In the 1999 movie The Matrix, Neo (played by Keanu Reeves) often woke up having an eerie feeling of unrealness about the world he lived in, feeling that he was “not sure if [he was] awake or still dreaming”, until one day his computer typed out a message for him on the screen: "Wake up…The Matrix has you.”

 

My mom had a similar experience. Ever since the name "Meta" popped up in a Facebook ad on her iPhone in October 2021, the Metaverse has her. Feeling trapped but not yet understanding, she would keep asking me “What is the Metaverse?”

 

So I did quite a bit of research, read articles and blogs by experts and technology writers, watched video presentations by tech gurus, and drew on my years of experience playing Minecraft and Roblox, building avatars, and toying around with VR Goggles. These findings were not only helpful in answering my mom’s question, but are also extremely important for everyone living in this Internet Age. What I’ve gathered is that: The Metaverse refers to the virtual worlds shaped by an upgraded form of the internet; it is a technological trend that will change the world. In the following, I will discuss exactly what the Metaverse is and its origination, the technologies that will make the metaverse happen, and the concerning implications of having the metaverse. 

 

I. Origin and History

When Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced that he had renamed his company Meta, this does not mean he invented the metaverse. It only indicates that his company will operate within it. The term “Metaverse” was originally coined by sci-fi writer Neal Stephenson in his 1992 novel, Snow Crash, where, to quote the words of future tech strategist Dr. Van Rijmenam, “humans, as avatars, interact with each other in a three-dimensional virtual successor to the Internet.”

 

In the book, it reads: “(the protagonist) Hiro (a hacker and pizza delivery guy) is approaching the Street. It is the Broadway, the Champs Elysees of the Metaverse. It is the brilliantly lit boulevard that can be seen, miniaturized and backward, reflected in the lenses of his goggles. It does not really exist. But right now, millions of people are walking up and down it.”

 

Don’t forget this Metaverse existed only in the book in 1992. Why 1992? Perhaps because that was the year the World Wide Web was formally released to the world, thus starting the form of the Internet that is known to us today. Let’s take a look at the evolution of the Internet, along a pathway identified by ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute)

 

Web 1.0, aka “Internet of Content”, started around 1990, was considered the embryo of the Internet, during which users were content consumers who looked at texts and graphics on websites for information. They communicated through emails. At the turn of the century, Web 2.0, aka “Internet of Services”, started user-generated content, allowing users to interact with each other, giving rise to e-productivity and e-commerce.

 

Between 2004-2006, Web 2.0 entered a more sophisticated Social Media era, aka “Internet of People”, where technology allowed users to create and share info, ideas, interests and other forms of expressions with each other in virtual communities or online social networks. Like most in Generation Z, I was born into the social media era. I use Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, and TikTok... to just mention a few. My mom, one of Generation X, only uses Facebook. 

 

Web 3.0, aka the “Internet of Things or IoT”, is believed to be starting already. The development of technologies such as blockchain to support a more decentralized World Wide Web means users will be more in control of their data which derives from all types of internet-connected devices (our computers, smartphones, smart appliances, and smart cars)—the Things. While we have more ownership over our virtual existence, we will remain connected through this Internet of Things. 

 

II. Application

The Internet's evolution into this broad digital future of Metaverse could happen in the next five to 30 years according to differing expert opinions. In the metaverse, it’s expected that fully immersive experience, customized avatars, and multi-dimensional engagement will allow a completely new level of interaction and connection between the real world and the virtual world.  Let’s take a look at life into the metaverse in sectors that will likely be transformed.  

 

Entertainment in the Metaverse: There will be robust, fully immersive experiences with new dimensions of engagement in cinema, concerts, gaming, and more.

 

Socialization: Customized avatars and dynamic group experiences. Imagine inviting family members or close friends, who live in other cities or even other countries, to your house party in the metaverse.

 

Work: Particularly in a post-pandemic world, the immersive virtual workplace will make remote work less isolated and more effective.

 

Education: Revolutionary, fully immersive, synchronous, learner-centered experiences will be implemented. 

 

Shopping: Virtual malls will allow Metaverse users to interact with and purchase both real-world clothes and virtual fashions. 

 

Money: Virtual assets and cryptocurrency will be making up the virtual economy

 

Moreover, according to the 2021 Tsinghua Metaverse Research Report, the metaverse will profoundly change industries such as smart city planning, AI automobiles, medical treatment of the disabled, psychotherapy treatment, and caring for the elderly and sick.

