The perfect example of 'tech jargon alienates rest of humanity,' in reality, metaverses are the mobile phones of tomorrow and worth understanding so you can know what to watch and watch out for as the technology develops.
What is the Metaverse?
Broadly speaking, a ‘metaverse’ is an online space where people can interact with other users using a digital version of themselves. Once created, these digital versions ‘avatars’ can interact with other avatars and play games, go to concerts, shop, and work.
While the term ‘metaverse’ has exploded across mainstream media in the past few months, the concept is not a new one. The term was coined by science fiction author Neal Stephenson in his 1992 novel ‘Snow Crash.’ Characters in Snow Crash used digital avatars of themselves to explore a virtual world.
‘Metaverses’ also exist in some forms already through games like Second Life, Robolox, and have been tipped as part of humanity’s future in movies such as the Matrix and Ready Player One.
There are a couple of main reasons the concept is gaining momentum now. First, advances in technology have enabled new and more engaging spaces to be created and concurrently, doing things online has become normal.
If you’d placed the idea of a virtual world to anyone a few decades ago, the idea would have been met with wide-eyed scepticism. Not just because the technology didn’t exist, but our ways of being in the world also didn’t align.
We now spend our large percentage of our personal time online in social media, browsing, and shopping. The workplace has shifted too, with web-based organisation tools, email, and chat programs. As we’ve spent more of our lives online, it’s become normal to do common tasks and share details of ourselves we wouldn’t have thought of before. It’s no longer ‘weird’ to break up with someone via text (or ‘ghost’ them) or fire people via video chat. Information which we once would have considered ‘intimate’ we now share with the world. The conditions under which we’ll share and trust, have radically changed.
In essence, the concept of ‘being’ in a virtual world is no longer foreign.
Technology, excitement, and us — its users
It’s critical we don’t go into this new world blindly.
This ‘metaverse moment’ is similar to the advances and subsequent popularisation of the internet. Many heralded the internet as tech which would ‘democratise information across the globe’ based on the premise that ‘everything will be out there to be seen.’ The challenge to this vision would become clear thanks to three main driving forces.
First, access: Aside from access to the technology itself, there is the issue of time. Time is needed to learn the tech, then search, discover, digest and evaluate. Time is the luxury of the wealthy — the amount of spare time you have is wildly different for a middle-class human vs. (for example) a solo parent working two jobs. How much wealth you have increases and decreases that luxury exponentially. Consequently those with time (and the will) have more opportunity to be able to discover and evaluate information. And that’s just considering the first world.
Second, commercialisation. It is inevitable that companies and groups that rely on popular sentiment or perception to succeed will find ways to ensure they appear front-and-centre. Over the past few decades since the internet established itself, profit-based organisations have begun to dominate online environments (e.g. Facebook, Google, and Twitter.) The obvious currency for profit for these corporate platforms is advertising dollars, and advertising is sold based on user attention. This has created a situation where the goal is to keep our eyeballs on platforms for as long and often as possible — more attention, more revenue.
The NEWS media, sadly, has followed suit to stay afloat as news organisations have become commercially driven — the definition of a ‘good’ story is now entertaining consumers to prove viewership numbers rather than informing citizens. At the same time, readers have gravitated to skim online information rather than pay for a physical paper or wait for a nightly broadcast.
Finally, human behaviour. It’s human nature to pay attention to ideas on we agree with and ignore those we dislike. When reading and clicking on information is tied to revenue, the natural commercial response is to show more information we agree with and less of that we don’t. As platforms learn what will keep our attention, we see an increased amount of ideology which reinforces our own view, and less alternative views. When you consider ‘profit-based corporations’ includes every online environment from social media to news channels, the resulting online experience is a comfortable, polarised echo-chamber of our opinions.
Even Google’s search function with its premise of ‘relevance’ has exacerbated this issue. When we search a question, we’re shown results which ‘match.’ To search for a concept you’re unaware of or view which stems from a position opposed to your own requires a mental yoga bend most mortals are not naturally capable of — and definitely not trained in.
It’s here. It’s happening.
The metaverse is happening. Just like the internet, mobile phones, and digital photography, we cannot dismiss it as a fad. Never forget that less that 30 years ago people were still asking ‘what is internet.’
As of today, 4 December 2021, there is over $256 Billion USD locked in decentralised finance.
Just this week a parcel of land in a virtual space (Decentraland) sold for $2,43 million USD. This sale was conducted in MANA, Decentraland’s currency.
Seoul, South Korea is creating ‘Metaverse Seoul,’ a virtual communication ecosystem for government services and administration. This will include economic, cultural, tourism, educational and civic service.
We’re rushing into this world with excitement, and a lack of trepidation.
I’m not suggesting the technology is wrong, just that we not just consider it through a architecture lens, and more from the point of view of the people who will use it.
References and further reading
US news site showing news items written from all sides: Allsides.com
South Korea: https://www.euronews.com/next/2021/11/10/seoul-to-become-the-first-city-to-enter-the-metaverse-what-will-it-look-like
Dentraland sale: https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/virtual-real-estate-plot-sells-record-24-million-2021-11-23/
Self worth and social media: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.711447/full and https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4718307
Fabulous article on Neal Stephenson, Snowcrash, virtual reality and the metaverse: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/06/neal-stephenson-metaverse-snow-crash-silicon-valley-virtual-reality
*This article was originally published in January 2020 and has been updated to reflect events such as Facebook's transition to Meta.
Comments