The Metaverse
I was watching the news when a headline came up that said, “Seoul has invested $187 m to become the world’s first metaverse city”. This got me thinking, how many people know about the metaverse. So, for everyone who wants to know what the metaverse is, I have written the following piece.
What is the metaverse?
The metaverse in simple terms is an electronic world which everyone can access through their devices. The term metaverse was coined by Neal Stephenson in 1992 to describe the future of reality.
How do you get to the metaverse?
According to an article written in the Harvard business review
Many current workplace metaverse solutions require no more than a computer, mouse, and keyboard keys, but for the full 3-D surround experience you usually have to don a VR-enabled headset. However, rapid progress is also taking place in computer-generated holography that dispenses with the need for headsets.
The places that many people call “The Metaverse” include Horizon Worlds By Meta (formerly known as Facebook), Decentraland made by Decentraland Foundation and VR Chat by VR Chat Inc.
What can you do in the metaverse?
Over here you should ask “What can you not do in the metaverse?” because whatever you can do in the real world you can do in the metaverse.
Companies are heavily investing in The Metaverse
Considering the huge future potential of Metaverse in the future across industries, several companies are investing in Metaverse initiatives
Meta
Thanks to its Oculus range of headsets, massive social media ad engine, and a thriving creator economy, it could manage to launch a working prototype in 2–5 years.
Nvidia
Nvidia is not building its own metaverse, but it will be an important part in enabling access to the metaverse through its series of Graphics cards and through Omniverse
Omniverse is a scalable, multi-GPU real-time reference development platform for 3D simulation and design collaboration and based on Pixar’s Universal Scene Description and NVIDIA RTX technology.
Roblox
“…Part of its appeal is that Roblox features many games within its platform, and several of them offer virtual worlds (the metaverse) where users can interact with one another. Millions of children are socializing in Roblox without ever leaving their homes…”
Source: Does Roblox have a plan to win the metaverse? | The Motley Fool
Microsoft
Microsoft’s metaverse plans are getting clear ever since its obtained Activision for $68.7 billion. Microsoft will do everything it takes to be a leader in The Metaverse
With so much happening around metaverse, time is not far when we spend much of our time, we spend in digital space in metaverse.
It would be interesting to see acceptance of metaverse and how this would impact our behavior and social relationship.
To me Meta is still at least a decade ahead and this will be unlikely to replace the charm of living, working, playing, and socializing in this beautiful physical world.
Think around you what activities you would like to do in a metaverse environment and write in the comments section.
