Lately, “Metaverse” has become a buzzword in the internet and social media world. This term getting more popular after Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, shared in his FB post on 23rd July 2021 about their company next chapter plan to transition from being a social media company to a metaverse company. However, do you know what is the definition and meaning of Metaverse?
What is the Meaning of Metaverse?
It is actually quite challenging to find a standard definition of Metaverse. Let’s take a look from few trusted sources.
For Wikipedia, “Metaverse” is a term to describe the concept of future iteration of the internet. It is made up of persistent, shared, 3D virtual spaces linked into a perceived virtual universe. It does not only refer to virtual worlds, but also inclusive of the augmented reality (AR) as well in the whole Internet ecosystem.
If we look from the Oxford Reference, the term is used to describe a virtual representation of reality implemented by means of virtual reality software.
And from the Collins English Dictionary, it means a 3D virtual world, especially in an online role-playing game.
Who Introduce the Word “Metaverse”?
The term is first introduced by Neal Stephenson in his science fiction novel titled “Snow Crash” in year 1992. The word “Metaverse” is the combination of the word “meta“, which means beyond, and “verse” (from word universe). He used the term to describe the successor of Internet which is a virtual reality-based platform or ecosystem.
Metaverse from Industry Perspective…
After a few readings from sources like “Bloomberg“, “The Verge” and “Forbes“, here is what we think of Metaverse:
- Metaverse is the successor of Internet. In Mark Zuckerberg’s word, an “Embodied Internet“.
- Metaverse is world where businesses, communication and information tools are immersive and interoperable.
- It has to cover both the interactions in the physical world and virtual world.
- In Metaverse, group of people can be in the same place virtually although physically they are located far away from each other.
- In Metaverse, you can teleport instantaneously to another location.
- It will be accessible across all computing platforms such as VR, AR, PC, gaming consoles, mobile devices etc.
- It has to be able to support a working model of economy. For example the virtual goods, virtual clothing, virtual spaces, experiences and many more that can generate revenue and income to the inhabitants of Metaverse.
- Users should be able to move around their avatars and goods in the metaverse.
- Metaverse shall be managed using decentralized structure. It shall be run and operated by many different players and not just by one single entity.
Metaverse in Sci-Fi…
Many great virtual reality related movies are actually using the metaverse concept in their storyline such as “The Matrix” and “Ready Player One“. Nowadays, most of the real life works on metaverse are inspired by those movies.
What is the Future of Metaverse?
It seems that metaverse got strong support from many people and leaders in the industries. And one of them is Mark Zuckerberg, whom is one of the richest man on the planet and also the owner of Facebook and Oculus. From the day he announced the Facebook transition to a metaverse company, he provided some explanation from time to time on their company strategy to bring the metaverse to life in the media and Facebook posts. Below is one of the example…
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Among of the initiatives is the setting up of a new Metaverse product group and also their efforts with creators, commerce, AR and VR to lay the foundations for their work on Metaverse. As an example, Horizon Workrooms is another step for them towards bringing the metaverse to life.
Furthermore, there is one CEO that already announced himself as the CEO of Metaverse and he is very, very serious about it. It looks like the future is getting brighter and brighter for metaverse.
Since Metaverse is still new to us and can be considered as an emerging technology, hence at this moment we don’t have a single standard how to define it accurately. When the time come, we will update this article accordingly.
For more information about Metaverse, you can read it at:
- Wikipedia on Metaverse.
- “Mark in the Metaverse” from The Verge. It is a very long article but worth a read because it contains the interview transcript between Mark Zuckerberg and The Verge.
- “What the Metaverse Is, Who’s In It and Why It Matters” from Bloomberg.
- “Defining The Metaverse Today” from Forbes.
Image above by Peggy und Marco Lachmann-Anke from Pixabay
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