and divisions just for buying/selling and building products in the virtual reality or for the real world to aid the virtual reality.

Some specialists even go so far as saying that the metaverse might be more transformative to the industries than the internet and could be the biggest market opportunity of the next few decades.

Students of the future will have virtual reality schools and universities and even jobs all dedicated to the metaverse. Kids as young as 14-15 years of age will be building the world and creating new and better faces of the virtual reality.

The metaverse is also very likely to have a big impact on the economy and even the governments of countries across the globe.

According to some sources, the metaverse could most probably add close to $3 trillion to the global GDP (with consistent evolution) within a decade.

Virtual reality will also completely change the politics game. As it can be already seen with politicians all around the world promoting their campaigns and reaching out to their people through social networking and some even highlighting important issues and making positive change through it.

With the metaverse, this could go one step further. From buying digital merch to show support to candidates to vKirtual embassies and even virtual ministries, the metaverse is sure to bring change and keep many people on their toes when it comes to being efficient and flawless.

No. We really can’t expect the metaverse to be a flawless piece of human innovation which will immediately lead us to a perfect world with greatness and happiness.

As it has been made clear with all other forms of technology, everything has potential to be good and bad.

The sci-fi depiction in Ready Player One does point out that as the virtual world keeps getting bigger and better, the real world also crumbles in some ways.

The rise of metaverse and virtual reality brings out some concerns which do need to be discussed and thought of, the biggest question being – will we lose touch with reality?

As it is very obvious with smartphones – a major part of the population being addicted to screens and losing touch with their friends and family, the idea of having a perfect virtual world at everyone’s fingertips definitely raises some concerns when it comes to managing real world relationships and building healthy lives for the consumers.

The second most asked question, also one to be very concerning is – who will ‘own’ the metaverse and how does that change the lives of the people – in the real world and the virtual world? Let’s accept it, the fight for power is something that has been with us since the beginning of time and the metaverse will not be any different.

So how will we know who actually controls the metaverse? Who will be the law makers and protectors? How will our real world identities change with the virtual world? All questions that require answers.