Skip to main content

Metaverse: The world in 2031

The concept of the metaverse is quickly becoming a buzzword in technology and business. But what does it mean?

What is metaverse?

Touted as the next generation of the Internet by some tech giants, it is a collection of virtual worlds on the Internet with their own currencies and purposes where people can exist in their digital avatars and interact with each other, similar to an online video game.

The term can refer to digital spaces which are made more lifelike by the use of virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality (AR). Some people also use the word metaverse to describe gaming worlds, in which users have a character that can walk around and interact with other players.

Why is it taking off?

Silicon Valley giants like Microsoft and Facebook have been highlighting it as the next big opportunity, with the Mark Zuckerberg-led company even planning to rebrand its family of firms around the metaverse.

The idea of the metaverse is that it will create new online spaces in which people's interactions can be more multi-dimensional, where users are able to immerse themselves in digital content rather than simply viewing it. The accelerated interest in the metaverse can be seen as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic as there has been an increased demand for ways to make online interaction more lifelike.

Who is getting involved?

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in July that the company will try to transition from being a social media company to a metaverse company in the next five years or so.

The term is popular in Silicon Valley, with Microsoft also having mentioned converging the digital and physical worlds.

The popular children's game Roblox (RBLX.N), which had its New York Stock Exchange debut in March, describes itself as a metaverse company. Musicians can do virtual concerts within these platforms. The world's biggest fashion companies have also experimented with making virtual clothing, which people's avatars can wear in metaverse environments.

How is it different from playing online video game?

It's quite similar, except that it is being seen as a way of living where people interact with each other, entertain themselves, buy property etc., all completely virtually as their digital alter egos. The company works on blockchain technology, which powers cryptocurrencies and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) which are used in the metaverse, to draft digital contracts.

What will it actually include?

Tech industry figures who talk about "the metaverse" are usually excited about digital platforms that include some of the following things:

  • Feature that overlap with older web services or real-world activities.
  • Real-time 3D computer graphics and personalized avatars.
  • A variety of person-to-person social interactions that are less competitive and goal-oriented than stereotypical games.
  • Support for users creating their own virtual items and environments.
  • Links with outside economic systems so people can profit from virtual goods.
  • Designs that seem well-suited to virtual and augmented reality headsets, even if they usually support other hardware as well.   

Are there any concerns around this?

While the metaverse doesn't belong to any one company, it is expected to be monopolised by a bunch of technology companies, much like how the Internet functions today. Besides, there are concerns about the privacy of users and its socio-neurological impact on them. There are massive concerns about whether people will lose touch of reality. The concerns get bigger as we get more hooked to technology.

"If you could dream of something and live inside your dream, it is called the metaverse. You cannot do it with just your mind because the body also has to participate in it", says Icertis CTO & co-founder Monish Darda.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Unhackable Internet

  W hy it matters?   The internet is increasingly vulnerable to hacking; a quantum one would be unhackable. Quantum Computing    A quantum internet could be used to send unhackable messages, improve the accuracy of GPS, and enable cloud-based quantum computing. For more than twenty years, dreams of creating such a the quantum network have remained out of reach in large part because of the difficulty to send quantum signals across large distances without loss.   Now, Harvard and MIT researchers have found a way to correct for signal loss with a prototype quantum node that can catch, store and entangle bits of quantum information. The research is the missing link towards a practical quantum internet and a major step forward in the development of long-distance quantum networks.   The U.S Department of Energy (DoE) explains how a quantum link will make it happen through two quantum phenomenon: the first is quantum entanglement, where two-particle ...
2 comments
Read more

Impact of Social Media on Business

Watch out for that bird! Imagine you are skydiving, you are visiting one of the most beautiful countries in the world and you want to share that experience with your loved ones and friends. Why not send a postcard? Oh wait, you’re already back from the trip by the time that postcard has reached, or it got lost in the mail. If only there was an alternative. This isn’t 1990. You have a platter of platforms to share your adventure. Webster’s dictionary defines social media as-“ forms of electronic communication (such as websites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (such as videos).”In simple words, social media, are various public platforms where people can share their views, stories, etc. with the help of various mediums. Starting with websites such as MySpace, Orkut, and Facebook, etc. it is now estimated that there are about 200 social media websites in ...
1 comment
Read more

Pegasus Spyware: Flying Through The Air

 Hundreds of millions of people can't imagine life without their smartphones. Almost every aspect of their daily lives, from the most mundane to the most intimate, is within easy reach and hearing distance of their smartphones. Only few people realize that their phones may be used as surveillance devices, with someone hundreds of miles away secretly extracting their messages, photographs, and location while also activating their microphone and recording them in real time. Such capabilities are present in Pegasus, a spyware produced by NSO Group, an Israeli maker of mass surveillance weapons. What is Pegasus? Pegasus is a hacking software – or spyware – that is developed, marketed and licensed to governments around the world by the Israeli company NSO Group. It has the capability to infect billions of phones using either iOS or Android operating systems. The spyware is named after Pegasus, the white winged horse from Greek mythology. It is named so because it "flies through the...
Post a Comment
Read more