WHAT IS THE METAVERSE?
"As the Internet makes advances, the notion of a dividing line between
reality and virtual reality becomes blurred, sometimes creatively so."
Geoff Mulgan
A metaverse is a cyberspace where people can interact and interrelate both
socially and economically, each with their own avatar, who act as if they
were living a real life, but without the physical or economic limitations. The
idea of metaverse was initiated by Neal Stephenson in 1992 in his novel
Snow Crash, which describes a collective virtual space that is also
compatible and convergent with reality on the physical plane.
The metaverse described by Stephenson takes place in an urban
environment along a single 100-meter-wide road around the circumference
of a planet. Users access with glasses attached to terminals that can be
personal or public and appear as avatars that can travel the planet either on
foot or in a vehicle.
The metaverse is an always-on virtual environment where many people can
interact with each other and with digital objects. It is a science fiction
concept that is expected to be the successor to the Internet as it is currently
known. A vision that is trying to become a reality as the setting for many
activities, such as work, play, study and also shopping.
The word metaverse is an acronym of "meta" meaning transcendent and
"verse" as a simplification of the word universe.
There are 3 aspects that are fundamental in the metaverse: presence,
interoperability and standardization:
● Presence is the impression of actually being in a virtual space.
This new mode of presence is expected to improve the quality of
interactions.
● Interoperability means that you can seamlessly travel between
virtual spaces with avatars and different digital elements. The
Ready Player Me game allows you to create an avatar that can be
used in different virtual worlds, including Zoom meetings through
applications such as Animaze. In addition, digital goods can be
transferred across virtual boundaries.
● Standardization is responsible for enabling the interoperability
of the different platforms and services offered by the metaverse.
Standards are necessary in all types of media technology, the
printing press had them and also text messaging. Technology
standards are determined so that all technologies apply them.
They are defined by international organizations such as the Open
Metaverse Interoperability Group.
If the metaverse becomes the reality that is being exposed and is truly the
successor of the Internet, will it really be the replacement of life as we
know it? If Facebook expects to play a leading role, it will have to invest
heavily in virtual reality. What will happen to its users? Will only those who
invest in this technology be able to use it, leaving out all those who cannot
afford it or are not interested in it? What kind of expense will it represent
for users? According to Zuckerberg the metaverse encompasses non-
immersive platforms such as current social networks, as well as immersive
3D media technologies such as virtual reality, and will be for both work and
play.
It is hoped that the metaverse will come to resemble the oasis of Ernest
Cline's Ready Player One, or the scenarios of Fortnite or Roblox. It is also
expected to achieve experiences like those provided by VR Chat, Alt
spaceBAR or Immersed.
On the hardware side, virtual reality headsets and glasses are needed,
technologies powered by Oculus and HTC's Vive systems.
As far as software is concerned, it all started in the 1990s at Steve Jackson
Games' company with their online virtual reality system, which was based
on a MOO text called "The Metaverse". In it, several users could connect
simultaneously in their Illuminati Online newsletter. In those years, Internet
access was restricted to only a few users and virtual reality glasses did not
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