The concept of the metauniverse, which is understood as the global virtual space, has become widespread. Modern technology corporations claim that the Internet will lose its relevance in the future. It will be replaced by a huge virtual metaverse, where people will be able not only to communicate with their friends and do their everyday things but also work properly.
What does It Mean?
The term metaverse was coined by science fiction writer Neal Stephenson. He used the word to refer to a virtual world where people could interact with the environment and each other as digital avatars. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said that the metaverse is the 3D Internet. In other words, this is a virtual environment that covers all people, where they can interact with each other using different services, without being physically next to each other.
Of course, you can already use video chat to talk with your coworkers or play online games with your friends. However, the concept of the metaverse refers to a shared space that contains all applications, games, chats, and other means of communication and entertainment. Users will be able not only to have fun, but also to work, shop, study, and live a full life simply by putting on a virtual reality helmet and connecting to a large-scale simulation.
7 Essential Principles
Matthew Ball, who was the first to formulate the concept of the metaverse, identified 7 major principles on which it should be built:
- Continuous work. Users should always be able to get into the metaverse, without any delays, freezes, or disconnections.
- Constant availability. The metaverse does not depend on external circumstances and is always available.
- Unlimited capacity. The number of users simultaneously connected to the metaverse cannot have any limits.
- A full-fledged economy. it is important to build a stable economic system so that users can study, work and buy goods inside the simulation.
- One world. People can use the metaverse to combine the real and virtual worlds into a single ecosystem, without replacing one with the other.
- Full compatibility. Any digital content transmitted between individual services can be accessed in each world of the metaverse without any changes and distortions.
- Openness to content creators.
In theory, users can spend whole days in the metaverse and switch between activities without any inconvenience.
Ways of Development
The metaverse is essentially the next stage in the development of the global Internet, whose capabilities have expanded significantly due to the availability of high-speed mobile networks. The advantage of the metaverse lies not in the ability of users to actively work with virtual reality, especially since many people already spend the vast majority of their time online. The metaverse will make interactions with the virtual world more organic by creating a three-dimensional space that feels tangible.
The development of the metaverse will bring more jobs and opportunities for remote work. People will be able to come to 3D offices from anywhere in the world, regardless of their location. Experts believe that the concept of the metaverse will change the way consumers and popular brands interact. Modern advertising algorithms used in social media will not work in a huge open world. Brands will have to get creative to win the users’ favor.
Creating a full-fledged universe will take a lot of time. To do this, mega-corporations need to come to an agreement and create common standards for working with virtual space. Besides, storing truly gigantic amounts of data requires cloud storage and physical media, while creating a simulation requires more advanced technologies. Despite all this, the concept is recognized as quite possible to implement.