The concept of the metaverse is almost 20 years old, but only now the technology has developed enough to implement it. According to Bloomberg Intelligence, by 2024 the market for virtual worlds will reach $ 800 billion, and Epic Games keeps account for trillions.
The metaverse is understood as a single virtual space, an alternative world, which, however, can be a “mirror” version of the real one. In this environment, users can influence objects and build social connections, and thanks to the fusion of various technologies, there are much more options for such interactions than in the material world.
Virtual worlds are being called the new internet, and many companies are preparing for the digital transition. Even sports brands and automotive concerns are actively developing the direction, not to mention technology giants like Meta.
It sounds like the distant future, but the metaverses, albeit limited and introverted, are already here: Ariana Grande and Travis Scott perform concerts at Fortnite, and children prefer to celebrate birthdays right on the Roblox platform.
- The technologies behind the metaverse provide users with a wide range of tools for social interaction. Therefore, their impact can be comparable to the advent of the Internet or mobile phones.
- Virtual worlds will correct certain problems of society, but will also pose serious challenges to society, such as inequality of digital opportunities.
- Blockchain technology is not a necessary component of the metaverse, but it allows you to connect the virtual economy with the real one, giving users full control over the value they generate.
The second level of the real world
The very prefix “meta” – after, outside – means that the metaverse will allow people to plunge into a virtual world unencumbered by the limitations of the physical. In this freedom lie the fundamental advantages and disadvantages of the new reality, because it can be destructive only as much as a person is capable of being.
The progenitors of the de facto metaverses are MMORPGs. The heyday of this genre was in 2003-2010, and many may remember how often the media discussedhow dangerous these online games can be, allegedly causing serious dependence.
However, studies have not been able to confirm or refute this thesis. Scientists agree [1], [2] , [3]that the “pathological” dependence on such games really exists, but its root cause is the problems of relationships in the family or with peers.
What’s more, the authors of some studies arguethat MMORPGs can affect psychological health in a positive way. For example, online games help develop and strengthen interpersonal skills such as group interaction and social flexibility.
Metaverses offer a wider range of tools for user interaction – this is facilitated by their technological strapping. With the launch of mass production of advanced solutions such as VR gloves that can convey the tactile sensations of digital objects, this effect will only increase.
How do we touch the virtual world? Our Reality Labs team is working to create the technology to make it possible. Today we shared some progress in researching and developing haptic gloves to bring the sense of touch to the metaverse. Check it out https://t.co/MliVQQdtfs pic.twitter.com/mdOsMwXE5Q
— Meta (@Meta) November 16, 2021
That is why, on the horizon of twenty years, the impact of the metaverse on society can be comparable to the advent of the Internet or mobile phones. One need only look at the exponential growth of social media audiences to understand how addicted people are to social interaction.
Already, the immersive effect that VR devices provide forces users to show each other empathy similar to that observed in the physical world. It also fosters mass engagement.
In 2018, a user of the VRChat platform with the nickname DrunkenUnicyclist had an epileptic seizure right during the session. Since he was the owner of a VR kit that fully tracks body movements, other players saw his seizures and heard a characteristic hoarse breath.
]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPwrwIspRag
“The main feature of VR is immersion. The way the person seemed to be agonizing right in front of us made us think we had to do something — my instinct was screaming at me that, but we were powerless,” streamer Sam Raiffeisen told Mashable.
The story ended well. After a few minutes, the seizure went away and the player informed other users, who had been worried about his condition all this time, that everything was fine. Raiffeisen noted that VR projects should implement security protocols that allow administrators, if necessary, to access the emergency contacts of a particular person.
Metaverses not only have social and entertainment segments, but also allow people to work fully from home. Due to the pandemic, many have come to work remotely, and in the future, against the background of automation and robotization of an even larger number of processes, the relevance of this opportunity will only increase.
Meta’s Horizon family of social services, which includes the Workroomsspace, offers users virtual rooms for collaboration. Owners of VR-headsets from Zuckerberg’s company can come together just like in a real office.
Meta is in beta, but some are already using apps like Immersed for the Oculus Quest headset to move their workplace to the virtual world. A virtual workplace in the Immersed app (left) and what that space looks like in the physical world. Data: Time.
It is possible that users of the metaverse will be able to earn a living from less traditional activities, for example, games. The experience of Axie Infinity, an NFT project based on the Play-to-Earn concept, shows that this is quite realistic.
With a wide pool of possibilities, people are likely to spend a lot of time in these spaces, and some even believethat “most of their lives” will be connected to the metaverse in the future.
This is neither good or bad – only a vector of technological progress. However, this evolution still has a downside.
The Flip Side of Progress
To describe the postmodern model of society, the French philosopher Jean Baudrillard coined the term “hyperreality.” In simple terms, this is a state in which a person cannot distinguish reality from simulation, since all objects of the physical world are replaced by images and signs – simulacra.
Baudrillard’s ideas seem radical – something similar we saw in the movie “The Matrix”, but people with an unstable psyche can really “get lost” in the digital world, forgetting about the real one.
