Author: Li Kang
On October 18, Facebook announced that it would hire 10,000 people in THE EUROPEAN Union to build a "metacosm" the news attracted global attention. In fact, as early as July this year, Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, had declared that he would transform Facebook into a meta-universe company within five years.
Not only Zuckerberg, but the leaders of Microsoft and Tencent have also proposed to build an "enterprise metaverse" and a "full-truth Internet" similar to the concept of the metaverse this year.
Facebook founder Zuckerberg has vowed to transform Facebook into a metacostem company within five years. (AFP)
What exactly is the metaverse? Why is it suddenly on fire? How far away is it from our lives today? This article gives you answers to the most central questions about the metaverse.
From science fiction to reality
The so-called metaverse (metaverse) refers to the use of mobile phones, tablets, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) glasses and other devices, in a virtual stand-in way into the immersive virtual space, in the virtual world activities to obtain an unprecedented real experience.
The concept of a metacosm first appeared in the 1992 science fiction novel Snow Crash by American writer Neal Stephenson.
The novel depicts a virtual world that is different from the real world, metaverse (now translated as "metaverse", earlier also translated as "metaverse" or "hyper-metaverse"). Real-life people have a virtual avatar in the metaverse, and through the virtual avatar they fight against the world controlled by large enterprises.
The concept of a metaverse also often appears in movies. The Matrix, the classic 1999 science fiction film, shows a virtual world in which the human body is in a nutrient tank, and the spirit and other senses live in a "matrix." In the 2018 movie Ready Player One, the protagonist can enter the virtual world "oasis" of his own design as long as he wears a VR eye mask. This year's movie "Free Guy" also shows a highly realistic virtual world through VR games.
Once a metaverse, it was a concept that existed only in science fiction and movies. With the development of VR, AR and the Internet, today's metaverse is no longer out of reach, but a reality just around the corner.
1999 classic sci-fi film The Matrix (Internet)
The metacosm is truly "out of the loop"
The metacosm is suddenly on fire, which is not unrelated to the coronavirus epidemic.
At the beginning of the epidemic, the Japanese game giant Nintendo Switch's version of "Animal Crossing" was all the rage, reflecting people's strong desire to connect with the outside world when they were isolated at home. Through this game, people can not only build their own island, but also go to their friends' islands and chat with friends.
When the real world can't meet people's social needs, the virtual world becomes an alternative. People's social needs have not only spawned many games similar to Animal Forest Friends, but also inspired people to play new ways in the virtual world.
Graduation ceremonies cannot be held offline, and graduates of the University of California, Berkeley, set up scenes in the sandbox game Minecraft to hold online graduation ceremonies. Unable to hold concerts offline, American singer Travis Scott hosted an immersive virtual concert with 12 million players in the game Fortnite.
Technically, the development of VR, AR, artificial intelligence and 5G has made it possible to realize the metaverse. While today's technology can't fully support a world parallel to the real world in every way, at least through the form of the game, it provides a visible sample.
Of course, what really makes the meta-universe "out of the circle" is that Internet giants such as Mianchang, Microsoft, and Tencent are willing to invest money to stir up the capital market and trigger the public's curiosity and pursuit of new things.
Bloomberg said the market size of the meta-universe will reach $800 billion (about S$1 trillion) in 2024 and may reach $2.5 trillion by 2030.
The future of the metacosm
While current technology has allowed us to experience fairly real virtual worlds, we are still some distance from the real metaverse.
The true metaverse is a virtual social system that can connect all people, and can meet people's work, life, entertainment, politics, finance, and all other needs. People can interact with anyone in the metaverse and create everything they want.
Compared with this standard, the game with metaverse attributes is basically still in the stage of design and development by game companies and player participation. The system and related equipment in the game are not yet complete, and they cannot contain everyone in society.
Of course, it is not without companies to try. Roblox, an American company listed on the New York Stock Exchange in March 2021, was hailed as the "first stock in the metacosm" and wrote the metacosm into the prospectus.
Unlike traditional game companies that develop their own games, Roblox is a platform that brings together a multitude of mini-games. Players can develop their own games through the tools provided by Roblox, and can also trade and buy and sell through a virtual currency called Robux.
In addition, Roblox has both social attributes. Each player has a doppelganger in roblox virtual world that can chat with other players and invite friends from the real world to play games together.
Due to the sheer number of games on Roblox, each game opened is equivalent to entering a virtual world developed by different players, and the metaverse seems to have taken shape.
On March 10, a banner with the Roblox logo was displayed outside the New York Stock Exchange. (Reuters)
However, to truly establish the metaverse, it is essentially inseparable from technological breakthroughs. Realistic immersive experience depends on the advancement of VR and AR technology, real-time communication without delay requires 5G or even higher communication technology, and the economic system needs more mature blockchain technology.
Jose Ángel Olivas, a professor of information technology and systems at the University of Castilla-La Mancha in Spain, said: "In the 60s and 70s of the last century, AI pioneers said that in 15 years robots would do everything, but this was not the case. This is also the case in the 'metaverse' realm. Although it is constantly evolving, it is still far from us, because there is a part that needs a lot of improvement. For example, if we want to do video conferencing in the 'metaverse,' we need better communications, like 5G or even 6G communications, but it will take time to do that. In addition, there may be computational problems. ”
What will the world order look like when the true metacosm is established? Will the metacosm replace the real world? Maybe now we can start thinking.