How could the Metaverse change our lives?
The Metaverse is a concept, born from science fiction, of connected environments based within virtual reality. The fact that the Metaverse is in development and pitched as the next major social network, means we need to look at the big questions around what impacts it will have on the way we interact, behave and how we choose to use it as a tool. By Richard Forsyth
W
hen the Founder and CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, renamed his near trillion-dollar company, Meta, it was evident that he was taking his Metaverse project very seriously and in 2021 Zuckerberg explained exactly why. “We believe the Metaverse will be the successor to the mobile internet,” he declared. “We’ll be able to feel present, right there with people no matter how far apart we are… Because screens can’t convey the full nature of human expression and connection.” With a 10 billion dollar investment and an army of engineers, he’s already built the foundations of his virtually based ‘utopian’ vision, with the intention to make it a shared global space to live and work in. Anyone who has seen the Hollywood movie Ready Player One will understand how an advanced, immersive Metaverse could look and feel. In the film, set in 2045, whilst the planet is in social decline, people find happiness and escape in a virtual reality universe called OASIS. Players live alternate realities as invented characters in beautifully rendered virtual worlds. The promise of the connected, social parallel universe that is the Metaverse, has been bubbling in media speculation for a while and whilst it has now been created, it’s still got some growing to do. We must ask, can it and will it truly transform how we live our lives?
Gamers are ready For children and many adults around the world, the fundamentals of the Metaverse are already second nature. Playing a networked game such as Fortnite, which 350 million people do, means assuming digital avatars with the option of in-game purchases, interaction over shared
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rendered environments and working together toward goals with strangers from around the world – all key component parts of life in the Metaverse. Indeed, the CEO of Epic Games that made Fortnite, Tim Sweeny, is one of the Metaverse’s biggest ‘cheerleaders’ although he’s emphasised that a Metaverse needs to be open access to everyone in a way that creators on the Metaverse own their own creations, and as he says it, are ‘not forced to adopt other things’, under the control and for the profit of one company or entity. The biggest obvious difference to platforms like Fortnite is that in its true form, the Metaverse is supposed to be accessed with virtual reality headsets, in Meta’s case, Oculus virtual reality headsets, so users will perceive fully 3D environments. Virtual reality headsets, in their various guises, have often presented a problem with adoption from the public, as they are cumbersome, expensive and even make people feel dizzy or sick. With this in mind, it is curious that Facebook announced the launch of Ray-Ban Stories – lightweight digital eye gear based on sunglasses, equipped with cameras, microphones and speakers. If a fully immersive Metaverse is to be widely adopted, it will likely benefit from less intrusive headwear down the line, more like glasses, than a box over your head. Zuckerberg’s vision is that we will create all kinds of environments, assume avatar identities and interact more closely in a series of connected, shared and digitally rendered spaces, for both work and recreation.
Complete convergence Like the internet before it, the goal is complete digital convergence, where everything you do in real life like shopping, working, watching movies, socialising with friends and even dating, is accessible through the platform.
EU Research