The social problems of the metaverse do not end there. Unfortunately, the vices of some representatives of society sometimes take a very aggressive form – in the digital space, their behavior is unlikely to differ, and the feeling of impunity will only aggravate the situation.
On the Internet, such aggression manifests itself mainly in the form of cyberbullying,although harmful to the mental health of victims, but not as dangerous as physical impact. In virtual worlds, especially with the advent of more advanced VR hardware, such encroachments can be much more violent.
In 2018, an attacker hacked into the Roblox platform and added animation simulating sexual intercourse. This allowed two male characters to “abuse” the little girl’s avatar.
“At first, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The avatar of my sweet and innocent daughter was brutally gang-raped right on the playground. At the end of the action, a woman approached them and jumped on her body. Then all three ran away, leaving my daughter’s avatar to lie face down in the middle of the sandbox,” the victim’s mother wrote.
Of course, Roblox is not a VR game. The lack of immersive effect may not allow users to experience sufficient empathy for others, so they perceive the process as a game, without attaching serious importance to it.
However, such incidents are often found in real life, where the crime in most cases is followed by a commensurate punishment. In virtual worlds, without proper control, real chaos can reign.
The need to control and moderate the metaverses is also thought about by organizations that are engaged in their development. Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth, in an internal note to employees, notedthat the corporation’s virtual world should have a “virtually Disney level of security.”
This task is not easy, because in virtual reality, companies will have to control not content, but behavior. To do this, it is necessary to develop a completely new type of moderation systems.
Such control is a double-edged sword. To implement it, operators of digital worlds will collect and process large amounts of data – the sad experience of the same Meta has already shownwhat this can mean for consumers.
To connect to virtual spaces, users need to have specialized hardware and fast network connection access. These requirements raise another metaverse problem– the “digital divide.”
Prices for simple VR headsets like the Oculus Quest 2 start at $300. However, more advanced kits that can capture the movements of the whole body are much more expensive. For example, for the new HTC Vive Pro on Amazon ask for $ 1600. Many simply cannot afford them.
With access to a high-speed connection, too, not everything is smooth. Even in developed countries such as the United States, there are enough “dead zones”,where broadband Internet is used by less than 10% of the population.
In the future, these problems will become less noticeable, as happened with the prices of cellular communications and mobile phones. However, this will take time, and there is still no guarantee that we will come to a society of equal digital opportunities.
Why the metaverse of blockchain?
According to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, augmented reality technologies will become “wormholes” connecting the physical world with the digital one.
“We will enter the virtual world using VR, and its objects, digital objects, will move into our world thanks to AR. It will happen that part of the digital world temporarily, and maybe almost permanently, will complement our reality. Ultimately, it’s about merging the virtual and physical worlds,” he explained.
The concept of the metaverse assumes the existence of several components, without which it is impossible to erase the line between the worlds. The set of these building blocks may vary depending on the approach to design, but there are also fundamental ones:
- Internet. Obviously, without it, it is impossible to establish the interaction of millions of users located on different continents.
- Interoperability and open source. These standards will allow developers to make virtual worlds seamless, so users can “travel” between them.
- Augmented reality technologies. Without AR and VR headsets or their analogues, it is impossible to achieve a full immersion.
- Processing power. ” Hardware”, installed in data centers and users should be powerful enough to process large amounts of information.
If the connection between material and digital objects provides augmented reality equipment, then what will connect the virtual economy with the real one? Some believethat the role of a financial “wormhole” is ideally suited to the blockchain.
The decentralized nature of the latter gives users complete control over the value earned in the virtual world, which can be represented in the form of cryptocurrencies or NFT. Blockchain interoperability also makes it easy to transfer this value from one world to another.
An example of the successful implementation of this vision are projects based on the Play-to-Earn model, the in-game currency of which can be exchanged for fiat.
Blockchain can also solve another problem – to eliminate unfair censorship and, on the contrary, lay fair rules for moderation of behavior. If examples of successful application of technology on the first issue already exist (decentralized social networks), then suitable solutions have yet to be found for the second.
Uncertain future
According to the co-founder of the Gemini cryptocurrency exchange Cameron Winklevoss, in the future there will be a struggle between decentralized spaces and closed ecosystems(walled gardens). The final implementation of the concept of the metaverse will largely depend on which model wins.
Behind centralized solutions are large corporations with almost unlimited resources. However, this is not the key to an unconditional victory.
“In 20 years, technology will allow one person to create a VR world. Corporations are always one step ahead because they can hire thousands of people and buy licenses for advanced software. But the ideological inspiration of the project is almost always done by units, so when the tools become available, the forces of one person become comparable to the forces of the corporation, “said Pavel Kravchenko, founder of Distributed Lab, in an interview with Cryplogger.
One thing is for sure – the metaverses will not only provide a lot of opportunities, but also pose serious challenges to humanity. And how society copes with them will determine what effect the pairing of the two worlds will have.
