The ultimate layer of the Metaverse
The Metaverse, an unfinished book in multiple versions
It’s a horror, I have to admit. The metaverse has had and has as many meanings as there are students in a classroom. Tech corporations appropriated the term in the wake of Facebook’s change to the current Meta.
However, Mark Zuckerberg does not seem to be giving up on the company’s most important and enthusiastic creation, despite the fact that he has diverted teams to Artificial Intelligence developments such as Cm3leon, Pytorch or ParlAI.
After the huge failure of his Virtual Reality applications such as Horizon Worlds, he now seems to be working quietly without giving so much hype to the Metaverse, where his vision was limited to “Virtual Spaces”.
On the other hand, numerous technologists, gurus and futurists have also developed their own definitions of this utopian term:
And although the term differs, Neal Stephenson was the creator, defining it in his work Snow Crash where, although he does not give an exact definition, he leaves brushstrokes like :
- A virtual state available for purchase where one can build without obeying the laws of physics, at the builder’s discretion and can hire staff such as architects.
- They access it through personal terminals that project a high quality virtual reality image on glasses or public terminals in booths.
- He speaks of “gargoyles”, as people who are continuously connected and experience everything in the first person.
- There are builders, capable of creating vehicles.
All these definitions are so heterogeneous that there is no consensus on what a metaverse must have to be considered as such. But we have 7 layers that one day decided to develop Jon Radoff which seem to be integrated in a correct and complete way. At least these 7 layers have served for many companies and users as a source of orientation and a starting point.
However, after months of study, I have not been able to avoid associating the 7 layers to dozens of Science Fiction movies. And the fact is that, although it may not seem so, everything we see in the present and will see in the future, comes from series, films or books. It’s like that, it’s been proven. Sci-fi films seem to be dreams to be fulfilled by humanity where many of them have already been consolidated and others are yet to come. On the other hand, I could not help but discern that some of these layers may not be essential to the construct of the Metaverse. To this end, I have decided to draw on some of the renowned films that are presented as examples of these “worlds”.
The “Decentralisation” layer
As indicated by Jon Radoff in his definition of this layer, OASIS , the world of Ready Player One is the opposite of what it should be by being controlled by a single entity. To this end, Jon proposes distributed computing. And believe me, Jon’s vision is totally in line with mine in terms of not being controlled by one entity, but reality tells us that :
Large organisations have their own data centres where they store, analyse, manage and disseminate their data. And then there are the huge data centres containing tens of thousands of servers owned by companies like Amazon, Google, IBM and Microsoft. These are where internet searches are conducted and vast amounts of data, such as YouTube videos, are stored. These companies also lease the mind-boggling computing power of their servers to other companies, which use this impressive power to perform a wide range of tasks. Ultimately, therefore, in one way or another, such “decentralisation” is almost impossible.
What about the Matrix ? The Matrix is composed of distributed computing, but controlled by the same entity. The machines control absolutely everything after an evolution towards self-awareness and their rebellion against humanity.
What about Ready Player One ? More of the same. An attempt by Sorrento to take over the world of Oasis, which initially belonged to the company Gregarious Games. Some wanted it to be more democratic, others wanted it not to be. At the end of the film, Wade, the main character, takes CONTROL of Oasis.
Fortnite ? Right. We all know that Fortnite is owned by Epic Games. It runs almost entirely on AWS ( Amazon Web Services ), including its fleet of international game servers, backend services, databases, websites, and analytics and processing pipeline systems. However, I would like to highlight this launched service that brings the physical world closer to the digital world in a rather simple and surprising way.
Decentralisation, although it sounds great in everyone’s head (it already did in the world of cryptocurrencies), is a somewhat utopian passport due to the large corporations that monopolise infrastructure capacity, connections and providers. Even if everything works through P2P nodes, they require a connection, which can also be capped by the service provider when the time comes. The web is so big that making something free, accessible and open has too many nuances to assess.
In the example of the layer, Jon Radoff suggests the Domain Name System (DNS), which maps individual IP addresses to names, which avoids having to enter a number every time you want to go somewhere online. These systems are currently based on the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), all in the hands of private non-profit organisations and the five regional Internet registries. I would like to recommend you to read this article:
The variables are so extensive that this layer, while attractive, is a dead-end maze. While the DNS is decentralised in nature, its operation is not. Clear examples are the prohibitions or restrictions on numerous websites such as “Thepiratebay” or any other website aimed at sharing audiovisual content illegally. In Spain, it is enough to simply deny access from the service provider.
