Especially after Facebook announced its makeover as Meta, the word “metaverse” has been bandied about quite a bit in recent years. A social technology startup called Meta claims to want “to bring the metaverse to life.” Numerous people in the metaverse expressed interest in this.
The phrase and idea aren’t really novel. The concept of the metaverse and manifestations of it have really been around for a while. Neal Stephenson invented the phrase “metaverse” in his 1992 book Snow Crash, in which the protagonists employ computer avatars to explore a virtual world or engage in social interaction in order to flee their dystopian reality.
David Gelernter introduced the concept of the “digital twin,” or a virtual equivalent of anything that exists in reality, in his book Mirror Worlds in 1991. Dr. Michael Grieves, who is also credited with creating the idea of the digital twin program, brought the digital twin idea to manufacturing for the first time in 2002. NASA ran simulations of spacecraft in 2010 using digital twin technology.
The metaverse appears to be upon us, but what is it and what effects can it have on our day-to-day lives?
Here are some instances that help to clarify the metaverse so that you may learn more about it, how it functions, and where it could be going.
What exactly is a metaverse?
It might be challenging to define the metaverse precisely.
The metaverse is a loosely defined virtual environment where users have access to digital avatars that allow them to “live” there. People can communicate with pals, purchase and exchange digital goods, travel virtually to digital destinations (which may be entirely imagined or may have real-world analogues), and more in the metaverse.
Similar to the OASIS from Ready Player One, the metaverse offers a world where only one’s imagination is constrained.
The metaverse is a virtual environment that exists in addition to or serves as an extension of our physical reality, to put it a little more technically. It is comprised of interoperable technologies like virtual reality and augmented reality, and it is powered by a working digital economy that can use cryptocurrencies or digital currencies—yes, digital currencies are distinct from crypto—to purchase goods and services.
Furthermore, there isn’t a single, distinct metaverse. There are several variations of the metaverse. For instance, if you are playing Fortnite, you may enter a metaverse. If you’re using Facebook Horizon, you can also access a distinct metaverse. The metaverse is intended to be interoperable, so you will ultimately be able to access your assets that you have gathered on one platform and use them on another.
Examples of the Metaverse that Can Help Explain
The idea of the metaverse and the potential benefits it offers are just astounding. Here are some instances from the actual world that provide us a peek of the metaverse and its future to better describe this parallel reality.
The Metaverse in Pop Culture
Ready Player One
Almost invariably, Ready Player One is used as an example when discussing the metaverse. There is a valid explanation, though. The 2011 science fiction book by Ernest Cline provides a vivid description of the future appearance and operation of the metaverse.
In the 2045 novel, people turn to the OASIS, a massively multiplayer online simulation game (MMOSG) with its own virtual world (and currency), where they can interact with other players, visit different locations, play games, and even shop, as an escape from a world torn apart by war, poverty, and climate change.
In the OASIS, everything is possible since everyone has the freedom to be anyone they want to be and “reality” is only constrained by people’s imaginations.
If that’s a lot to process, watch the 2018 Steven Spielberg film adaptation, which offers a decent look of the metaverse from the novel.
In the real world, Facebook is making great progress toward building Facebook Horizon, its own version of the OASIS. Through either the Oculus Rift or the Oculus Quest 2 headgear, users may enter this virtual world. Users may explore, play, create, and engage with other gamers in this vast digital environment.
Fortnite Concerts
What initially began as a game has soon evolved into something deeper and capable of providing a wider range of experiences.
Players in Fortnite may design their own worlds and go on quests. They can engage in cross-play with other Fortnite gamers. Players may access the game via its cross-platform functionality on devices such the Xbox, PC, Playstation, and mobile phones.
Fortnite has developed into more than just a game, allowing players to hang together and go to in-game concerts. Ariana Grande, Marshmello, and Travis Scott were a few of the featured musicians. Fortnite’s creator, Epic Games, ups the ante by launching the Soundwave Series, which includes tunes from musicians all around the world. Players may enjoy immersive in-game experiences with The Series.
Social networks and games in the metaverse
Second Life
Even though it’s not really a game, Second Life is an online environment where users may create virtual characters to explore the environment, communicate with other users, and even exchange products and services using the Linden Dollar, the in-world money.
