Metaverse Explained

What exactly is a metaverse?

If you would explain the concept of communicating with their loved ones with just one click, to someone who lived some thirty years back, he would not have taken it seriously. 

Because thirty years back the internet was something that was still far-fetched to a majority of people living around the globe.

However, presently, the same thing will not have an element of surprise, and pretty much everyone knows how they can communicate, shop, book, and travel by sitting where they are. 

This is, however, a 2D way of interaction.

What does this have to do with the metaverse?

Before the metaverse, pehle ye samajh lo ki Metaverse abhi bhi ek concept hi hai, Jo future main real ho sakta hai, and also it is very important to understand the technological advancements, especially of web3 over the years.

This is only to place the internet and metaverse side by side. 

Now, conceptually the metaverse can be understood as internet 2.0 only the communication and interaction becomes realistic. And by realistic I mean you could literally touch the products you will be browsing on an e-commerce website. 

Thanks to the combination of virtual reality (the feeling of actually experiencing something that you watch or play) and augmented reality (the devices/tools you need to wear to feel virtual reality like 3D goggles or 3D jacket), the metaverse is the future of the internet. In other words, it is like a parallel universe only more realistic than the internet. 

Internet can only makes you see and do things, keeping you where you are , in this case your home or office.

But metaverse, takes you inside.

How the Experience Gets Realistic

In a metaverse, a user can live the experience through a virtual avatar of his or her. 

Similarly, the user can vicariously experience whatever his avatar experiences in the metaverse through the help of argument reality i.e. through either specs or a jacket.

The same technology enables you to watch 3d movies in the cinema hall only a lot updated.

The Origin of Metaverse

The origin of the metaverse lies in the 1992 novel going by the name of Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson.

Here the author first coined the term. The term seems to be a compound of two words “meta” which means beyond and the universe.

The depiction of an outlandish virtual world in which the characters could go to avoid the harsh reality of the actual world. 

And in this way, the novel sowed the seed of the development of the metaverse for real in the years to come. 

The First Ever Implementation

Metaverse, since its genesis has been a topic to discuss. So is the topic of its first implementation.

Although it has been debated, the first-ever implementation of the metaverse goes to the video game industries.

The video game Second Life in particular created by Philip Rosedale is considered to be the first game in which the virtual avatar of the users interact with one another while they play.

Other games include Fortnite and the gaming platform Roblox.

Metaverse and the Present Fuzz

Now, the question arises, why is there so much fuzz about metaverse ?

This is because of the recent change of the name of Facebook to Meta by its CEO Mark Zuckerberg. In the year 2014, Zuckerberg got the acquisition of Oculus, a platform satisfying the hardware requirements of virtual reality.

In 2021, Facebook turned into a “Meta” with Zuckerberg's vision to take social networking a step further. 

This is by making it a metaverse networking in which the virtual world will be crowded with live people (in a certain way) in their respective avatars. 

I'm pretty sure by now most of us will have our own Instagram and WhatsApp avatars. 

Now you'll be thinking where does Instagram and WhatsApp come from? 

That's because Meta (formerly Facebook) bought them both, duh! 

Other Companies Leaning Towards Metaverse

Apart from Facebook, there are other companies too who are aiming to acquire the hardware requirements to launch their own metaverse.

For example, Microsoft is striving to create its metaverse with Microsoft Mesh, a form of mixed reality using the technology of HoLoLens and AltSpace VR. 

This is to make the 3-dimensional meeting among the companies possible with a holographic representation of the employees.

Scope of Metaverse

If something like a real-life experience in a virtual world is possible then its scope is not only vast but also pervasive. 

The area that could do wonders is numerous. Ranging from e-commerce to education, from fashion to real estate.

In e-commerce, what now is just adding to the cart with a click will become a virtual experience of actually holding a cart and physically touching and scrutinizing the product which you intend to buy. 

In real estate, the user could have a 3-dimensional examination of the building from every nook and corner without being physically present.

In education, the metaverse would prove to be a boon with people from remote places gaining access to a 3 dimensional, real-time classroom experience of knowledge to satisfy their needs.

In traveling, people can have a virtual experience of exploring far-off places which will be more than just seeing or browsing the pictures.

Conclusion

Like every good thing, the metaverse too has its downside. Some of them are the privacy of your information. This is followed by the addictive nature of such a universe to its user and not to forget the safety of a user from anything abusive. While the materialization of an immersive world of virtual avatars of people will be revolutionary, the fact that accessibility of such universe by millions and billions of users imposes some major threats to the metaverse.