Fantasist Neal Stephenson, who coined the term metauniverse and used it for the first time in his 1992 book "Snow Crash", had no idea then that three decades later this word would symbolize the most important transformation in the world of technology, or at least what it promises in the near future. the biggest tech companies and their visionaries. They are betting billions of dollars that the future will be one of limitless virtual and augmented reality and dreamlike self-created three-dimensional spaces where anything is possible. But everything can - and should - be much simpler than you think.
"The metaverse today is at a similar stage as the Internet was in the 1990s: it's just getting started, and while we have some foundations and a vision, no one can really say for sure what it will turn into in reality." There are certain visions, ideas that you want to implement, but in most cases, everything rests on two simple things. First, how quickly will virtual and augmented reality devices evolve to become accessible to many people and convenient enough to use, similar to computers and smartphones today. And secondly, will there be a critical mass of people who would really like to use them", says Telia's computer expert Simon Tilindis.
The Internet is different
The idea of a metauniverse itself is not new. In a sense, the metauniverse, or rather individual parts of it, can be found in various computer games for years, from Fortnite, Roblox, to Minecraft and Second Life. By the way, it is the latter game that best reflects the idea of the metauniverse: it is a space where people can meet, communicate, work, play, trade and do many other things that they do in reality - only virtually.
The main difference is that Second Life takes place in a two-dimensional space, while the metauniverse focuses primarily on a 3D environment.
But even if this game was given a full 3D experience (which its developers tried unsuccessfully to do), it would not be a metauniverse by any means, but still only a part of it, a "world". In other words, if we compare the metauniverse to the Internet, then such a platform would be like a separate web page.
The connecting link is missing
There are already more than one such metaworlds. To some extent, this definition applies to the aforementioned Fortnite, Roblox, and Minecraft, and there are a number of startups offering to create their own or rent an existing metaspace, from Spatial, Breakroom, MeetinVR, to AltspaceVR developed by Microsoft.
However, the metauniverse currently lacks one essential, foundational thing: it is the technology that unites and connects these and other - future - metaworlds, which would allow you to discover them all and travel between them immediately, with the same avatar and the "property" that belongs to it, from appearance and clothing , to the wallet.
Sounds like a social network profile, right? Unsurprisingly, this mission was undertaken by none other than Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. After renaming the company to Meta at the end of last year, he held a futuristic presentation in which he demonstrated his vision of a meta-universe, the epicenter of which, of course, is Meta itself.
"M. Zuckerberg's ambitions are indeed impressive, but many of them will require years of technological progress to be realized. And even after reaching it, the second question remains: will people really want it and use all of it?" S. Tilindis asks rhetorically.
To the metauniverse - not to dive, but to wade?
Meta is by no means the only tech giant that believes in the future of the metaverse and is ready to take a big bite out of its pie. Microsoft is also developing at least a few projects related to the metaverse, and its purchases in recent years, including $70 billion $50 million game studio Activision Blizzard deal only confirms the appetite and ambition in everything from entertainment and leisure to work and collaboration.
On the other hand, Microsoft understands that virtual reality equipment will not be in every home or even in every company in a year or three. Instead, people already have computers and phones. So why not start your journey into the metaverse with them? Of course, this is far from the experience that the metaverse promises, but every marathon starts with training.
One such step is expected in the first half of this year. In order to make virtual Teams meetings more interactive, Microsoft plans to make it possible to participate in them with 3D avatars of its own creation. Also, virtual spaces will appear in Teams, where people will be able not only to communicate and share ideas, but also to use other Microsoft programs while working on various projects.
"People need time to master new technologies, to get used to them. Perhaps this is the key to the future of the metauniverse: it is not people who have to look for it, but it has to come to people in familiar environments, revealing new possibilities, formats, ways of working. Although slowly, fragmented, but easy and understandable. In time, new generation technologies will catch up with them, with which we will be able to experience the same thing in a new way", S. Tilindis thinks.
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