What is the metaverse?

By now you have probably seen that Facebook has rebranded itself as Meta, and may have started to see the word “metaverse” circulate. You are probably also very confused as to what the metaverse is, and for good reason. The Metaverse is extremely difficult to define and explain because it doesn’t actually exist yet. It’s an idea, a goal for a world where the digital overlaps with the physical.

How will the metaverse operate?

The metaverse would be made possible through key tools such as virtual reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and blockchain.

VR is a technology that creates artificially rendered 3D virtual worlds. Using headsets such as Meta’s Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, people can interact with these worlds, and experience them much like they do the real world. In virtual reality you can attend a live concert, buy and sell goods, chat with other people, and much more.  

AR is an interactive experience where cameras superimpose digital images upon the camera’s stream of the real world. It can also include other sensory stimuli such as auditory and olfactory, allowing you to perhaps hear the ocean and smell the sea salt.

Blockchain is the technology behind crypto currency and NFTs. Without getting too technical, it would be fundamental to the commerce and continuity aspects of the metaverse. This is because blockchain technology creates an immutable digital ledger of transactions. This is what will likely allow a person to transfer their digital assets (currency, clothing/avatar design, etc.) from one platform to another.

What are the experts saying?

According to Mark Zuckerberg, the Metaverse is “a more immersive and embodied internet” and “a set of virtual spaces where you can create and explore with other people who aren’t in the same physical space as you.”

According to Matthew Ball, venture capitalist and author of The Metaverse Primer, the Metaverse is “an expansive network of persistent, real-time rendered 3D worlds and simulations that support continuity of identity, objects, history, payments, entitlements, and can be experienced synchronously by an effectively unlimited number of users.”

4 key aspects of the metaverse:

1. Continuity of identity: Within the metaverse you will be able to create an avatar that can navigate throughout numerous platforms. For example, you will be able to use the avatar you make in Animal Crossing, (a video game) in a work meeting.
2. Presence: The metaverse is akin to a world layered upon the physical world, a digital overlap. Think of applications such as Google Maps, or the 2016 hit Pokémon Go (a smartphone app that allows users to catch digital creatures in real locations). They allow you to virtually interact with the physical world, and when you use them it’s like you are physically engaging with the people and things around you.
3. 3D: In a sense, we currently have a 2D metaverse. We already use technology to interact with our world. We date on Tinder, order food on UberEats, and use Google Maps to navigate. The metaverse is moving our 2D connected world into 3D. Instead of looking at photos of the Parthenon on Google Earth, you’ll be able to put on a Virtual Reality (VR) headset and stroll around.
4. Connectivity: Perhaps the most important part of the metaverse is the connectivity of it all. Currently, the applications we use to connect with the internet and the world (our 2D metaverse) all exist in separate universes (or ‘verses). The metaverse aims to change that, to create one universe. In that universe you may be in a virtual meeting, where you can edit a document with the person “sitting next to you”. While this is happening, you might glance down at your phone to see an incoming text. Instead of doing all these things separately (a zoom meeting in one window, google docs on another, and your phone), it will all be happening in the same space.

Currently the metaverse is only an idea. While we try to imagine what it may become in the future, the possibilities are near infinite. Only time will tell whether it will become as ubiquitous as the internet, or whether it will remain an impossible dream.