AR AND VR are believed to be a very essential part of our lives in the coming years. The value they offer is just insane: creating and bringing to fore alternate realities, possessing completely new immersive experiences in different virtual spaces, owning and trading things that actually don’t exist in real life as if we are in a science fiction movie or a very realistic video game. Actually, what they could offer will not be limited only to gaming, communication, or shopping. Today, the world is talking about a new concept that includes AR, VR, NFTs, and Web 3.0: the metaverse. But what exactly is it, and more importantly why should we care?
The concept was first coined in Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson’s 1992 sci-fi novel. In the book, the term refers to the convergence of physical, augmented, and virtual reality in a shared online space.
The metaverse consists of future-forward social hubs with linked apps where our avatars can meet. So there's no need to be afraid of meeting people who don't observe physical distancing, right?
The term intrigues many silicon valley companies and tech giants. Their work on this subject is going on full-throttle. Facebook is one of the companies investing heavily in the metaverse. The CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, announced that they will be positioning the company as a metaverse company in the future rather than being a social media platform.
“You can kind of think about [the metaverse] as an embodied internet, where instead of just viewing content — you are in it. And you feel present with other people as if you were in other places, having different experiences that you couldn’t necessarily do on a 2D app or webpage, like dancing, for example, or different types of fitness,” he quipped.
One crucial thing to consider is that metaverse cannot fully operate without its building blocks being developed enough to be executed in an interoperable environment.
Thus, it is something one company could not build or govern alone, rather, it’s a collaborative initiative that must take developers and creator communities into consideration to be successful.
Soon we will see which companies will be the key players in the metaverse, but until that time we know one thing for sure and that is the metaverse is here to stay. It will be our new way of shopping, meeting with friends, doing business and so much more.