METAVERSE: The “INTERNET” of 1990s
Imagine the 1990s, an existing concept of “Internet” exists and is starting to get hyped. It seems to have immense possibilities. Your hopes and aspirations are sky-high. Come back to the present day now. Are all your expectations and speculations from the Internet met or has it exceeded the limits of imagination of those years?
Metaverse today is like the Internet of the 1990s. A concept exists to some extent, and everyone has high hopes for it. It feels like science fiction. There are different expectations, and we are pretty excited about it. But what exactly is and will be “Metaverse”? Let’s find out…
What is Metaverse?
Metaverse is another world, like Earth just placed in a virtual place (Have you heard about Ready Player One). It will constitute everything we do in daily life, like buying, selling, working, and studying. It is not a new service, but rather a new way to experience the existing things.
With the Metaverse we are transitioning from viewing a 2D world looking at the Internet to living inside the Internet in a 3D world.
~Dave Waters
Why the HYPE?
After Facebook’s rebranding to “Meta” and shifting focus towards a future goal of creating a metaverse, this term is the new craze in town. New developments like Haptic Gloves, Brain wave reading bracelets, VR devices/services/products, Blockchain(Web 3.0), Crypto, NFTs and many more contribute to it having the potential to be the next big thing in digitalisation.
What it is presently
— > Hardware products are being developed to enable the interaction of humans and virtual objects.
— > NFTs are being used as goods that can be transferred.
— > Blockchain is being used to track ownership in the virtual presence as well as transactions.
What it should be
A virtual world where we can travel as an avatar with our friends and family. A place where we can switch from working mode to partying mode without even moving from our couch in the real world. A place that feels like reality, even feel and touch what we want to.
Influence on Different Sectors
Marriages: The guests can be present from anywhere in the world. And if you wish, you can go to your own wedding wearing shorts, from your house!!
Education: There are online classes, where interaction is a problem, and then there are offline classes, where travelling is a problem. Solution? Schools in Metaverse. (Some businesses are working on this)
Entertainment: Already, companies like Wave are enabling digital concerts. People from around the globe can enjoy it. There can be virtual private theatres playing any movie you like and with people you want.
Retail: After online retail shops, it’s time for the shopping experience to be at home. We can walk in a virtual store, carrying a trolley, selecting our products which are then delivered to us.
Transportation: Personal transportation sector will be affected as people would not require to move much.
Tourism: People can travel wherever they want in Metaverse. Tourism companies will be affected as well.
Corporate: Work from Home will take on a whole different meaning. People can meet others, interact, roam around a virtual office, have meetings.
The possibilities are endless !!
What to be careful about
Very few would disagree on Metaverse being the future, but it does not mean it is perfect. There are a lot of concerns about Metaverse against which steps need to be taken.
The main issue with Metaverse is the concern of privacy. In today’s world, where data has so much value, living in a virtual world would mean revealing a lot about yourself online. Although we will control ourselves, it does not mean we have complete control as the software developers will have much more access and powers than us over our avatars, which are our virtual bodies.
Even today, people are afraid of using online banking services because of the risk of fraud. A challenge would be to ensure everyone about its safety. Removing the human contact for the service might result in uncertainty among the public.
Online bullying can happen on a whole new level with rising of the Metaverse. Laws would have to be made, implemented and checked if it is being followed or not.
Thinking carefully about it, we are starting to face problems that would appear if society and government were to collapse. This shows us how real and lifelike it all will be and even makes us appreciate our current system.
Conclusion
After understanding the basics of Metaverse and discussing what the future might hold for it along with its potential problems, I think it is natural to come up with our own expectations and think of things about which we can stay excited.
Keeping the specifics aside, we can universally say that it is too early for us to comment on it, and the best thing we can do is to wait for it and find solutions to fix its problems as well as design new things to make our expectations a reality.