But let’s go to something simpler, what would happen if your project decides not to be approved for indexing in search engines? Well, you lose the battle. If you don’t appear in the search engines, although you can connect, you are invisible to the eyes of the world. Think about it. Also on the other hand I recommend some “possible solutions” like ODDNS :
In conclusion, I agree that decentralisation is a layer that would add to the ecosystem and does so with nuances, but it is not feasible as everything currently has a hierarchy of centralised control at one or more levels. Therefore, I do not consider it essential and it may be partially dispensable if what we want is for the masses of users to have access to the ecosystem.
The “Creator Economy” layer
Another layer of Jon Radoff pursues the idea of giving users the ability to create content, assets, trade them, through authoring tools. As he argues, this is already done on websites or trading portals as well as in video games like the ones you can see above.
Of course, the incorporation of this layer is an addition that would captivate many users, but not all. There are companies that prefer to have control over what is created, developed and updated, just as there are users who want high quality content offered in a homogeneous way. It is clear that these tools encourage creativity, promote employment and the possibility of monetising your work with these tools, but on the other hand, they can lead to a chaos of worthless junk content, generating huge amounts of assets to be hosted and causing incredible congestion, as is already happening with the creation of songs with automated AI, ebooks on Amazon or NFTs.
Similarly, it should be noted that these tools granted to the creator have limitations and small print, as in the case of The Sandbox where its terms and conditions of use expressly prohibit you from creating certain types of content and you approve the use of your creations on third-party platforms also managed by The Sandbox. Here there is a lot to do in terms of security, privacy, rights and a long etcetera that can complicate rather than facilitate the incursion and adoption.
This is also the case with Steam Workshop, where users can create their own mods or skins under certain guidelines in a fully centralised manner, a service that in comparison to the huge numbers of users, barely collects a few thousand users who are attracted to this creative category. And even on the subject of security, I can show you one of the most recent problems:
In the case of Slay the Spire, one of the mods created by the community was hacked to include malware. This is “Downfall”, a community mod that was the victim of a cyber-attack to get hold of user data, from passwords to all kinds of data from your social networks, what a mess. Cases like this make you rethink twice how safe it is to implement a service in which you delegate to the community the power to introduce files to other users, being able to cause mass chaos, because here this was a community, but imagine if this happened on a global scale in a virtual server where you have a large amount of digital assets in your property, digital bank accounts, virtual state, very sensitive data in general…
That is why one of the most difficult services to implement, and one in which you always have to be up to date, is cybersecurity. And if one thing is known, it is that cybercrime is more active than ever, especially in theft through attacks and breaches in blockchain.
I believe that there are fundamental layers that arise from empirical need, while others, such as this one, are optional layers that can enhance the service experience but can also be seen as a complication. Remember that the citizen wants something simple, straightforward, easy to access and use, that entertains and doesn’t complicate their life. If you give them 9999 options, they will leave it behind.
As in the Matrix, there are architects, builders, security personnel, creators and creatives here too, but don’t forget, the other 90% are users, with perhaps 1/10th the knowledge of a “Metaverse Nerd” who just wants to see what you are offering.
Let’s offer simplicity and not complexity. Let’s build loyalty, then we will create on demand in the niches that demand it.
The “Discovery” layer
Are you really going to question the discovery layer? You might think. Yes, I have to argue it so that you can understand the perspective.
Although this film dates back to 1993, I can’t help but think of it when I read Jon Radoff talk about the properties of the cape. I’m sure he remembers it too. But to argue my concerns you have to watch this scene:
And this, which at the time seemed so surreal, is just a hint of what the discovery layer can bring. Not only at this level, but at all levels and social scales, generating real problems of interpersonal relationships, virtualising us to such an extent that devirtualisation becomes something “very rare”.
And while on the one hand it can enhance social skills and interpersonal globalisation, on the other hand it also has its negative sides, leading to isolation, leading a much more sedentary life and eliminating the ability to learn in non-verbal communication. All this that many people jokingly say: “We will live in a world connected through a probe that will nourish us and a bag to defecate and not move from our meeting zone”, be careful, because without wanting to alarm anyone, it is not something so convoluted. I have been one of the people who today consider this to be something inconsequential, without weight or argument, but in addition to isolated cases that lead to health problems, obesity, mental disorders, violence or even killings, this can get worse.
The ability to interconnect absolutely everything, in groups, in masses and crowds, can also be a great tool for collective manipulation. Don’t you think so? Jon Radoff gives the example of Spotify, and I’m going to show you a Spotify tool:
Marquee is a service that allows you (if you have a significant amount of money) to upload your playlist and place it among the algorithms controlled by Spotify, appearing in users’ shuffles and “telling them which way to go”. Well, this is just music, but now apply it to any other field and tell me whether or not you think that this kind of actions by big corporations or governments cannot instigate collective thoughts, provoke conflicts through “fake news” or create needs in consumers. If, in fact, we already have it in our Web 2, is it really what we want in Web 3? Do we want this experience of control to be maximised and go through our cognitive process in a much more immersive way?
