What’s real?
I read The Real-Town Murders around the same time last year. It is set in England in the near future, or at least partly so, because it also features Shine, “the immersive successor to the internet” into which people are happily plugged in.
More recently, in “Why is this interesting?“, I learnt of Roblox, apparently used by three-fourths of all 9- to 12-year-old kids in the United States at the moment. It’s more than a gaming platform, it is a single digital location that now offers all her old activities: playground, schoolyard, theater, and mall all in one. Thanks to the pandemic, and the digitisation that it has fast tracked, an entire generation might have a different definition of “real”. In the real world of adults, gaming is on a tear, and many reports claim that AR and VR are on the cusp of massive adoption. To note that Snapchat is the king among social networks for a particular generation.
Reality? Ugh
In The Real-Town Murders people immerse themselves in Shine because the real world is messed up. Arguably, to a teen, their real world, in which parents are policing every physical space, might not be palatable, especially when they begin to have more and more options.
Where are we heading?
But while I can see why the metaverse might be appealing, I am also thinking of a few aspects that need to be in place for a metaverse to start becoming “Shine”
- Space: Second Life has been in existence for a while now, and is still a gathering space for many. But it’s probably Fortnite that comes closer now to what this space could be. Concerts, trailers, brand presence and a colliding of many universes (e.g. Marvel and DC) mean that it gives a good view of what could be from an experience perspective.
- Sensations: Fortnite did have stink bombs, but you can’t really smell them. Sight and hearing are well on their way, and to some extent, tactile can happen too, but digital scent and taste are a while away.
- Transactions: Real or virtual, money is still a large component of our lives. We have moved from physical money for physical goods to digital money for digital goods and the couple in between too, but it’s still tied to a central currency. The breakaway from that could be the successor to Bitcoin.
- Social Value: Creating a perception about ourselves is an inherent part of civilisation. Where and how does an avatar fit into this? Will we mimic the real world, or will there be an entire set of activities in the metaverse that create a new kind of social value for the user?
The Great Escape
An existence in only the metaverse seems quite a while off, a mixed reality would be the first step. Coexistence of real and virtual worlds with increasingly seamless transfer between them. And as the space gets crowded, there will be many who will want control – corporations and nations. Maybe there will be balkanisation, just like the internet, or maybe there will be a common open OS supported by many, and inter-operable. And just maybe the metaverse will help us coexist.
P.S. I think I need to re-read Snowcrash
P.P.S. A great primer on the metaverse
All images from Unsplash
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