Metacosm, walking in reality science fiction "Ask 2022"

"Slum boy Wade Woz lingers in a virtual online game, and the people in the movie enter this virtual world called 'Oasis' through VR (virtual reality) helmets." Ready Player One depicts an ideal metaverse world.

The metaverse has become a key word in 2021 and has begun to move from ideal to reality. From the listing of Roblox, the first share of the meta-universe concept, to the renaming of Facebook to "Meta" all in meta-universe, from Sequoia China, Jingwei China, Nanshan Capital, Zhen Fund, etc. have bet on the track to the A-share market to speculate on the meta-universe concept.

In the controversy over whether the metaverse is a concept or a product, the first domestic meta-universe product also appeared at the end of the year, on December 21, Baidu meta-universe product "Xilang" officially opened for directional internal testing, On December 27, "Xilang" was open to all users, and Baidu Create 2021 was held in "Xilang", which was the first large-scale conference held in the metaverse in China.

Although the existing meta-universe products are not perfect, as the number of players on this broad road increases, higher-stage meta-universe products will appear in the near future.

Capital hype

The tentacles of capital are always the sharpest, and when people are still thinking about what is the metacosm, capital has already opened up the battlefield.

In December, social gaming platform Rec Room completed a new round of financing totaling US$145 million, and Sequoia Capital once again appeared as an investor, and in March 2021, Sequoia Capital led a US$1.25 billion financing for Rec Room.

In May 2021, Star Han Capital participated in the A2 round of financing of entertainment interactive technology company rct AI. Wuyuan Capital even invested almost all of the key areas of the meta-universe track, including oasis VR in the social field, Bolygon as a game engine, and AI game project hyperparameters. In addition, first-line investment institutions such as Hillhouse Capital, Zhen Fund, Jianfeng Evergreen, and Morningside Capital have all opened the layout of the meta-universe track, involving enterprises from virtual social platforms and virtual idols to game companies and VR/AR projects.

In the secondary market, although the A-share market is frequently volatile, the meta-universe sector is often thriving. The meta-universe concept presents the leading rotation, from Zhongqingbao to Jiachuang Video, to Chinese Online, to Legg Mason Culture, with different companies acting as bellwethers, driving the meta-universe concept stock sector to continue to explode.

However, behind the capital speculation, some meta-universe concept stock companies do not have their own products, and even some companies are frequently negative news.

Zhongqingbao, the number one seed player in the meta-universe, released a message on the official micro-micro on September 6, 2021, saying that the meta-universe game "Brewing Master" will be launched soon. In the following two trading days (September 7 and September 8), Zhongqingbao continued to rise and fall. Due to the change in stock price, the regulatory letter of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange also came.

In The reply letter of Zhongqingbao also mentioned that "the meta-universe is a huge concept and model, the company is still in the initial exploration stage, the concept is relatively shallow, the corresponding products are still under development, and the time and region of the new game launch are also affected by many factors." There is great uncertainty about the progress of the project implementation, whether it can achieve the company's expected effect, and whether it can meet the needs of the future market. Even if the above conditions are met, the company still does not rule out the possibility that there is a large gap between the relevant products and the metacosm. Although the "Brewmaster" game is still under development, the meta-universe concept has not brought profits to Zhongqingbao for the time being, and the attention letter is frequent, but it does not stop the pace of Zhongqingbao's rise.

Legg Mason Culture was questioned because of the 6 investments in the first half of the year, and three independent directors stood up and spoke out: "According to the information currently available, we believe that these six investments are deliberately operated by the company in order to achieve the purpose of capital occupation or interest transmission of the actual controller." ”

Shenyang, executive director of the New Media Research Center of the School of Journalism of Tsinghua University, believes that some companies that have begun to rub the hot spots of the meta-universe without meta-universe-related products will return to rationality over time, and some shareholders will inevitably be cut leeks during this period; but on the other hand, some companies will start to really innovate meta-universe products after raising funds, which requires investors to identify.

Metacosmic products are conceived

When the capital market does not distinguish between true and false speculation, the head technology company is exploring the landing of meta-universe products.