In Second Life, users may interact with other users and the digital world itself in a shared virtual realm, similar to an earlier iteration of the metaverse. Users may learn about the opportunities the metaverse offers thanks to this technology, which has been present since the late 2000s.
The Sandbox
Users may play in and create virtual worlds in the Sandbox, a virtual metaverse. They may also control and profit from their in-game experiences thanks to it. With non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, you may purchase and sell lands and other assets in The Sandbox metaverse.
In essence, NFTs are digital tokens that are created on the blockchain. As a result, they become one-of-a-kind, irreducible, and non-interchangeable, giving you genuine digital ownership of your in-game assets.
This demonstrates how widely used digital currencies are in the metaverse. In a digital future, there will be no boundaries to how we perceive, utilize, or define money.
Illuvium
According to its description, Illuvium is an open-world role-playing game that is built on the Ethereum Blockchain. Players can keep Illuvials, which resemble deities, on Shards by hunting and capturing them in this location. Players in Illuvium essentially acquire NFTs, which stand in for each Illuvial. Additionally, you’ll have the chance to amass in-game goods that you may sell on outside NFT marketplaces.
Augmented Reality (AR)
A recent technological advancement called augmented reality (AR) overlays digital augmentations on top of real-world objects. For instance, utilizing augmented reality (AR), you may see a dragon perched on your neighbor’s car while you’re still in the actual world.
The usage of it in games and navigation is already widespread. With the use of their phone’s camera, players can find, battle, and capture Pokémon that “appear” in the real world in one of the most well-known AR applications, Pokémon Go.
AR is employed in navigation systems in addition to gaming applications. Users may explore the actual world more using Google’s AR and VR thanks to these technologies.
Users will have a more immersive experience thanks to this real-world application, which will enable them to get the most out of their smart gadgets. You can explore a place more effectively, for instance, if you utilize Google Maps’ Live View feature since directions are superimposed over your Google Street View photographs.
Google Search is one more place where AR may be used. You may do this to put 3D items in your own environment and get a better sense of their scale.
In the actual world, augmented reality is also used for:
- Being used to show plays in football games
- Giving you a sense of how a piece of furniture may seem in your room
- by superimposing images of past civilizations over ruins, historical landmarks will be given new life.
The world of education is also embracing augmented reality technologies. An AR creation tool for educators and kids in the classroom is called The Metaverse Studio. Apps, games, and other activities that help improve project-based learning can be developed using it.
Metaverse Real Estate
We cannot discuss the metaverse without addressing its uses in real estate. People purchase and sell real estate on online marketplaces, just as in the real world. They are trading, nevertheless, using cryptocurrencies.
Technologists predict that the metaverse will eventually have its own fully functional economy, even though real estate in the metaverse is presently viewed as being “highly speculative”. Due to the popularity of virtual real estate, digital assets are already trading for millions of dollars. While a piece of virtual property in The Sandbox brought a hefty price of $4.3 million, a piece of virtual real estate in Decentraland went for 618,000 mana, or $2.4 million in cryptocurrency.
Many businesses have taken the risk of developing their own digital worlds and, along with them, their own digital properties as a result of the metaverse’s growing popularity. One such business is the Metaverse Group, which runs the user-owned virtual world Decentraland. Users are free to explore lands owned by other users, create artwork and challenges, take part in contests for rewards, and engage in events to exchange digital goods using mana, Decentraland’s own coinage. This virtual world is similar to past versions of virtual worlds in this regard.
SuperWorld, a virtual environment where you may purchase, sell, and amass parcels of virtual land, is another outstanding example of real estate in the metaverse. There are now 64.8 billion distinct virtual land plots available, including Mount Rushmore (0.1 ETH), the Taj Mahal (50 EHT), and the Eiffel Tower (100 ETH).
In addition to owning distinctive digital assets, users who buy a piece of virtual real estate also become platform stakeholders and are eligible to partake in the proceeds from user activity carried out on the property.
The metaverse is gradually becoming a reality. From video games and movies to navigational tools used in the real world, technology has found its way into many facets of our everyday lives. Although the metaverse itself can be difficult to describe and is still in its infancy, we can claim for the time being that it is definitely full of potential. What more will the metaverse have in store for us moving forward is the topic at hand.
