Reality Check: What is Metaverse?

Given the dystopian turmoil we’ve endured over the last few years (pandemics, specific presidential positions, murder wasps), we wonder if we collectively live in expert-level simulations. Is forgiven.

Among them, Mark Zuckerberg appeared in October last year, rebranding Facebook as a meta, and slamming a vision for a new virtual world. Digitally rendered bright-eyed Zuckerberg strolled around what looked like an enviable winter villa, with a scandish fireplace. But where was he exactly? Want to join him? And what will we be like?

The brief answer is: He is in the Metaverse and we are already in the Metaverse. (Be with me.) The deep, atypical terminology first coined in Neil Stevenson’s 1992 cyberpunk novel Snow Crash was co-built, evolved in real time, and even after you lived. Represents an immersive, 3D-rendered virtual space that continues to exist, unplugged.

Similar to the real world, Metaverse will soon allow users to engage in shopping, work, “dining”, appearance changes, socializing, and perhaps the most human pursuit, the battle for real estate. As explained by the enterprising Meta CEO, this is the “embodied internet.”

This concept sounds like anyone who has played “Animal Crossing”, bought cryptocurrencies, or zoomed in on a meeting. The difference in the future is a matter of scale. More sophisticated technology, more users working and playing, and, decisively, more creative spending.

Famous brands are already engraved on the Metaverse. Nike has acquired RTFKT, the developer of digital goods, to manufacture virtual sneakers. Samsung has created a reduced metaverse version of its appliance to equip the user’s imaginary home. Barbie and fashion house Balmain are teaming up with a series of digital art. Even Applebee is rolling out branded non-fungible tokens (a kind of asset that only exists digitally). This is certainly a sign of the times.

Headset strap

Several factors explain the recent increase in the metaverse’s warp rate to ubiquitous. First, thanks to COVID-19, there is a wide range of demands for a new kind of shared experience that does not necessarily require you to leave the sofa.

“Even before the pandemic, cinema spectators were the lowest in history, with 12,000 major retail outlet closures in the United States in 2019 alone,” said the founder of Toronto-based social platform CyaLive. Sami Siddique, also and CEO, said. We specialize in shared online events such as games, movie screenings and concerts. “Habits are changing and people are just talking. We want to go beyond that online and actually do things together.”

According to Siddique, with the launch of COVID, platforms like Cya Live are “five years away” and the company is able to quickly create 3D versions of its original products. “You can still access it on your mobile phone, but you can also use an access point such as (virtual reality headset) HoloLens or Oculus. It’s a much better experience than staring at a 2D screen.”

The question of what hardware is needed to enter the Metaverse and how much hardware is needed is now of paramount importance to future users. Meta’s October announcement unleashed a modern arms race for sexy, Metaverse-compatible gadgets. According to crypto company Grayscale, the sector could eventually grow into a $ 1 trillion business.

Currently, laptops and phones are table bets. Virtual reality headsets are fine as long as they are heavy and sometimes cause motion sickness, but they are not a street-style favorite. A brain-computer interface that converts the brain’s electrical signals into outputs is feasible, but it can still be decades away from general use.

One of the obstacles that emerges in the Metaverse lies between virtual reality (a completely immersive world) and augmented reality, adding digital overlays to the world we live in today. The early leading candidates for innovation are, of course, Meta and Microsoft. At the end of 2021, the former obtained hundreds of patents to develop objects that enhance the grainy realism of the new experimental virtual environment, Horizontal Worlds. For example, gloves that allow avatars to lift and lower objects, and clothes that wrinkle realistically. In addition to the existing Oculus headset, there is movement. Microsoft, which has already deployed holograms and is hunting down the collaborative gaming market with Xbox Live, is a pioneer in the augmented reality world. We plan to roll out 3D retail and workplace overlays and add avatars to the fast-growing business conferencing app Teams later this year.

“I believe the ultimate Metaverse winner will be augmented reality, which is a bit different in how we blend the physical and digital worlds,” said York University’s Augmented Reality Lab and Canada Research. Director Caitlin Fisher said. Chair of digital culture. Fisher is a metaversal technology for parks, clubs, shopping centers, and the entire neighborhood with interactive digital overlays that is reminiscent of the Halcyon era of Pokemon GO, rather than the massive swallowing of humanity by the model world of virtual reality. We anticipate a milder recruitment. .. “Obviously, there is dystopian imagination. It’s all about advertising and wooden labels,” she says. “But you can also have a permanent story space where everything physical, such as buildings, art, and commercial opportunities, is digitally imagined.”

New world, old problems

Perhaps the most fascinating promise of the Metaverse is the opportunity to reinvent. Why do you appear as yourself when your avatar can be tall, slim, or just a dinosaur? Perhaps you can live in a virtual mansion next to a famous rapper, so why settle in your small but expensive condo? In December, one sandbox user paid $ 450,000 to become Snoop Dogg’s digital neighbor.

“The caveat of so many (sci-fi) stories is that the physical world, and its reality and problems, are allowed to decline in favor of these virtual creations.” Fisher says. “We already know what happens when you start to prefer text over the phone, or when you prefer to connect on social media over going out. The better the virtual world, the longer people stay there. It can be more dangerous in encouraging you to do it. “

When the question of “identity, power and suitability” accompanies the Metaverse, Fisher says, so does our most basic impulse.

“These aren’t the worlds we imagine being totally fresh,” she says. “We often bring the worst of ourselves and our community (online).”

In fact, there is already evidence that users do not give up their prejudice on fake malls and virtual conference room doors. In late November, a woman reported being digitally “groped” by a stranger during a beta test of Human Worlds. (Meta then published a “safe zone” utility, which encapsulates the user in a protection bubble if the user feels threatened.)

A closer look at the twists in the Metaverse is like a professional danger to Raja Khanana, co-founder of the Spatial Industries Group in Toronto. RajaKhanna leverages proprietary spatial computing technology to create a simulated learning environment for the healthcare industry with animation-centric entertainment companies Dark Slope Studios and Lumeto. “There is a lot of positiveness here,” says Kanna. This technology “has the ability to improve accessibility, increase engagement and connect with people around the world. But at the same time, we face the mental health challenges we see in teens on social media. Faced with the outlook. It’s very easy to imagine how (Metaverse) would make it worse. “

Kanna says the key to protecting potential catastrophic implosions, especially corporate overshoots, will be the focus on regulation.

“We are now in a more open world to regulate these big companies than ever before. In fact, there seems to be a strong desire for it globally,” says Kanna. “I think I’m more open to addressing these concerns from the beginning, rather than running Internet 1.0 for free and trying to fix it after the fact.”

Fisher and other experts estimate that it will still take some time for humanity to be completely trapped in the Metaverse trap — perhaps 10 or 15 years — this is what we want to bring with us. Gives enough time to ask what in the old world, and perhaps more importantly, what should be left behind.

“This is really an exercise in imagination, as Metaverse is a concept that hasn’t been fully realized,” she says. “This is exactly the time when people should say,’What makes our lives better?'” How can we learn from the decades of interesting experiments that have already taken place? ” And “What would I do if these were tools?”