And let’s not forget that there are many users who prefer to perform tasks without knowing what they are doing, with whom, at what time, what type of connection and in what place. In a Spanish survey of 1200 video game enthusiasts, almost 39% said they preferred to play single-player video games, compared to online games with 29% being unknown and the remaining 27% also playing online but with friends.
What I am trying to say is that, obviously, online people occupy the majority of the market, but there is also quite a large group that prefers to “go it alone”, either in a single-player world or in a multiplayer single-player world. In the same survey, it is worth noting that men positively indicate that it helps them to socialise, while women find it more isolating and sexist.
Why I do not consider a layer as social and weighty as Discovery as essential
For various reasons, apart from those mentioned above and the problems arising from the dissociation of reality, I do not see all this massive interconnectedness on a large scale as essential to visualise the set of layers essential for me as a realised Metaverse.
Without wishing to set a precedent, it seems that the Metaverse always goes hand in hand with the multitude, with massiveness, with social group activity, and yet my perspective differs from that of the majority. I want to show you why social layers are not necessarily essential to our interaction in immersive cyberspace worlds. I may want to live past personal experiences or be part of an artificially recreated army platoon where only I am human and the rest are A.I.-driven characters or simply move into a virtual room consciously where I have my mental but not corporeal transfer. I can wish to visit botanical gardens where I can feel textures, smell and see but with no one else around me or relive my most personal desires without anyone knowing what I do, where or with whom. I may have my own totally sealed room where I keep a lot of my own content, even passwords, mind maps or other things that I do not wish to be stored in my primary and real self. I may want to generate experiences in those private rooms and then sell those recreations, why not? Does Total Recall ring a bell?
Ah, that it’s a conspiratorial thing to totally sell my dreams or my memories?
Treatments. People with recurrent nightmares often have these strong negative emotions during REM sleep. And the problem is usually treated with imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT), a non-invasive method in which patients rewrite their most distressing and frequent nightmares to give them a happy ending. They then “rehearse” by telling themselves the rewritten story, trying to overwrite the nightmare. This method can reduce frequency, it is not effective for all patients. Xataka.
T H E E I G H T H L A Y E R
“What is real? How do you define real? If you’re talking about what you can feel, what you can smell, what you can taste and see, then what is real is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain.”
Morpheus
Precisely in the Matrix, sensations are perceived as real and as a consequence, we stop questioning whether we are awake or not.
We are living in an era of major technological advances, increasingly accelerated, more interconnected, devices are paired regardless of their location, there is a massive monitoring of the population by voice, text, image, surveillance cameras, many with facial recognition are counted by the hundreds throughout cities, airports and supermarkets. Some biotech companies are already working on babies on demand, neuroscience is enabling the implantation of neural chips for human enhancement, that neural human interface that names
Jon Radoff
in this case with Elon Musk and Neuralink, the governments of China, South Korea, France, the United States, are working on upgrading the military by turning human beings into super-soldiers, none of this is a joke, none of this is a mirage, it is happening here and it is happening now.
The Human Interface as an antechamber to conscious transfer
When the term “Metaverse” was implanted in the minds of the population, we all thought of living in another world, having a second life, another chance, something parallel to what we live in day to day, yes, Matrix, Avatar, Ready Player One or even the most conspiranoid in Replicas.
It was then that large and not so large corporations took advantage of the viralisation of this type of content to create virtual environments that were far, far away from some of these dreams. With a graphic style more typical of a poorly made video game from the 2000s, crude mechanics and a non-immersive or non-existent experience, companies began to sell an idea that would never come to fruition. When we see something that doesn’t agree with the other senses (hearing, touch, smell…), our brain doesn’t quite understand what’s going on and goes a bit “crazy”, and that’s how many of us were left when we saw what was being cooked up. Pure neuromarketing, it sells dreams, not products.
Despite the existence of some consumables such as VR/AR visors, haptic suits, omnidirectional platforms, gloves, limited experiential olfactory sensors and something else that could perhaps bring us a little closer to the experience that Wade lives in Ready Player One, the reality is different. These environments are dead, because the elements are still too green to offer something that, even if it doesn’t seem like it, has magnitude. Video games are still the closest way to live other experiences “that make you dream”.
The fact is that for some time now, some players have managed to capture people’s attention by doing it in a somewhat different way. I invite you to watch this video in its entirety:
Repository of interest :
Have you seen the video? Good. The next step is for you to add a system in which you can use BCI (Brain Computer Interface) and HCI (Human Computer Interaction) assisted plus a proper VR viewer. Wow, I don’t need controls in my hands to move anymore, just my mind. Yes, well, I can walk, but some people cannot. In fact there are people who can talk and people who can’t. You see? What a dichotomy, living in my real life or the one that “seems real”, which is more real to me, the one I live in or the one I want to live in?