 

III. Technologies

In order to do these wonderful things in the metaverse, we clearly need to rely on technology. Some key technologies supporting the Metaverse include software—such as VR, AR, MR, and XR—hardware, and the infrastructure.

 

VR, or Virtual Reality, brings you to a computer-simulated reality or virtual world, such as the Street that Hiro was on in Snow Crash.  

 

AR, or Augmented Reality, is the real world enhanced by virtual details, or an overlay of digital content into the physical environment. Popular examples of AR include Pokemon Go and Snapchat’s new AR Bitmojis. 

 

MR, or Merged Reality, is where real and virtual are intertwined, and you can interact with and manipulate both the physical and virtual environment. Imagine a group of medical students dissecting a digital dinosaur on a real-world lab table. 

 

Finally, XR, or Extended Reality, is an umbrella term that brings all three Realities (VR, AR, MR) together. 

 

Now that we have all these “realities” ready, we need hardware to access them. Such hardware includes VR goggles, XR headsets, haptic gloves or bodysuits, and perhaps, in some cases, BCIs (Brain-Computer Interfaces), a chip implanted into the brain that has the potential to help severely disabled people live a full life in the metaverse. 

 

The infrastructure for the metaverse is architectured through network technologies like 5G, edge computing, and cloud computing.

 

As we can see by now, the Metaverse truly is a technological trend that will change the world. Currently, the big players in the metaverse are tech companies. The list would include many famous names like Google, Microsoft, Facebook/Meta, Xbox, TikTok, and Neuralink (Elon Musk’s BCI company), and even game brands such as Minecraft, Roblox, Fortnite, and Second Life. 

 

In fact, the latter are possibly the real pioneers of the metaverse. My generation—Gen Z virtually grew up playing such games in a “mini metaverse” years before Facebook changed its name, making us almost natives of the metaverse. 

 

IV. Applications 

When Facebook became Meta, they pushed their loyal users, like my mom, to embrace the new transformation. However, will the immigrants to the metaverse love or hate the new worlds? So far, the advantages of the Metaverse seem to be self-explanatory, but you can see the criticisms coming from a mile away. Let’s ponder the concerning implications of such a change. 

 

How we achieve the balance of physical and virtual life in the metaverse remains a huge challenge. In a society where we are already so addicted to technology, how will we act when we are fully immersed? What is the line between virtual and real life? Will that line be blurred, forgotten, or erased altogether? The Metaverse may enhance communication, but it could also dampen and destroy it. If there’s no longer a need to meet people face to face, no longer a need to leave the house to achieve what you want to do, this could have irreversible consequences on some of the oldest pillars of the human race. 

 

Furthermore, how we protect our privacy and personal information is another big challenge, as we can see the metaverse is being dominated by big tech players who are largely profit-driven, despite the original goal of creating decentralized worlds.  Metaverse mapping could mean sensors inside our homes to record data about our household. Big data or predictive analytics are already used by companies like Facebook to predict consumer behavior and feed users with targeted advertisements. One day, I verbally mentioned buying a new ice cream flavor, then saw an advertisement about exactly what I was talking about when I opened Tiktok.

 

Lastly, the metaverse will widen the gaps between generations, especially between my generation and my parents’. My mom grew up reading print content—books, journals, articles—mainly words and texts that were created by generation upon generation of intellectuals, which she “decoded”, processed to form mental images or make connections, understood the meaning and formed opinions and values. 

 

I was born in a multimedia-social media age, where we have such easy access to visual, audio and video materials, that reading books simply drops to the bottom of our priority list. The Metaverse emphasizes embodied interaction and immersive experience, which further downplays the brain function of logical, analytical and conceptual thinking, and weakens the ability to concentrate for a length of time and accomplish complex tasks independently. Are we just going to leave the job of thinking to the machines of deep learning? 

 

Conclusion

Ultimately, the key here is to wake up (like Neo did in Matrix) and recognize our standing in relation to the metaverse as it takes over. Originating in a sci-fi novel during the embryo stage of the internet, the Metaverse is working its way into our life in the next decades or so to alter the world. It is going to have many positive impacts on various aspects of our life; It will give rise to ground-breaking new industries. These will be made possible by technologies and the pioneering technological companies.

 

While this all sounds so promising, we cannot forget the concerning implications of metaverse. We need regulations and governance to protect our privacy and data security. We need to have the philosophical and ethical guidance to find the balance between virtual and real life in the metaverse. We need to keep learning and thinking. I hope that we can all wake up one day and declare “Metaverse, I have you!”