On December 21, Baidu Metaverse product "Xilang" officially opened for directional internal testing, on December 27, "Xilang" was opened to all users, and Baidu Create 2021 was held in "Xilang", which is the first large-scale conference held in the metaverse in China.

Shenyang analyzed in an interview with the "China Times" reporter that the stages of the metacosm are divided differently, and Baidu "Xilang" belongs to the basic metaversic application that has just started.

Shenyang said that the application of the metaverse is divided into several categories, the first is the pseudo-metacosmology application, many companies claim to do the metacosm and actually do not have metacosmic products; the second is the quasi-metacosmology application on mobile phones and PCs, with open world attributes, a large number of virtual people, blockchain technology applications and other characteristics; the third is the entry-level basic version of the metaverse application, which requires the support of XR equipment, Baidu's "Xilang" supports XR equipment, which can be considered as an entry-level basic metacosmic application. Although the product is not perfect, from the perspective of China, Baidu is the first large-scale company to launch an application close to the concept of the meta-universe.

"If the metaverse develops better, the basic elements are available, and the sensory experience expands from vision and hearing to multi-sensory dimensions such as touch, which is divided into AR and VR, which are two paths to the metaverse, which are higher metaversic applications; to the brain-computer interface, it is a more advanced metacosmological application, and now the digital immortality in science fiction films is also possible in the future." Shenyang added.

The concept of metaversity, which is huge and full of uncertainty, includes the underlying technical support such as blockchain, NFT, artificial intelligence, 5G, Internet of Things, visualization and digital twins, front-end device platforms such as VR, AR, neural devices, and smart wearables, as well as scene content entrances such as games, social networks, theaters, and advertising networks, and the breakthrough progress of each link is driving the metaverse forward.

Shenyang analysis believes that from the path of VR to the metaverse, many current VR devices use Qualcomm XR chips, which have room for progress in terms of computing power enhancement, optical lens refresh rate, resolution improvement, and artificial intelligence applications; from the perspective of the path from AR to the metaverse, although AR has developed for many years, no large manufacturers have launched practical products for the C-end, and Google has launched AR products for the C-end for a period of time, and then turned back to the B-end. Because it's crucial for big tech companies to launch devices that have real practical value.

Controversy with the sea of stars

As a new thing, the metaverse has always been controversial, and people's attitude towards the metacosm is ambiguous, but as new things are gradually accepted, the metaverse also hides the vision of the star sea of human beings.

The fastest change in attitude towards the metaverse is Zhou Hongjie, the founder of 360, who in less than two months has shifted from bombardment and questioning of the metacosm to embracing.

In a "Dialogue" program broadcast on CCTV on November 20, Zhou Hong said that the concept of the meta-universe has been hot recently, and many people have found new ways to circle money. For Facebook's vision, he believes that this does not represent the future of humanity, but represents the decline of humanity. "If everyone lives in an illusory space, it will not bring real development to human society."

On December 10, Zhou Hongqiao also said that "the metacosm may face huge security risks." He divided the metaverse into four categories: games, decentralized virtual financial systems, rubbing concepts, and virtual communities. On December 28, Zhou Hongqiao also said that "the metacosm is the product of digital development to an advanced stage." What I am against is a metacosm that is detached from reality and addicted to the virtual world, but I am in favor of the industrial metacosm, serving the real economy, serving the manufacturing industry, and serving the digital transformation of various traditional industries."

In Shenyang's view, the metacosm is not a parallel world completely independent of reality, but a time and space in which virtual and real symbiotic. He further explained that the emergence of the metaverse will increase people's immersion in the virtual world, but the depth of this immersion must match our productivity, can not be derealistic to virtual, from our point of view, the key to the construction process of the metaversm, both to emphasize people's sense of experience of the virtual world, but also to emphasize people's perception of the real world and the virtual world to improve, if people's perception is improved fast enough, people are not willing to be in the virtual world all the time.

Shenyang paints a possible vision of the metacosm. "Humans lie at home, send robots to Mars, depict the three-dimensional space of Mars, and transmit it to human smart glasses and VR helmets in real time, so as to truly feel Mars, and humans can explore and experience the sea of stars when they are on earth."

Responsible Editor: Huang Xingli Editor-in-Chief: Han Feng