And it may seem sad to you, but although in the case of Matrix, Cifra prefers to live in ignorance, others don’t do it out of ignorance, they do it to feel better, to feel that they CAN have a second chance.
Can they feel better or have that second chance?
Our Jake Sully, a paraplegic Navy veteran, thought so. In fact, he believed it so much that once in Pandora’s world he didn’t want to leave the world, and man, I wouldn’t want to either. From being in a wheelchair unable to do anything to being in a body of a being that interacts with nature and is physically superior and I can feel my legs again, without the prison of the damn chair.
Logically, I must somehow demonstrate that all this changes lives. And while at the moment I cannot demonstrate that the transfer of consciousness is something that many people would be willing to do by temporarily or permanently leaving their body, I can demonstrate that the change of perception of things has a direct impact not only on the state of mind but also on the health of those who experience it.
EFFECT OF VIRTUAL REALITY ON BALANCE IN STROKE PATIENTS
Bionic movements
Biosensors and your health
Pain management
Understanding anxiety disorders
And the truth is that our truth will always be what our brain interprets. The unconscious part of your brain does not distinguish what is real from what is not; so, when we use Virtual Reality for a part of our brain it is a 100% real experience.
For this we have to take into account that the curved viewfinder of our glasses is what causes that “distortion” that converts 2D graphics into 3D. Working above 50 FPS, the brain does not notice a delay in the processing of the image, but logically it remains at the limit of the “tricked brain”. The optimum is to work in a range above 90 FPS (at least for me) used to play above 120 FPS.
Our brain forms its own reality based on past experiences and sensory information, which is why it is so easy to fool it with optical illusions. When it sees something that sounds familiar, it is immediately predicting what will happen next. Our brain is constantly predicting the future, and the more it predicts, the more sense of presence and realism it gives by pretending to be there. But this video shows much better how devices are able to re-educate our brain:
So, if all this happens in our brain connected to our body, what would prevent us from having the same sensation in an alternate body, either natural cloned or artificially designed?
The case of “The Creator” ( Warning Spoiler for recent film )
The eighth layer is perfectly represented by “The Creator”. While we may think that all this science fiction is a long way off, technological advances are getting bigger, faster and riskier.
In this one, humans coexist with artificial intelligence. What we know at the moment, going back to our world, is that :
A.I. is capable of carrying out some human tasks ✅
A.I. is able to substitute the human voice ✅
A.I. is able to recognise and interpret people or objects ✅
A.I. is able to create, reproduce and enhance images in various forms ✅
A.I. is not capable of matching the intellectual capacity of human beings:
Humans and androids or cyborgs do not coexist with humans:
Ultimately, if all this is realised in the coming years or decades, this eighth layer I am talking about will become particularly meaningful and relevant ( mark my words ).
The “Human Interface” layer exposed by Jon Radoff talks about all those devices, gadgets or inserts that can go from machine to human, including neurochips like Elon Musk’s or even transhumanist implementations such as the protagonist of “The Creator” has:
My cape, however, does not talk about everything that can be inserted into a human being, but about what can be inserted into a droid.
Although in “The Creator” you can also see the brain download in this kind of almost clone-like droids, there are other examples in the world of science fiction:
In these two examples we have everything. On the one hand we have Robocop, who after suffering an “accident” has his organs transplanted into a Cyborg with improved structure, speed, protection, improved aim and a long etcetera. On the other hand, in Ghost in the Shell, in addition to these improvements and others, we have part of his brigade who are still human but transhuman implementations have been made, such as Batou’s eyes, working as cameras, with night vision and X-ray vision.
In both cases (Robocop and Ghost in the shell), the protagonists are neuronally modified to partially eliminate some of their memories or emotions, things that have been researched for years in the real world, for example in the military, where a “wrong” emotion can jeopardise an entire mission.
I would also like to leave this article for you to read at your leisure:
Final Conclusion
Nobody would have told us a few years ago that we would be able to see cars without human pilots, killer drones or couriers, regenerative chips or research into “smart drugs” that enhance cognitive abilities.
Now, global efforts seem to be focused on improving artificial intelligence capabilities, on cross-embodiment so that this also happens in artificial collectives and replaces humans in jobs, medicine, the military and many other sectors, even the most creative ones.
Years ago all this was unthinkable, the stuff of movies. If you think that my eighth layer completely escapes what we might see in the creation of new worlds and new ways of living, just wait and see.
